Consultant to assess environmental plan

Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2003 | 9:23 a.m.

The Clark County Commission has hired a prominent local consultant to review a critical portion of its environmental planning process.

The commission voted 6-0 Tuesday to hire Terry Murphy, a former assistant director of Clark County Comprehensive Planning and Administrative Services, to review the public education portion of the county's multi-species habitat conservation plan.

The plan, designed to safeguard rare and sometimes endangered species such as the desert tortoise, generally requires would-be developers to take steps to ensure that their work does not further threaten the animals or plants. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service requires the county to have the plan in place if it is to control local development decisions.

The Fish and Wildlife Service permit to the county also requires the local government to review its public education and informational aspects of the habitat plan. Murphy was hired for $106,000 to conduct that review.

Murphy, who often works for developers through her Las Vegas company, Strategic Solutions, and once worked as an administrator with the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association, said there is no conflict of interest because her work will be limited to studying the public education aspects of the habitat plan. She said the work is one of eight or nine public contracts her company has.

"We're not going to make any money on this, but it is a good thing to do," Murphy said.

In the 1990s, Murphy helped kick off the habitat plan by helping to design and promote its highest profile animated character, the desert tortoise named Mojave Max. She said that at the time, she was known as "the turtle lady."

Jane Feldman, an activist with the local arm of the Sierra Club and a member of the county's Implementation and Monitoring Committee of the Habitat Conservation Plan, said she does not have a problem with Murphy reviewing the effectiveness of the county's public education effort.

"I don't see a conflict," Feldman said. "What we want to know is if our message is reaching targets and changing behavior.

"If we keep our eyes on the target, I think we'll get exactly what we need from this assessment."

Christine Gibson, Clark County Comprehensive Planning management analyst, said Murphy was the only applicant for the assessment job -- in part because the work involved quite a bit of detailed research.

"There was a large amount of specific work for a limited amount of money, which made the pool of qualified applicants small," Gibson said. "She was the only one who bid."

The county advertised for the job and an independent committee recruited a dozen outside people, mostly academics, unsuccessfully except for Murphy's application, she said.

Gibson agreed that there is no conflict because "the scope of the work is extremely limited."

"It does not make, she could not make, recommendations that would affect any of her clients," Gibson said. "People on all sides are very excited that we are going to get a professional assessment. They want to make sure we are getting the most bang for the buck."