Monday, Sept. 29, 2003 | 9:19 a.m.
RENO -- The state Board of Medical Examiners, which licenses and disciplines doctors, has delayed until December a decision on whether to open a branch office in Las Vegas -- in a controversy that has been simmering for months.
At a special meeting of the board Friday, board member Donald Baepler of Las Vegas said the issue should be considered at a regular meeting rather than at a special session. The other board members agreed to hold it until December.
Sen. Ann O'Connell, R-Las Vegas, who has been a major proponent of opening an office in Las Vegas, said after the meeting: "I'm not too happy with those folks. I'm saddened to see they care less about their constituency and the people in this area."
The board at its last meeting heard a proposal to locate an office in Las Vegas with three staff members costing about $500,000 over a two-year period. But it tabled the issue.
There was a failed effort during the Legislature to force the board to either move from Reno to Las Vegas or open a branch in Clark County, where an estimated 70 percent of the physicians practice.
O'Connell said she wants officials of the examiners board to appear before the next meeting of the Legislative Commission, a group that handles the business of the Legislature during the off-session period.
The Legislature required that an audit be performed on the board, and the Legislative Commission agreed last week to hire the Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States to do the work for $27,875.
O'Connell said she will ask the auditors for the federation to look at the question of establishing a branch office in Las Vegas.
The board, at its Friday meeting, voted unanimously to go forward with buying video equipment to beam its meetings to Southern Nevada. Tony Clark, assistant executive director of the board, said he has worked out an agreement with the state Board of Dental Examiners to use their offices at Eastern and Tropicana avenues in Las Vegas for the televised meetings.
Clark said the equipment will cost about $49,000 and he hoped it could be ready for use at the December meeting.
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