Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2005 | 10:58 a.m.
It could take the state Real Estate Division up to a year to determine if the Las Vegas real estate appraiser at the center of controversial sales of public land should be punished, a state appraiser said Monday.
State officials said it could take up to that long because the division has only one appraiser to work a backlog of 100 cases.
In a two-page letter e-mailed Monday, county Audit Department Director Jerry Carroll recommended the state board investigate appraiser Tim Morse for his role in several deals between McCarran International Airport and land broker Scott Gragson. County auditors said Morse's appraisals of the land raise numerous questions.
Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid signed the letter, which Carroll wrote, on behalf of the county. The commission unanimously directed Carroll, whose 16-person staff is also tasked with auditing the airport, University Medical Center and Metro Police, to pen the letter at the board's July 19 meeting.
The commission also voted to bar Morse from doing any additional work for the county until an investigation is complete.
Carroll said he had been awaiting the final, 77-page report that had been summarized at the commission's meeting before sending the letter. Los Angeles-based auditing firm Marshall Stevens, which was hired to independently look into the transactions, said the review raised significant questions about Morse's methods.
The letter, which asks the state agency to review two of 91 separate transactions, is likely to be the first of countless discussions between county and state officials, Carroll said.
"I certainly think it identifies some of the issues" with the deals, Carroll said. "I would hope that they come down and talk to us."
Brenda Kindred-Kipling, the state appraiser who received Carroll's letter, said the county's document is one of about 100 such requests she will be researching in the coming months. That's one reason why it could take up to a year to deal with the county's case, she said.
Federal law dictates that the investigation must be completed within one year, Lisa Young, deputy administrator of the real estate division, said.
But the appraisal investigations are handled on a "first-come, first serve" basis, she said.
"They are dealt with in the order they are received," Young said. " ... One does not take more importance over the other."
Reached Monday afternoon, Kindred-Kipling said she had not yet read the county's request and would not comment on the audit. Ordinarily, the case's merit would be reviewed by her staff, which would then decide whether to open an investigation, she said.
Once that investigation is complete, it would then go to the appraisal commission, which would decide whether to discipline Morse, a complex decision Kindred-Kipling said could be up to a year away.
"That surprises me," Carroll said. "I thought it would be a little faster than that. ... It sounds like it would be more a problem for Mr. Morse than it would be for me, though."
The division, Young said, has only one appraiser. She said there has been a vacant second position for two years. The division has not been able to fill the job because the state pays less than private industry.
Matt DiOrio, education information officer for the real estate division, said the year was "an outside time-frame." He said several cases are worked on at one time and the division "will not sit on" the Clark County complaint.
DiOrio said he did not know how long this review would take.
County Manager Thom Reilly said he hoped a meeting between the county and state officials could help the matter reach a speedier conclusion.
Reilly would not say whether he thought Morse's methods were inappropriate other than to say he had "serious concerns."
"I don't think we came to any definitive conclusions," Reilly said. "I think the auditor concluded they had some serious concerns. I think he (Carroll) is simply saying that our ability to go further is limited. I don't know that we came with any definitive or airtight conclusions."
Gragson chose Morse in 2002 to evaluate the value of property the Aviation Department had limited to use as a cemetery but was later rezoned for more lucrative commercial use. He was one of private five appraisers the county used to review parcels for sale under a plan to dispose of land transferred to the county by the Bureau of Land Management.
The sales were spelled out in provisions of the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act passed in 1998.
Auditors are now looking into the exchange of 1,300 acres of land with a combined value of $212.4 million for 735 acres with a combined value of $195.8 million, according to the letter.
Morse has not spoken publicly of the commission's decision, but attorney Don Campbell last month called the board's request for state regulators to investigate Morse "a blatant, disgusting attempt to make a scapegoat of someone -- anyone -- other than the Clark County officials who approved every real estate transaction."
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