Wednesday, July 13, 2005 | 10:50 a.m.
At least four Clark County commissioners are pushing for changes to federal land management rules that they say keep them from tapping funds meant to improve local parks, trails and natural areas.
Clark County, with 1.3 acres of park land per 1,000 citizens, has long lagged behind a national average of 5 acres of park land for every 1,000 citizens, officials have said.
The rules, part of a string of Bureau of Land Management guidelines for using profits generated from federal land auctions under the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act, narrowly restrict how commissioners can earmark hundreds of millions of dollars in proceeds, according to board members.
Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, a vocal critic of the BLM's rules, said a restrictive federal formula requires the county to spend its own money before applying for federal reimbursement. Under the existing rules, commissioners are barred from spending the money on infrastructure improvements to the land.
"We would like to have a much more expansive interpretation of the law," Woodbury said. "Our senators and our congresswoman tell us that it was not their intent to make it so restrictive."
Woodbury joined earlier this week with Commissioners Lynette Boggs McDonald and Chip Maxfield to urge Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., a senior member of the House Resources Committee, to press for changes to the rules.
Gibbons, who met with the commissioners last Wednesday, on Tuesday requested that the committee hold a field hearing in Las Vegas in order to get answers from BLM officials about the rules it follows in deciding whether to reject or approve projects for funding.
The congressional intent of the federal law was to use land sale money for the kinds of parks and recreation projects that the BLM is rejecting, Gibbons said.
Gibbons said he intends to request that the BLM re-write its implementation agreement -- or Congress may have to draft legislation to fix the problem.
"We're committed to finding some resolution to this," Gibbons said.
The federal agency seems to be changing implementation rules to the frustration of county officials, Gibbons said.
"It's the BLM moving the goal posts," Gibbons said.
Boggs McDonald and Maxfield were en route to the National Association of Counties convention in Hawaii and did not return phone calls Tuesday afternoon. In a statement released earlier that day, Boggs McDonald said the federal government was withdrawing the money "by bureaucratic whim."
The bureaucratic hang-ups have prevented what county officials call a pressing need for more outdoor recreational venues in the Las Vegas Valley. The BLM's 97-page "Implementation Plan" states the lengthy reimbursement process is necessary to ensure money allocated under the act is spent appropriately.
The now-disputed rules grew out of the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act, a 1998 legislation that sets aside profits from the auctions of federal land in Clark County to land, school and water programs. Officials have said the restrictions are nowhere in the version of the lands action approved by Congress.
State officials have also criticized a Bush administration proposal to siphon unused portions of the fund generated by the land sales into federal coffers.
The frustration over the BLM's rules stems from the Bush administration's effort to limit the number of projects that qualify for funding in order to bolster its argument that Clark County doesn't need so much money, Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said. It's a false argument, Berkley said. "Nevada and Clark County have huge needs that require the expenditure of dollars for these very important projects," Berkley said. Bush in his budget this year proposed funneling 70 percent of profits under the land sale act back to federal coffers to help offset the deficit, which drew strong opposition among Nevada lawmakers, and has not advanced very far in Congress.
Berkley said Congress had some power to compel the BLM to fund more projects. "Congress can require the BLM to follow the law as it was intended and not let bureaucratic rules and red tape distort the intent of SNPLMA," Berkley said. "We're going to have to get tough with the administration and the BLM."
Commission Chairman Rory Reid said the rules were a government-created barrier meant to give the federal government access to an account now reaching billions of dollars.
"This administration has designs on the money that is sitting in an account and is supposed to be spent on parks, trails and natural areas," Reid said. "It's apparent that there isn't the political will to change the law. Other barriers shouldn't be erected to try to conform to the administration's desires. The law is what it is, and we should move forward on these projects."
Jo Simpson, a spokeswoman for the Nevada office of the BLM, denied any attempt by the federal government to get its hands on money meant for local entities.
She called the commission's criticism "premature" as a subcommittee made up of representatives from BLM and local government agencies created specifically to recommend how to earmark the money is in the midst of its deliberations. That group's formal recommendations are to be presented to a higher-level executive committee later this month.
Once complete, the executive committee's recommendation will be posted for a 60-day public review on the BLM's Web site before the federal government makes its final allocation, Simpson said.
"We're still in the middle of the process," she said.
The BLM has allocated almost $559 million to Clark County for 95 separate projects since 1998, Meg Jensen, the agency's deputy state director for resources, said. Of those projects, made in five separate rounds of expenditures, only 4 percent have broken ground, she said.
Among the proposals the subcommittee deliberated last week is what Jensen said was a flawed plan for the Clark County Sport Shooting Park, an outdoor archery and rifle range. In their request, county officials asked that a law enforcement training area and cafeteria be added to the park.
The county's plan, which included proposals for infrastructure improvements outside the scope of the rules, may indicate the commission simply has too much money to allocate, Jensen said.
"I think the sense of the group was that there's a capacity issue here," said Jensen, who sits on the subcommittee. "I think the question to ask them is what is their capacity to take on more."
Reid said oppressive federal rules were to blame for the seeming lack of completed projects, not an inability to complete the projects submitted to the BLM.
"I don't think there's any evidence that we can't perform," he said. "We're staffed to what we think is an appropriate level. We can't wring our hands about something that might happen. We need to focus on the needs of the communities."
Sun Washington Bureau Chief Benjamin Grove contributed to this story.
archive
