Electricity theft not widespread

Thursday, May 5, 2005 | 9:57 a.m.

The apparent theft of Las Vegas electricity by some developers was not as widespread as it was apparently indicated in recent news articles reporting on the findings of the city's auditor, City Manager Doug Selby said in a letter to the Sun sent Wednesday.

On April 21, the city's Audit Oversight Committee was told that developers and contractors had been illegally tapping into city streetlight meters before they were authorized to do so. This practice, which city officials said then was longstanding and widespread, meant that taxpayers were paying for the electricity to run streetlights before they should have.

In his Wednesday letter, Selby said city officials found "this has not been a major problem and we've changed our practice to prevent any such occurrence in the future."

The letter said the city found "only eight instances" of a contractor or homebuilder wrongfully tapping into a streetlight meter.

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