Conservation panel faces shake-up

J. Craig Anderson

Sunday, Feb. 5, 2006 | 12:33 p.m.

Clark County is working to clean up its multimillion-dollar Desert Conservation Program by removing conflicts of interest and eliminating the possibility of violating open meeting laws.

The County Commission will decide Tuesday whether to authorize a restructuring of the program, including the elimination of an advisory committee. Some of the panel's members were accused in a recent management analysis of using their positions to procure lucrative research contracts.

They would be replaced by an 11-member panel whose members could not bid on projects funded by the conservation program. That panel would be appointed by the commission.

The report, commissioned by the county and completed in December by management consultant Kirchhoff & Associates Inc. of Coronado, Calif., also contains allegations that UNR biologists exploited their roles as the program's science advisers to procure huge sums of county money that could have been used for other work.

Clark County Air Quality and Environmental Management Director Christine Robinson said there is no proof that UNR wasted Clark County funds. The consultant simply asked program participants to give their perceptions and opinions, and then printed the responses anonymously.

Still, Robinson said the county intends to put the science adviser contract out for competitive bid in the future. The winning contractor no longer will be allowed to solicit funds for other projects.

County officials said they became aware of problems with the program's administration in October 2004 and hired the consultant.

"We set out to ask the tough questions," Robinson said.

Kirchhoff found that a lack of clear leadership on the 31-member advisory committee and its practice of making funding recommendations by consensus rather than by majority vote led to inconsistencies in decisions.

The consultant concluded that the consensus method violates open meeting laws because there is no record of which members voted for approval.

The proposed 11-member committee would make decisions by majority vote, Robinson said.

The Desert Conservation Program monitors sensitive plants and animals, assesses whether their numbers are decreasing and takes steps to offset the decline.

Long-term failure of the program could grind area development to a halt if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determines that growth is killing off rare species.

Although nearly 200 studies have been conducted for the program, county officials say they do not know yet how development has affected wildlife. The program's two-year budget has grown from $9.6 million in 1999-2001 to $34 million the last two years. County officials defended the program, noting that Fish and Wildlife has not expressed any concerns about its effectiveness. Since the program began in 1999 after the federal agency complained that county development was endangering the desert tortoise, none of the 78 protected local plants and animals have been added to the threatened or endangered species list.

Robinson said program participants have protected more than 3 million acres of habitat, restored at least 780 acres and installed more than 250 miles of fencing to protect desert tortoises from busy roads.

They also have educated more than 13,000 students annually through the Mojave Max Desert Tortoise Emergence Contest and planted more than 1,000 native trees at springs throughout Clark County, she said.

"I think those things speak to the success of the program in a global sense," Robinson said.

J. Craig Anderson can be reached at 259-2320 or at craig@lasvegassun.com.