County program criticized in audit

J. Craig Anderson

Thursday, Jan. 19, 2006 | 7:25 a.m.

Clark County's program designed to ensure that growth does not harm endangered plants and animals is suffering from poor supervision and is riddled with conflicts of interest involving specialists who oversee it, auditors say.

Those specialists, members of the Desert Conservation program's advisory committee, are to identify desert animals and plants whose sensitive status deserves study to determine if they are threatened by development.

Auditors say that the studies often have been awarded to the very committee members who advocate them.

"It's a sharkfest," one unidentified committee member told auditors, according to the report released to the Las Vegas Sun on Wednesday.

Auditors also uncovered allegations that some UNR biologists were paid large sums for research that may never have been conducted.

Yet county officials say that despite those conflicts and potential for abuse, auditors found no proof of wrongdoing. "There is nothing in this report that cannot be resolved," said Christine Robinson, director of Clark County's Air Quality and Environmental Management Department.

The county also said that the program had been a success, despite its shortcomings.

The audit was conducted by Kirchhoff & Associates Inc., a management consulting firm based in Coronado, Calif. Auditors did not evaluate the scientific merits of the research; rather, they focused on the operation of the program.

Much of the report simply repeated the concerns or allegations voiced in a survey of people involved with the program and members of the advisory committee, whose 30 members include representatives of local, state and federal agencies; builders; conservation groups; and universities.

The conservation program began after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service held that development in Clark County endangered the desert tortoise. The agency warned that if the county failed to institute a program to protect sensitive species, developers would have to go through the U.S. government for permission to build.

The county responded by creating the Desert Conservation Program in 1999. Its primary mission has been to conduct research into hundreds of plants and animals and compile a list of those that should be protected. Developers are required to avoid harming any of the 79 species currently on the list.

The program's two-year budget has grown from $9.6 million in 1999-2001 to $34 million the last two years. The funds come primarily from a fee paid by developers and the federal government.

To date, the program has paid for 194 studies. The average cost of each has risen from $130,000 in 2001 to $350,000 in 2005.

Auditors noted those mushrooming costs and called for tighter control over spending.

Robinson said her department will propose a number of reforms, including replacement of the advisory committee by an 11-member panel appointed by the Clark County Commission. No members will be allowed to ask for research funds, she said.

Much of the audit's criticism centered on UNR's Biological Resources Research Center, which was hired to be an independent science adviser to the program, but also was awarded numerous research projects. The center received about $6.4 million from 1999 to 2005.

In the survey, critics said the center has used its position to control large sums without performing a commensurate amount of work. Those critics were quoted but not identified in the 117-page report.

"UNR is taking millions of Southern Nevada (dollars) up north and giving Clark County very little in return," one advisory committee member said.

The UNR research center has been the subject of an unrelated investigation concluded in December by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which ordered the center to repay $21,000 in grant money intended for EPA research but spent on another project.

Richard Tracy, the center's director, could not be reached for comment. He has disputed the EPA's allegations, however.

Robinson said the allegation that UNR wasted Clark County funds has not been proven. "The evidence does not appear to substantiate that claim," she said.

The audit describes a loosely structured program that has become unmanageable because of exponential growth in its scope and budget.

Robinson said the county intends to put out for bid the contract to act as independent science adviser. The winner will not be allowed to solicit funds for research projects.

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