Editorial: Tax dollars buy no services

Friday, Aug. 17, 2007 | 7:27 a.m.

A fter spending $400,000 in two years, a public agency that the Nevada Legislature created to improve health care for minorities has failed to accomplish that goal.

In fact, as a story by the Las Vegas Sun on Wednesday points out, the Nevada Office of Minority Health was created in January 2006 but didn't host its first public meeting until this week. Its online calendar for 2007 is virtually blank and its advisory committee, which was more than a year in the making, has met only once.

Although its sole purpose is to serve minorities, the agency doesn't have a single staff member who speaks Spanish. Mae Norris, the agency's interim director, told Sun reporter Timothy Pratt that it has been difficult to hire bilingual staff members.

Considering that 25 percent of the Las Vegas Valley's population is Hispanic, it seems that, after nearly two years in existence, the agency could have found someone who at least understands Spanish. But, as Norris told the Sun, "a lot of things should be done " and "it's just that they're not."

The agency's former manager, Larry Gamel, retired two months ago and did not return the Sun's phone calls for comment. The manager's position carries an annual salary of $76,580.

The report that the agency filed with the governor's office this year was, according to the law that created the agency, supposed to include the organization's research findings and recommendations. But it didn't include any such information.

Nevada lawmakers have asked the agency to develop some actual benchmarks and include more detailed information in future reports. That's the very least this agency should do.

We wonder how a public agency could exist for nearly two years and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars with what seems to be virtually no oversight. How many other such agencies has the Nevada Legislature created with such little follow-up?

Agency officials have interviewed candidates for a permanent manager. But a new manager won't make a bit of difference if this agency is allowed to continue operating without being held accountable.