Letter: Rules, red tape no fix for commission funds

Knight Allen

Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2007 | 6:57 a.m.

The Las Vegas Sun is to be congratulated for shining light on the $15,000 slush fund each Clark County commissioner has to play with every year.

The problem is that the proposed solution, creating a written policy on how the money is spent, is not going to resolve anything. You see, lifetime bureaucrat/spendthrifts absolutely love policy manuals. Tying a process up in book-length rules, regulations and red tape is what they live for, especially when they can have a hand in writing the manual (and the inevitable multiple loopholes in it). Can you say ethics laws?

Most of the commissioners, who have shown respect for the taxpayers' dollars, seem to have no idea of the political thicket they are walking into. In no time flat, the spendthrifts will hijack the process and when it's over, every abuse reported by the Sun will be cemented as formal policy and the amount of dollars will probably be raised to $25,000 or $30,000.

The responsible commissioners have shown that $2,000 or $3,000 a year is more than enough. So reduce the $15,000 to $3,000, tie it to the Consumer Price Index and forget about it. This will probably drive the spendthrifts and their apologists crazy, which may be the best reason of all to do it.

Knight Allen, Las Vegas