Editorial: Gibbons’ needless meddling

Sunday, May 20, 2007 | 6:57 a.m.

Gov. Jim Gibbons wants his constituents to think that he is a die-hard fiscal conservative and that he does not condone wasteful spending.

But the governor will be hypocritical - to say the least - if he continues to pursue a request for $1.7 million in homeland security funds to establish in Carson City an anti-terrorism intelligence sharing operation known as a fusion center. Two centers, designed for use by local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, are already being planned for Las Vegas and Reno.

As the Sun's Jeff German reported on Friday, both of Nevada's U.S. senators, Democrat Harry Reid and Republican John Ensign, say that federal support at this time for fusion centers should be limited to those two cities. As Reid spokesman Jon Summers told German: "There are limited resources, and it makes the most sense to allocate the resources where the largest populations are." The two senators are practicing what Gibbons only preaches, that being fiscal conservatism.

It is galling that in April the governor's homeland security adviser, Larry Martines, had left the senators with the impression that law enforcement agencies in Southern Nevada were behind Gibbons' plan to establish Carson City as the fusion center hub when that was not the case. Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie met with Reid on Monday in Washington to set the record straight.

This isn't just about money - it's also about the best way to do the most effective job.

The vast majority of Nevada's law enforcement expertise is based in Reno and Las Vegas, which needless to say are far more likely targets of terrorism than Carson City. Analysis of potential terrorist threats and the coordination needed for rapid response would be best accomplished in the vicinity of those threats.

Gibbons would be well advised to address other pressing issues facing the state, such as transportation and education, and leave the fusion centers in the hands of law enforcement experts.