Six Questions for Chris Giunchigliani

By Alexandra Berzon (contact)

Monday, Dec. 1, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Leila Navidi

County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani says she intends to keep working on developing ways to improve the safety of workers on construction sites. The trouble with setting any regulation now, however, is that any big-project work that's coming is likely under way, she says.

Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani convened a task force in June to brainstorm ways to improve worker safety on construction sites. Local officials concerned about the rash of worker deaths on the Las Vegas Strip heard a wide range of policy concerns and suggestions.

Giunchigliani asked building trades chief Steve Ross, who also sits on the Las Vegas City Council, and Associated General Council Vice President Steve Holloway to come up with a list of concrete proposals that could be enacted by state or local government.

Five months later, that document hasn’t been produced and the group hasn’t met again. We asked Giunchigliani about the hold-up.

Is the task force going to meet again?

I’m planning to have another meeting and looking at dates in December. We need to have some closure on this.

What do you think most needs to be addressed?

I think we still need to look at how 24-hour construction is contributing to safety problems, but the question is how do you get at that.

So how do we get at that?

Perhaps we can look at putting requirements into development agreements at the county level, but the problem is that most of the construction that’s going to happen in the near future is under way.

The Building Trades Council plans to propose legislation requiring safety training for construction workers. Did you expect to see other policy proposals from interested groups by now?

That was my understanding. I was hoping we would have more, based on the concerns that were raised at the meeting in June. One suggestion, for example, was to put in more specific requirements in the safety plans that all construction sites are required by the state to draw up.

Maybe there are discussions going on internally, maybe during the elections people just put everything on the back burner, or maybe there’s just been opposition to some of this stuff. But if there’s things we can do locally I need to know what they are.

You sound frustrated.

It is a little frustrating. I’m not the expert on this so I need to hear specifics from people that work in the field. And you have to have your colleagues as

interested as you are.

What is the plan now?

Let me do my homework and say, ‘Here’s what we heard are the concerns and needs.’ Then it’s not finger pointing.