Board of County Commissioners– Board of County Commission Meetings - Regular Meeting

okay sorry about the slight delay uh please feel free to rise with me for pastor lonnie uh biggs from i'm sorry john biggs from saved by grace lutheran church

Good morning, commissioners, and thank you for having me. A word from Colossians chapter 3. Therefore, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with one another and forgive one another if any of you has a complaint against someone. Forgive as the Lord has forgiven you. And above all, put on love, which binds all these together in perfect unity. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we ask for your presence here in this place, and we ask that you would grant wisdom, guidance, and insight to our Nye County commissioners for the deliberations they need to undertake today. We ask that you intervene to temper any animosity or anger that may arise among us, and when possible, grant us the humility to reach compromise and common ground. Lord, as the Nye County Commissioners seek to be good stewards today of the trust placed in them by the people, we ask that you would fill them and all of us with your spirit of justice, kindness, and putting others before ourselves. Lord, we confess our human frailty and we pray to be delivered from taking up today's agenda out of a spirit of self-interest or partisan politics. Rather, by your spirit, grant each person here wisdom in their thinking, grace in their attitudes, and above all, love and courage in their convictions. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Thank you, Pastor. Okay, we're going to open this joint meeting of the Nye County Board of County Commissioners at all. And Commissioner Koenig, would you like to lead us in the pledge?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Stuart, and thank you all. All right, Manager, let's move on to number two, please. And welcome, Commissioner Jabbour.

Well, thank you. Welcome back, Chair. We also have Commissioner Bain here in Tonopah.

Oh, nice, nice.

Item two, general public comment, up to three minute time limit per person. Public comment will be for all matters off the agenda. Public comment must be limited to matters that are within the jurisdiction control of the Board of County Commissioners. Action will not be taken on the matters considered during this period until specifically included on an agenda as an action item. Thank you for that. Yes, sir.

Chair, I do have somebody here in that. Tonopah happens to be the Tonopah Town Manager for public comment.

Thank you. Hello, Mr. Westerlund. Go right ahead, sir.

Thank you. Joe Westerlund, Tonopah Town Manager. Last name is W-E-S-T-E-R-L-U-N-D. And good morning, commissioners. I wanted to give you an update for our Harvey Park that we've been working on for two years. It's 100% complete. We have two pickleball courts, a new basketball court, and a state-of-the-art skate park. We're going to have a, they're calling it, after I looked at the flyer, I didn't know what they were going to call it, but it's going to be a reimagining of the Harvey Park. And we're going to have a barbecue, hot dogs, chips, water. We're going to have some, we'll have two professional skateboarders there. They're going to give some safety classes and some demonstrations to the kids. There's gonna be a lot of fun games. We'll have a DJ there. We're gonna have a pickleball tournament. So it's gonna be a great time. And I'm doing an open invitation to all the commissioners and the county manager and the assistant county manager and all the staff. We're gonna be putting out some flyers to the whole town of Tonopah. It's gonna be a fun time. And it's something that the town can be proud of. If you haven't had a chance to look at it, go over there and drive by and take a look at it. It's beautiful. And that's all I have.

Hey, Joe, what was the date on this?

July 18th. I'm sorry, July 18th from 11 to 2. It's a Saturday. Thank you, sir.

I was hoping you'd have it done by 1 o'clock today. We could all go there for lunch. Thank you.

Thanks. Come on down and prompt, please.

Dwight Lilly, L-I-L-L-Y. I understand that people plan vacations ahead of time, but at the last meeting, there were several, well, more than one commissioner that was missing for the meeting, and I appreciate Ron Boscovich for participating, even though he took time off from his vacation. Now it doesn't look like we have a full board again. And I would think that with communication available around the world, that a person, even if they're on vacation, would call in and participate in such critical meetings having to do with our budget. The people, we the people, didn't have anything to do with busting the budget, yet we're concerned about the outcome. And I would hope that an elected official that represents us would have the decency and the character to show up either on a phone or in person and participate in the proceedings, and sadly that didn't happen. The second item I wanted to bring up, we have several data center items, items 12, 17, 18, and I'm gonna ask the chairman to bring those up as the very first items to be heard since many, most probably, people in the audience are interested in that topic. Thank you.

Thanks, Dwight. Do we have anybody on the phone, please?

The caller is unmuted. Please speak and spell your name for the record.

Amy Nelson, N-E-L-S-O-N. I want to bring up the homeless people and the lack of humanity that they're being given. People may not be aware, but we have over 100 high school seniors who are homeless.

Did you know that?

Their families are homeless. And I don't mean they're sleeping on a couch at a friend's house or a relative's house. They are homeless. There are over 3,000 children that are homeless. I don't know how many families. Living on the streets or in the backyards or wherever they can. That are homeless. We absolutely need to find a solution. To either relocate. People that want to be relocated. Since we don't have the resources. That would be my 1st. My 1st yes vote. is to get them some kind of transportation to wherever they want to go. And some of these items that we have surplus amounts of money in would certainly pay for some of that, most of that. And it would alleviate some of the crime and some of the problems that we're suffering now because of drug use. And these people have no way to get to Las Vegas. And maybe they want to go there. Who's asking them? Who's going out and actually putting forth the effort to talk to these people? They got plenty of effort to destroy everything they have, making them desperate enough to steal from people in my district or other districts where they're being chased into. We just need to find a solution as a community. to relocate these people or find a way to rehome these people because of rental prices being so high they can't afford to pay rent anymore not even with a voucher uh an eighteen hundred dollar voucher you only get around 650 dollars uh a subsidy so it's not very much money thank you very much thank you for that amy

Come on down.

I always... Ron Mortenson, M-O-R-T-I-N, S-O-N. First, again, I'd like to thank Bruce DeBoer for forcing the IPMC vote. Skate Park has been secure for a year and two days. I was there a year and three days ago. Coonsy gave me no restitution hearing in my case where I was burglarized and had all my stuff stolen. That violates Marcy's law, I've learned. In terms of weed abatements, I got ordinance text from the fire chief, and inside it, the ordinance does say that people are to maintain from 30 to 100 feet of defensible space. The public's not been told. I've talked to so many people. They've never heard of defensible space before. And then the next part of the ordinance says that people can be fined up to $1,000 and or six months in jail. It doesn't say anything about the $1,000 per day fines that people have been getting told about. So code enforcement is probably not representing the truth with these people because so many people tell the same story. um and you know the county manager should be responsible for making sure code enforcement do people right then when people start suing um the ga should be asking questions why are we getting sued and if people don't want to make things right you know they need to face discipline thank you super mario come on down

Good morning, Lorraine, G-I-L-B-E-R-T. Today, I come with a different message. I come with a message of thanks. I just want to say thank you to each and every one of our BOCC members, to our planning department for coming together to work on a potential overlay zoning ordinance for the utility challenge lots. We recognize that these things take time and appreciate the effort that this is being investigated. Thousands of property owners are watching this process with hope that a practical pathway may be finally coming. As a country that just celebrated 250 years of independence, of freedom, of rights, what I would ask, let this be the end 50 years of no freedom, no rights, no independent for these property owners. You've already taken huge, huge commendable steps forward. And I thank each and every one of you for it and encourage you, that's my message today, encourage you to give hope to those property owners who will be getting tax bills this month and still have no freedom and no rights. Thanks so much.

Thank you, Lorraine. Do we have anybody on the phone, Serena, please?

Caller is unmuted. Please speak and spell your name for the record.

Bruce Johnson, J-O-H-N-S-O-N. Good morning, Commissioners. What I actually want to do is I want to point everybody back to the recent Supreme Court rulings that have taken place that concern surveillance technologies. In the event that we happen to have any of our public servants here contracting with anything to do with block cameras, license plate readers, anything like that. Recent Supreme Court ruling, unconstitutional and unlawful. So it will bring some lawsuits against some people. So I'm going to highly recommend that we do an audit around the county. And if we have any cameras, we should show that on an audit. and let it be known that if those cameras are not removed, that the county and the commissioners and the supervisor, everybody stands a chance of being sued for constitutional rights violations. And then I want to add that the discussion that's going on about some solutions for these zombie lots, I appreciate that conversation coming forward and these ideas that are coming forward. And I appreciate the public being involved, and I appreciate you guys listening to the people. That does bear a lot of weight. So you deserve to be commended for that. A little slow in the process, maybe, but hopefully we can come to some remedies real soon. So other than that, I'm just going to wish you guys that you use due diligence in all of your decisions today. And remember that you have a fiduciary responsibility to the people of Nye County. And it's your obligation to fulfill that. And the main purpose of government is to protect the people and their liberties and their rights. And I yield. Thank you.

CHRIS JERRAM, Thank you, sir. And I don't think we have any cameras, Bruce. I'll check, though, but I don't think so. Come on down, please.

Tina Lally, L-A-L-L-Y. Good morning, commissioners. I'm here today on behalf of some local residents that neighbor the former Sanders Family Winery property on East Kellogg Road, which is now operating as Chateau Magique. To be clear, I'm not here to attack the business in any way. I'm a huge advocate for small businesses, especially those that benefit the children and families here of Pahrump. However, The right to a lawful business does not erase neighboring's rights to use their backyard in a nuisance-free and land-use compatibility. A nearby resident reached out to me because they are dealing with bright outdoor lighting, amplified music, and evening activity that is directly affecting the neighboring residential properties. I have seen the photos, and I do have photos, and it's no joke. Their entire backyard looks like it's just covered in floodlights, and it shines their backyard and their homes. I'm respectfully asking that this be referred to the appropriate county staff for review, and I'm also specifically asking that the county review whether the outdoor lighting complies with PRUMP's dark sky ordinance. This is really about making sure residents are protected, businesses are treated fairly, and everyone follows the same rules. Thank you.

Thank you, and I actually saw those lights last night. I'm going to check into that. Do we have anybody? Serena on the phone, please.

The caller is unmuted. Please speak and spell your name for the record.

Good morning, commissioners and current members and residents. Cindy Lake, L-A-K-E. I would like to also commend you and thank you for digging into the Zombie lot issue and remind everybody that without property rights, we have no rights. That's a favorite saying of mine. I would love to see corrupt and night County become the shining light for small homes and small lot. Communities just spring up and you guys can leave a legacy. That would be a beautiful thing. Thank you.

Thank you. Come on down. Miss Southworth.

Diane Southworth, S-O-U-T-H, W-O-R-T-H. I hope everybody had a happy Fourth of July. Fireworks were spectacular. I saw Search and Rescue out and EMTs and police, and it looks like everybody was doing a good job. So I appreciate that. But I do want to comment on what Amy Nelson was saying about the homeless. When is the last time that we did a report in Nye County on how many actual homeless there are in Nye County. I will tell you from the school report last, in June, there were 169 children that were considered unhoused. A lot of them were two families living together, that type of thing, but there were actually 49 children that they have absolutely no idea where these children are living. And I will tell you this, not all homeless people are drug addicts. Not all homeless people are criminals. We need to start thinking about them as our neighbors and our friends and find out what we can do to support them in a better manner. And just kicking them out of town isn't always the right solution. Thank you.

Thank you. Are we OK over there? Come on up, Linda.

Good morning, everybody. Good morning.

Wonderful people.

Okay. Interesting week. Our team lost.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Linda Clark, C-L-A-R-K.

Thank you.

Okay. All right. I have a quick question for right now. I'm sure I'll have more later and you can anticipate that. I want to know, and this has been bugging me for a while, how many of this board have received kickbacks, donations, money in your pocket, and yet your purpose was to do everything you could do to destroy this community. And you don't think that, but we think that. So I want to know, is there an accounting for that? Do you have to log the money that you get from the solar farms, the med waste, and of course these data centers that we're all going to be getting? So I'm just curious if that's an answer that I can get out of this board. I'm doubting it because we don't get much from it anyway. But think about it. It's something to ponder, and we wonder about it. Thank you.

Thank you, Linda. And it's all on Secretary of State. It's all stuff that we're required to produce. Come on down. And no, none of us on this board accept payments like that because that would be a crime, Linda. Thank you. But I appreciate your positivity. Go ahead, ma'am.

Leah Aldridge, A-L-D-R-I-D-G-E. Good morning, Nye County! Good morning! We're all in our places with bright, shiny faces. Our constitutional rights have been being violated. This is... not news. We have four flock cameras in this town already. They're in the parking lot of Home Depot. You can go down there and verify after this meeting, like I did. And also, if you want to go up to a website called dflock.org, there's a map of the whole United States. And if you look at Las Vegas, That town is just all colored up with these cameras. They are everywhere. And if you don't know what they are, they get all your information. They access your cell phones. They tap into your Wi-Fi and your Bluetooth and get everything on you. You are being tracked and monitored by corporations you have no idea about. We need them out. Home Depot signed a nationwide agreement with Flock to put them in parking lots at every store they have. And they're there, people. So... Get them out. I did not know that, Leah.

Serena, do we have anybody on the phone, please? If somebody could actually verify what Leah just said with me later.

The caller is unmuted. Please spell your name for the record.

Hello, Commissioner. It's Michael David Garcia, G-A-R-C-I-A. Can you hear me?

Yes, sir. Go ahead.

Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate the acknowledgement and the enthusiasm. But imagine that, you know, maybe we should refer to the DA that you don't know what you're doing when you violate constitutional rights. Kudos, Mr. Bruce Johnson, once again, by pointing out this block stuff. But it is a Fourth Amendment right, and y'all are breaking those rights. You're supposed to be protecting them. And the sheriff, shame on you. Imagine a policy officer career Pretended to be law enforcement. Yep. How many ordinances did you author there, Sheriff? How many passed? How many do you enforce? Mr. DA, do we need to call in an expert? Let's talk about your jurisdiction and authority here in Nye County. Subject matter can never be waived. That's my challenge flag. Chevron, you're practicing it. You write unconstitutional rules and ordinances with Tim Sutton, even. You want to know who's worse than Captain Berkowitz? These DAs, these county managers, these commissioners, these judges that traffic our children through these courts. Y'all talked about TPS, so I could be able to talk to TPS. Do you know how many thousands of times they were mentioned in the Epstein file? Let that sink in. to your interlocking agreement. We know who's trafficking. And maybe that last objection from the 18th or 16th, whatever it was, should have been voiced for vagueness, but I don't know if y'all were objecting to the Lord's Prayer, like Luke 17, 2, or the USC 18-4, misimprisonment of persons. Or maybe you were just objecting to the state and federal guidelines. I don't understand. I don't know where y'all are coming from. Y'all are making up everything. Chevron is the number one man-made hazard in these courtrooms. Look at our family court. Look at our estate, the probate. Look at murder by hostage. Look at our children. These guys are trafficking our children, and they do nothing. They say nothing. They're protecting the predators. They will never solve the problem. They're a part of it. You take that to the bank. I understand what it means to practice against lukewarm Christians. This is a spiritual battle. Maybe y'all ought to just stay on your feet if you can't get on your knees. But let's look up. Look up when it comes to a last place academia. Is that abuse and neglect? What about official fraud, extortion, and official oppression? Where are you at? I can't hear you, Commissioner. I can't hear you, County Manager. I can't hear the code enforcement. I can't hear the sheriff. I can't hear the DA. I can't hear the judges. Where are you up at?

Thank you, Michael. Come on down, Ms. Hoverman.

I am here. My name is Tony Hoverman. H-O-V-E-R-M-A-N. I live on the south end of town, and I'm a taxpayer. I am here to relate to the people in this audience. Tonight at 8 o'clock, I mean at 6 o'clock from 6 to 8 p.m. at Treasurer's, many waste is going to be here. They're going to be doing their dog and pony show to us citizens. And I sure as hell hope everybody sitting behind me shows their face at this meeting. This is my town. This is my state. This is my city. This is my valley. This is my air. This is my land. This is my water. I do not want a medical waste facility here. I don't want syringes. I don't want, I don't want, I don't want sponges. I don't want placentas. I don't want parts of body parts. I don't want, I don't want intestines. I don't want any of that stuff, I'll call it garbage, coming in here from California to be burned off, to ruin my surroundings. I pay good taxpayer money, and I'm not going to sit around and just let this town go to hell. I'm standing up, and I sure as hell hope every single person behind me stands with me. I don't want a data center either. You guys are supposed to be taking care of us in our town, and you're not. You all have your own agendas and your own plans and your own backroom blow money that you're collecting. I'm upset. Meadoway should not have even been here. And the data center shouldn't even be something to vote on. And the recycling center, I sure as hell hope that doesn't come out from under the carpet again, surface later on. People here like the peace and tranquility. They don't want a polluted dump in the middle of nowhere. Prump is not a dump, and it's not going to be the dump to many waste. It's not going to be given up for the solar farms either. Because I'm betting my life with the people behind me where this town is going to stand up, and that's all I have to say.

Perfect. Sam, do we have, or Serena, do we have anybody on the phone, please?

And I was on the news the other day, so every single retired person in this.

Thank you. Thank you. Serena, do we have anybody on the phone, please?

The caller is unmuted. Please speak and spell your name for the record.

Matt Sadler, S-A-D-L-E-R. Good morning, everybody in the gallery. I just want to hopefully highlight some positives here in the community, and I hope you have a great meeting today. A great 4th of July celebration. Just want to touch on the Calveta Eye Parade, the events at that park. I know it was super hot. And it was so nice to see all those patriotic faces out there in the crowd. Kids having fun playing water balloon fights. It was a really good event. Awesome fireworks show. O'Brien family. John O'Brien, Eddie. That was a great job. Awesome job for being the first time that they tried it in that new venue. I know there was logistical challenges. for them to do that. They put on a great event for the community. It was a great 25 minutes of nonstop action. Probably the best finale that they've had out here since I've been out here. I just want to go ahead and congratulate the community for all their enthusiasm, effort, and I think our best days are ahead of us. I know there's a lot of challenges out here on the agenda today, in the future. Just keep hope alive. Things are going to get better. Thank you guys. Have a great meeting.

Thanks, Matt, and I agree with you on the finale. It was the best I've seen in 29 years. Come on up, please.

Good morning. My name is Laura Stewart, S-T-E-W-A-R-T, and I'm a resident here of Pahrump and have family going back quite a few years. And my question is, when will we ever see another grocery store for us to buy groceries and not another fireworks place? In addition to the fireworks place that just went in, it's hindering traffic immensely when we come out of Mountain Falls or just going into the fireworks place. We were promised maybe a turnaround or a stoplight or something, but I don't know what the progress is on it. And the speeding on 160 between Man's and town is absurd. And I don't see anyone really patrolling it. I see more patrolling going on in the town on 160 between Homestead or Winery Road, Homestead, and the end of town. But something needs to be patrolled from where that horrible accident was on Man's into town, not just town. And as far as the grocery store, that's been quite a need for some time. And we don't have, everyone complains about the pricing, the this, the that, and everything else, but we need to have something for the people and not something for the Californians to come in and buy and shoot off their fireworks and cause fires.

So, thank you. Thank you, and hang tight, because the shopping is coming down there. It's coming. Serena, do we have anybody on the phone, please?

Yes, Chair. The caller is unmuted. Please speak and spell your name for the record.

VORY, S-E-W-I-C-H. Good morning, commissioners and everybody else. I know this is going to all sound negative, but these are questions that everybody has, and I would like some answers. First of all, I want to back up Amy Nelson regarding the homeless. I thought Health and Human Services received grant funds and other funds to help the homeless people and to get them bus tickets and or plane tickets back to their family if that's where they want to go. Health and Human Services has not provided a report on anything that they do in the last four years. So I want to see something from them on what they're doing to help the people in this town. They just keep asking for money, but we don't know what the heck they're doing with it. Ian Bain with the RV retrieval that he's doing, I did an accounting and I asked for the receipts of everything that he's done. He's gotten $70,000. He says there's $16,000 left of the first $35,000. However, when you take all the money that he spent, there's a missing $11,000. I've asked him for a budget. I've asked him for accounting. He ignores me, you know, because I'm just a constituent asking for where my money is. So I want to see something going on with accounting for our money there. Third thing is, John, where is our application to get people on our advisory board for the fairgrounds? It's been a couple of months. I know that some people were trying to hold you up. I want to change everything that's going on with the fairgrounds and get some information out to the people. It's getting a little ridiculous. MetaWaste, I had written a really long email to every one of the commissioners And I even cited four or five items where the BOCC had reversed the decision of the RPC. When I said that to you guys, there wasn't even a peak. Why didn't you reverse meta waste? These are things that, you know, we need answers on. I mean, a lot of this crap could have been ended with meta waste if you had just reversed the RPC decision. However, I don't know what the deal was that we didn't. um but i'm sorry that it's all negative stuff but i want to know where our money is i want to have answers to the questions please mr wagner if you can please get some answers to me i'd appreciate it thank you thanks beth and beth nobody appealed the meta waste thing so it never came before our board of five was handled completely at the rpc come on up sir

Good morning, Tom Boatman.

It's refreshing to hear people talking about- I'm sorry, sir, but for the record, can you spell your last name and I apologize.

I apologize, B-O-A-T-M-A-N. Thank you. It's refreshing to hear people talk about and wake up to what flock cameras are. I'd like to see them addressed. I think they need to be removed. They are a direct violation of my Fourth Amendment rights and your Fourth Amendment rights and everybody else's Fourth Amendment rights. Last I checked, stocking's illegal. And it just seems to be going on everywhere. Everybody's turning a blind eye. I don't consent. And I don't think anybody else here is going to consent if they're awake or they're soon to be awake and they find out how this data is being harvested, how it's being manipulated, how it's being hacked, how it's already destroying a lot of lives across the nation. Something has to be done. I don't consent. Thank you.

Thank you. And I feel silly. I did not even have a clue it was here. Come on up.

Hello, my name's Dawn Duncan, D-U-N-C-A-N, long-term resident of Nye County. I'd like to speak today on a couple of things that have been on my mind. And first, though, I'd like to give thanks to Bo Gott and the road department. They recently came out in the heat and fixed our main gateway at Crystal. We are so happy. It's such a relief. Secondly, I'd like to make sure that we get some funding for Sheriff McGill and the positions that need to be filled. Our county's growing. There's been some strange things going on in the parking lots and in the park, at the grocery store, Walmart, stuff like that. So I really think that's important. We're growing. We need to get those spots filled. Secondly, regarding the flock cameras, the flock cameras that are in Home Depot are recording your cars, your license plates, and your movements there in the parking lot. If you have the D-Flock app on your phone like Leah was talking about, it shows you where the cameras are. So for Nye County, we just have four. And they are supposed to be recording license plates and things like that and sharing them with the police departments and stuff like that. so why is home depot now in the business of recording us and looking at our license plate and their cameras are in like 12k they can zoom down on your toenail polish they can look at your data on your phone it's crazy so that's a serious concern i didn't know that they were in that business and reporting without me knowing and that bugs me a little bit Also, this business with the data centers, if you want to complain about the water they're going to use, there'll be an answer. It's a closed-loop system. If you want to complain about the land, there'll always be more land. So they've got answers for everything. The serious problem about these data centers is the holding of everybody's personal private information. Information that's shared with your hospitals, doctors, stuff, your cell phone picks up, your laptop picks up, your TV picks up. It's all being harvested and sent out to people that are going to make money in the interim off your. Data that you didn't approve to be sold off to other individuals. We don't know where this data is actually going to go. It could go to another country. It could go to China. It could go. In the Middle East, we don't know. What they're going to do once the data is collected and that's the problem I have, of course, water is an issue. Land is an issue. The humming is an issue. Thank you, Don.

Your data. Thank you, everyone. Always nice to see you. Serena, do we have anybody on the phone, please?

No, Chair.

Come on up. You're just in time. There you go.

Nope. It's on now? I wasn't touching the right button. Jeannie King, K-I-N-G. Thank you. Good morning, and I just have a couple issues. June the 16th, with this department, these are... My mind's blank, but... When you have somebody come to speak, and I know you've answered me via the email, I emailed all of you, about, if the speaker comes up to speak after we've had public discussion, provides new information, then we the people should be able to come up for another comment session, which wasn't done with, The ad event when the lawyer came up and was not done at the planning committee when Russ Meads came up, then he sat down, then he came up, then he sat down, then he came up. We didn't get a public comment, and there was definitely things that brought up that I wanted to say something about. And I know you guys. have a lot of meetings and sometimes it just gets away because I have been chair of meetings before. So if we could pay attention to that, that would make me very happy. Then I noticed that they are having a lawsuit in Las Vegas about this Coyote Springs and the water there. Very interesting, and it involves the state engineer of water, which will be interesting to watch. because at event wants to come and build all these houses here and then threatened. I watched the tape to sue us if we did not allow them to do what they wanted. That was extremely disturbing to me, but let's just see what happens with this case. I don't know how fast it's going to move. It's either going to be good for us and or it's going to put a screw in this. So, but anyway, uh, thank you very much for this time.

Thank you for that, Ms. King. And I just saw that article yesterday. Come on down, Patricia.

Good morning. Patricia Robb, RLBB. I really don't have anything planned to say other than to say thank you in regards to the utility challenge lots that we are moving this forward. I also want to give you some credit here for something. Congress just passed the largest housing reform bill in decades. You guys are ahead of the game. Congress initiated this, but I want to thank you. The purpose of the 21st Century Road, ROAD, to Housing Act is to increase housing supply. You're trying to do that. And I think with the utility challenge lots, you're considering this. Reduce unnecessary regulatory barriers. I think you're doing that also with the utility challenge lots. Encourage local zoning reform. Thank you. I can see you're doing that for the utility challenge lots. Promote innovative housing solutions. That's what's going on here. Help communicate modernized housing policies. Nye County utility challenged overlay can accomplish these same objectives at a local level. So I thank you. I have created a pamphlet here, a brochure type booklet that if anybody wants one, I have a few of these here and I'll leave one with you so you guys can take turns looking at them because I didn't print up this many. But it does talk about alternative utilities, what are the water options, toilet options, wastewater power, small home benefits, myths versus facts about alternative utilities, and tiny home possibilities. I've also been in touch with many of these companies who would love to come to Pahrump and help, but until the zoning is fixed. They feel like they can't. But I did get a booklet from Separat. And I've actually got a whole box load of these if somebody wants one of these. I brought them with me today. regarding composting toilets that are waterless, flushless, odorless, and perfect for the smaller homes. They also have several other type toilets available that do require electricity, but these don't. And I love it. It's great. So with everything going on, I want to say thank you for listening to us. I know everybody has something to bring up, and that's important. They're not always easy to tackle. But I do thank you for taking the steps you are taking for the utility challenge lots.

TODD BANDUCCI- Thank you, Patricia. If you want to leave that with Serena. Serena, do we have anybody on the phone, please?

No, Chair.

TODD BANDUCCI- All right. We're going to close public comment and move on to number three, please.

Item three, commissioner manager comments. This item is limited to announcements, brief discussions of public comments, correction of factual inaccuracies, direction of staff for topics proposed for future board meetings. Lengthy deliberation of topics not on the agenda is prohibited by the Nevada open meeting law.

Thank you for that. Commissioner Strickland is out, so I'm going to go directly to Commissioner Bain. Do you have anything, sir?

Yes, thank you. Just two brief things. First, I was emailed about, I answer every single email people send to me. And I did get an email on June 19th about RV records. I sent it to Lorena asking to refer the individual to public records as I don't have records that the person's asking for. So I have no idea what happened. Do you know what happened there? Did you refer? I'm sure you did.

Yes, it was sent to the public records and our public records administrator did respond and supplied her with the reports that were requested.

That's great to hear. Thank you, madam. And then on the light, I can't see, is the undersheriff in the room? Could someone tell me? Yes, yes. I was once with him and he was driving a vehicle without a license plate because he was doing police stuff and he was pulled over by a... a DMV police officer. So I just want to make a point that, I don't know if he wants to speak to that, but I just want to make a point to people that just because someone's out there with law enforcement abilities, it's not necessarily the sheriff that's doing it. And so I don't know much about what's going on with license plate things, but we can't stop the DMV from coming into the county. So that may be something that's going on. I'm not sure. I actually moved out of Chicago when they started doing the speed cameras. That is why I moved out of Chicago. So I couldn't be more against what a nightmare that is. Red light cameras, speed cameras. I believe the sheriff in Clark County is a big advocate of that, as a matter of fact. So yes, we have a lot of problems, potential problems with those kinds of things. But just remember, there are DMV police out there, and we can't stop them from doing what they're doing. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Hang tight, Corey. I've got to get through all this first. Bruce, Commissioner Jabbour, do you have anything for us, sir?

Thank you, Chair. Good morning. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for being here today. And for the record, there are four commissioners present, two here in Tonopah, two in Pahrump, with Commissioner Strickland-Hepson. And I bring that up for the record, as there was public comment that we didn't have a, basically, we didn't have a quorum today. But we do. So thank you again, and I look forward to today.

Thank you, Commissioner, and I didn't hear that part or I would have addressed it myself. Commissioner Koenig.

I don't really have much to say except last meeting I was the only one sitting here, so thank you.

Thank you for chairing, by the way. All right, all I have is welcome, everybody. I love seeing packed crowds. Brian's raising his hand. So, anyway, we'll move on to directors, managers, under sheriffs, stuff like that.

Go ahead, Brian. Thank you very much. I really would like to have a discussion on fleet. This prevents me from doing my job. We've eliminated fleet. We have to transport complaints and things down. We required wet signatures. We cannot transport these without fleet. It's also affecting my child support division of getting orders and stuff signed. So I'm just puzzled as to the reason why fleet was canceled. Because again, I need to have that capability of transporting legal documents back and forth from Tonopah to Pahrump and back. So we really need to look at the solutions for that.

Oh, okay. We'll look into that. Potentially maybe a deputy back and forth.

I'll answer part of it. Go ahead. The reason fleet is currently canceled is because the guy just retired, and he's been out on injury. Right now, we don't have a fleet driver. Gotcha.

All right, we'll look into that. Come on up, Corey.

Can I find a volunteer?

If you pay my gas, I'll use my car back and forth.

I'm Corey Fowles, F-O-W-L-E-S. I was pulled over by DMV police on Sunday. I did have a plate. I used to be a detective when I used to do police work for a living, and I was driving an undercover vehicle, and it had a Nevada license plate on it, but it's cold-plated for obvious covert reasons, and... He ran my plate, don't know why he ran my plate, but he ran my plate and it came back no return, no address. So he pulled me over and that's what that was. But to Commissioner Bain's point, the DMV police are out here and they do enforcement work of Nevada DMV registration, things of that nature routinely. So that's what that was. Well, thank you, sir. Come on up, Christy.

He probably knows a judge.

Christy Sigmund, S-I-E-G-M-U-N-D. So I have some really fun things to share with you all today, some statistics. I first wanted to potentially give some education. So at the 18th of June BOCC, Commissioner Bain had referred to the office assistant position as a secretary. And it came to my attention that because staff was, they felt demeaned, they felt degraded using that term. And as I watched the video, because I wasn't here in that afternoon, I had left at lunch, I don't believe the intention was offensiveness, but it did bring up the fact that I don't think people know what our office assistant does and how important it is to the Pahrump shelter. So just a few things. That assistant is our animal control officer dispatcher. They dispatch for animal control. They research activities for animal control. They support the animal control officers while they're out in the field to get accurate and real addresses for those officers to respond to. They are intake specialists. Over 50% of the animals that come into the shelter here in Pahrump are through the front door. So they are the people that greet. They are the people who get all of the finder's information. They do what we call a head-to-tail and make sure that they have all the information that we have available to us at that time for that animal to get it in the systems.

They scan for microchips.

If there is a microchip, they find the owner. They are also our adoption specialists. So on the other end of it, they completely do from start to finish. The adoption, collecting all the adopter's information, sharing anything. animal information with them. They assist me with social media. They assist me with the inventory of the shelter. They assist me with putting in all of the medical information into the system. So they are very data-driven. There's just so much, truly, that they do. So while the job description does make them sound like they're just answering some phone calls, answering some emails, in fact, that's actually a really small percentage of their job. They are a huge asset to the Pahrump Animal Shelter and to public safety here in Pahrump. So I just wanted to clear that because they really, truly are a very, very vital part of our team. Some statistics for you. In June, we took in 141 animals. 51 adoptions, 35 transfers meant 86 placements. So that was really great. The last few months, we've seen a decline. So it was really nice for the month of June. to see that uptake and get us back up to those numbers again. We did only have 23 return to owners. So that obviously is a number that we want to see change. We want to see that become higher. But here's some really fun statistics. We have had what we have been very affectionately calling our battle of the sponsors. Because we had sponsorships in April. We had sponsorships in May. We had sponsorships in June. So in April it was 25 adoptions, in May 21, and then in June we had 39. So that was 85 total adoptions through our last three months, which was really fun posting them out there. Plus we had 41 transfers of our no-kill rescues and our partners coming in. So 125 animals saw their forever homes in the last three months.

Who won between Commissioner Jabbour and Commissioner Koenig?

Well, earlier it was Commissioner Koenig, but because of the election season, we did not announce exactly who were our sponsors, but it was our June sponsor that won. as far as the most amount. Can I say it now? Okay, because now we're not in election season.

Who was it?

All right, so in April, we had Michelle Nelson's sponsor. In May, we had Sheriff McGill's sponsor. And then in June, we had D.A. Kunze's sponsor. So D.A. Kunze took it by 13 adoptions. Nice. And what's even more exciting.

Could I put in for a recall?

A recount? All right, I'll get right on that. And we're just continuing that momentum into this month. We are participating in the Bissell Empty the Shelter event. That goes through the 26th of this month. Adoption fees are only $20. And we have right now 82 animals available for adoption. So 62 dogs, 19 cats. Puppies, kittens, adults, seniors, we really run the gamut right now. So definitely come in and take a look. And I also wanted to thank the community. This Fourth of July weekend, it's always a busy weekend for us, and we see a lot of intake of animals. Of the animals that came in, there are only two that remain in our shelter unclaimed. So owners, really thank you so much from our entire team for picking up your animals, for bringing the attention to us that they were lost so when they came in, we were able to reunite them right away. And thank you to those owners who microchipped. Over half the animals found out in the field were able to go home before even hitting the shelter door simply because they were microchipped and we were able to reunite them immediately in the field. So huge, huge, huge props and thank you to our community. While it was a busy weekend, it was a very successful weekend. Thank you.

Thank you, manager. Come on up, Joe.

Mr. Chairman, may I have a point of personal privilege? Go ahead. May I exercise that? I just wanted to address what was said about me. I'm 52 years old. I feel like I'm 152 years old. The Secretary of State is the most important appointed position in the world that's not elected. I don't see the word secretary as something other than just what I call people in certain positions. In 2000, I was what I called the press secretary for a person who's running for US Senate in Massachusetts. Everyone else called it the communications director. So I apologize if my choice of words, and it's kind of interesting, this is the first time I think I've ever had to say something like that, but I never see the word secretary as anything other than just a position. It was not intended to demean anyone. I know that my words are going to be increasingly hung on more and more, and so I guess shame on me for not being more careful. But I have become quite a lightning rod in this position. It's not intended. It's just what happens when you do the things I do. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, sir.

Go ahead, Sheriff.

Morning, Sheriff Joe McGill. I just wanted to respond a little bit to the flock camera issue that came up. And by the way, Chair, I sent you an email. I just saw that. Thank you. Yes, there are flock cameras in this community. I, at one point, did not know that until I saw them and recognized them. And I checked with that business, and they said, yes, we do. There's probably, I'm going to just go out on a limb and say there's probably at least 100 of them in Las Vegas, so whatever you do, don't drive to Las Vegas if you're opposed to them. The June 29th, I was just reading that article that I sent you, the June 29th Supreme Court ruling did not relate directly to flock cameras. However, what I was reading as people were talking was that it is still up in the air, so it's... To be determined, I guess you will say. Where are they, Joe, other than Home Depot? Where else here? That's all, Home Depot. To my knowledge, however, like I said, I didn't know that they were there until I saw them, and then I went in and asked them. I will tell you, I am a huge fan of flock cameras or LPR cameras, whether it be flock or another company. And part of our capital expenditure proposal was to establish some LPR cameras in our valley. They are a fantastic tool if used properly and under correct policy. and they will solve crimes and catch bad guys.

Yep. Thank you, sir. Thank you. On break time, maybe one of you can tell me where the other ones are here. Do we have any managers or directors on the phone, please? Serena?

No, Chair.

All right, we're going to close that out and move to number four. Moving right along. Hour and two minutes.

Item four, approval of the agenda for July 7th, 2026. We do have some items we're going to pull. Item five on page one. Items 13 and 14 on page two. Item 17 on page three. And item 21 on page three. 17, hold on. through the chair manager could you repeat those again please absolutely again it's item 5 on page 1 item 13 and 14 on page 2 Item 17 on page 3 and item 21 on page 3. CHRIS RODGERS. Thank you.

TODD BANDUCCI. So I'm going to ask staff, when these things, when we know they're going to be removed, please advise the chair ahead of time. Just so when you know, let me know.

Thank you. CHRIS RODGERS. Well, I will when I learn. TODD BANDUCCI. I just learned.

CHRIS RODGERS. Gotcha. OK. So that's it, we're done with that. Commissioners, you guys all get those? All right, let's move on to number six, please.

Item six, NAM presentation of certificate to one employee honored for their years of service.

Thank you for that.

And through the Chair, if you don't mind after the presentation, if we could take five?

Sure. Are you handling this presentation?

I am, thank you.

Perfect.

They removed the tape. So we have a five-year presentation for an employee. Of course, everybody, every employee with the County, you've heard me say this time and time again, their positions are so very important. This position is not an easy position. Five years of professionally really fighting with people to get money from them because of children. So she's with the Child Support Division, Rochelle Graff, five years. Come on up, Rochelle. Thank you.

Congratulations, Michelle. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. All right, let's take five minutes or so. Let's do six minutes, so 11-12. OK, we ready? Serena, are we ready?

Yes, sir.

All right. Let's bring this back in and go to number seven, please, manager.

Item seven, 10 AM timed item for possible action. Public hearing, discussion and deliberation to adopt, amend and adopt or reject my county bill number 2026-10. A bill proposing to adopt DA-26-1. development agreement between Nye County and Energy Source Green Holding Inc. and Tesla Watt Inc., Sacramento Solar, and providing for the severability, constitutionality, and effective date thereof, and other matters properly relating thereto.

Thank you, Manager. Good morning. Excuse me, Chair. Yes, sir.

Chair, I have a disclosure, please. Okay. As before, I am a former employee of the property owner, but not affiliated with the project owner of this particular item, and therefore I will be participating.

Thank you for that disclosure, sir. Good morning, Kiana. Thank you.

Good morning, commissioners. Kiana Medici, Q-I-A-N-A-M-E-D-I-C-I, principal planner, planning department. As stated, this is the proposed development agreement between Nye County and the energy source green holding and Tesla lot for the Sarcobata solar project. The preliminary development plan for Solar 25-1 was approved during the January 21, 2026 meeting by the Board of County Commissioners. The project includes a 244 megawatt solar energy facility comprised of both fixed and sun tracking solar arrays located on two parcels totaling approximately 800 acres.

They're yelling, they can't hear you.

Yet the project includes a 244 megawatt solar energy facility comprised of both fixed and sun tracking solar arrays located on two parcels totaling approximately 800 acres. The item after this one is the review and hopefully approval for the final development plan itself. We separated the two out, but those two kind of run together.

So DA, should we be opening these together, do you think? Or can we?

You can open them together.

Manager, hold tight, Kiana. Manager, let's open up eight, too, please. Two birds, one stone.

Item eight, for possible action, public hearing, discussion, and deliberation on the approval of the final development plan for the Sacravatus Solar Project, comprised of both fixed and sun-tracking solar arrays, located on two parcels totaling approximately 800 acres a private land located at 95150 US Highway 95, Beatty, Nevada, and 94871 US Highway 95, Beatty, Nevada. Assessor's parcel number 018501-05 and 06, Sparks LLC property owner, Sergei Benke, CEO, Tesla Solar LLC applicant.

Thank you for that. Commissioner Jabbour, do you need to do another? Yes.

Yes, thank you, Chair. I'm going to give the same disclosure as I did for number seven on number eight. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Kiana, do you want to add anything on number eight?

Sure. Let's see. Pursuant to Nye County Code 17-10-090, the approval process, All Tier 1 projects subject to this section shall be considered at two public hearings before the BOCC and shall comply with all requirements of this title. The first was the January 21st, 2026 Board of County Commissioners meeting where the preliminary development plan was approved by the commission. This counts as the second public hearing and this item is for the final development plan.

Thank you for that. All right, so let's open public comment at this time, please. Serena, do we have anybody on the phone, please?

Yes, Chair. The caller is unmuted. Please speak and spell your name for the record.

Yes, Amy Nelson, N-E-L-S-O-N. All the commissioners must realize You live in this community, how adamantly opposed that people in Peron are against any solar projects this large, any of them. Beatty, they have a town board. And the last I heard from town boards was the one in Tonopah. And Joni Easley called in saying they wanted solar. So the moratorium on solar projects was lifted. But we need to have a moratorium for Perot and for any town that doesn't want them. Their town boards can declare it, if I'm not mistaken. But this is a very large project. And Beatty is a pretty small community. It would be overpowering. for them to have this kind of apparatus, I call it, in their area. But I don't care where it is. It's just one step closer to the inside, like a creeping little virus. You take one step, then you take another step. And before you know it, they're everywhere along with the data centers. But I oppose this. And I appreciate you allowing us to speak after these items. Thank you.

Thank you, Amy. Go ahead, Dwight.

Dwight Lilly, LILY. Tonopah and Beatty, I don't have a problem with the people there having large-scale solar. But what my concern is on this particular development agreement, it would be somewhat precedent setting if other development agreements for large-scale solar came into our county And I don't see any provisions in an event the project was abandoned in the future of any removal of the solar panels, if they happen to be damaged by some type of natural event like hail or wind storms and that. This has happened across the country where projects have been destroyed because of, well, the environment, and then the people get left. In this case, it would be 1,600 acres of solar panels would that mean that we would have that on our backs to have to pick up the tab of cleaning that mess up out there? So I would hope if this is a final development agreement that you have a provision in there that in the event this is shut down for any reason whatsoever, because we had one solar project up there that got shut down around the Tonopah area, that all the material was removed from the land and it was returned back to its natural state, and I don't see that in the development agreement. Thank you. Thank you.

Come on down, Anthony.

Anthony Greco, GRECO. I don't approve of any large solar projects. And if the world worked perfect and they got 28 years out of it, they should have a bond for 28 years from now to take these solar panels out of here and dispose of them properly. If they don't have a bond to protect us in 28 to 30 years, I wouldn't do it.

Thank you for that, and I don't disagree. Come on down, Leah.

Leah Aldridge, A-L-D-R-I-D-G-E. I'm definitely against this. I oppose it in every way. Let's connect the dots, people. We need all this extra power to power the data centers after they suck our electric grid dry. This is where it's all going. So, no, I'm not for this at all. There are plans in Nevada for 70 data centers statewide, 70. Seven here in Nye County, two that we know about that we found out about recently. So that's where it's all going. No. Thank you.

Thank you. Serena, do we have anybody on the phone, please?

Yes, Chair. The caller is unmuted. Please speak and spell your name for the record.

That's Laura Savage, B-O-R-Y-S-E-W-I-C-H. Again, I had sent a 10-page document to every one of you commissioners explaining the agreement is flawed. There is so much missing stuff out of it that if we were to agree to this, we should be slapped a size ahead. They refer to old projects that we've had and other maps. THEY TALK ABOUT SCREENING, BUT THEN MY QUESTION IS, DOES THE SCREENING CONTINUE ALONG US-95? WHAT ABOUT THE HIGHWAY? IT'S TEN PAGES. NOT A SINGLE ONE OF YOU GUYS HAVE LOOKED AT WHAT I WROTE AND RESPONDED. IT'S LIKE, IS THIS GOING TO HAPPEN IF I GET ON THE OTHER BOARD AND I WRITE SOMETHING? NOBODY'S GOING TO RESPOND? THIS IS RIDICULOUS. This agreement is flawed. You guys need to look at it. You cannot approve it. And it needs to be thrown out, basically. I mean, this company, Ativan, that got in there, you know, they came in wanting all kinds of special permissions to do things. And when they got them, then they pushed for more.

And now they're part of this project.

I think that they need to go away. I don't like Ativan at all. So... There's all kinds of problems. There's issues with permits in here. There's issues with startups. What are we gonna, are we gonna hire people? Just all kinds. Can someone please read what I wrote and respond? Or hopefully you just denied this today. Thank you.

Thank you, Beth. Go ahead, Linda.

Linda Clark, CLARK. Well, I've been here almost seven years. And since I've been here, we've been fighting solar. No one wants it, but yet we keep getting it. Why? Why can't someone just say, you know that big N-O? No. OK, this is someone's private property, and they want to sell it and make a killing?

Yeah, killing. They're killing us.

So why do we do things like this? It's close to California border. Well, it's not far. So why don't we just ship it over there? Why do we get everything here in Nye County and our responsibility to clean up, take care of, hassle, fight with, when no one wants it? It doesn't make any sense to me. We have no say, no control over what goes on in this county. Everybody just runs over us, and I've said that many times. You people know it, and we're tired of it. Say no and keep it no.

Thank you for that. Serena, do we have anybody on the phone, please?

Yes, Chair, the caller is unmuted. Please speak and spell your name for the record.

Gloria Wilson, A-R-R-O-Y-O-B-Y-I-N-G-T-O-N. I'm a Beatty local, and I want to just say, like, I do believe that Beatty wants to see renewable energy come to our town. However, large solar farms are a concern. Many of the commenters already have made really good points. I just wanted to point out, like, for example, Greenlink, with them doing their power line, they've already disrupted the topsoil a lot. We've already had two brownout warnings out on our highway, I believe, which we live in the desert. I understand that we get these dust storms anyway, but having these large solar farms are really going to continue to disrupt the land out here, and it's going to make it bad for our air quality, and just kind of the way of life out here. Thank you.

Thank you. Come on down, sir.

Kenyon Salzer, S-A-L-Z-E-R. I've got a question. What are these solar farms for, and who are they going to benefit? Are they going to benefit the people, the businesses here, or are they going to lower my electricity, or are they going to stop the electricity for the businesses so they don't have to pay anymore? Who's it for? Anybody know?

I can't answer while you're speaking.

Okay, I'm done. Answer it.

Thank you for your comment. Can't answer it. Come on down.

Hi, Susie Hertz, H-E-R-T-Z. My concern about this project, although it's not in our front yard or our immediate backyard, is the scope of the project itself and that it lay on private property. I haven't been able to read the full agreement, so I may be talking out of place. However, my concern as a citizen of the region is what happens on the back end of this project agreement as has been stated. Number two is what happens if this property owner decides to sell their property or abandons their property or abandons any of the activities and the equipment on the property. As a solar power owner myself, rooftop at my home, The solar company who installed our system went out of business and went bankrupt. So this is a common activity and a common result of solar actions and with 1,600 acres, it's a massive problem as stated earlier. So I think these issues need to be addressed and I think that we need to look at the Zoning the ordinances and however these deals come together to protect the citizenry rather than to promote the owners of the property and the owners of the projects they offer Benefits to us and we don't get benefits and of course we all know this clearly is not power for Beatty It's power for the grid. So Why are we supporting the grid instead of supporting our citizens? Thank you.

Thank you. Serena. Do we have anybody on the phone, please?

The caller is unmuted please speak and spell your name for the record I

Bruce Johnson, J-O-H-N-S-O-N, and God bless that lady that just spoke and her last comment there. That's exactly what's happening. And, you know, this was all designed. I have in my hand a July-August 2011 issue number five from Life Magazine. Bright future. Solar power is on the way. Yeah, and when you open it up, it talks about keeping people's power rates stable. Is there anybody out there that can attest that their power rates have been stable since 2011? I don't think so. So anyway, I'm going to move on from that. Before discussing the benefits and drawbacks, any other drawbacks to this project, I want to add I want to ask the board to address one threshold question. On what constitutional authority does the Nye County base this proposed development agreement? The agenda states this bill provides for the constitutionality of the agreement. Those were words that were actually in it, I do believe. So this is a significant statement. Constitutionality is not established merely by including the word in a bill. It must rest upon lawful authority. A county code cannot create powers that were never delegated. Ordinances prescribe procedure. They do not themselves create constitutional authority. Therefore, I respectfully ask the board to identify on the record the constitutional and statutory source of its authority to enter this agreement and explain the limits of that authority. As we've discussed before, authority precedes action. Before public policy is debated, the source of the power being exercised should be identified. If the board cannot clearly identify the constitutional foundation for this action, then the public deserves to know why the agreement is being presented as constitutional. I respectfully request that the constitutional analysis supporting this agreement be made part of the public record before any vote is taken. Thank you. Thank you for that.

Come on down and prompt, Deborah.

oh please and then would you spell your last name for me oh yeah how do i forget that every time a lot of people do deborah thomas t-h-o-m-a-s the only The thing that would make sense is if the people in Beatty really wanted it. I mean, they'd have to really want it and really need it to keep their community going. But that would be the only reason I can see putting all that solar power there and not putting it to use in Nye County. Thank you.

Thank you.

Come on down and prompt, sir.

Tom Boatman, B-O-A-T-M-A-N. Um, as, as Ms. Hertz said, Beatty's not my backyard. Um, people, I think a lot of people think that it doesn't affect them, that it's never going, they don't worry about these things until it comes to their backyard. But when it does, then they panic and they throw their arms up and they don't know what to do. And, uh, We got to stick up for each other. We're all neighbors. We're all in this together. And it's not going to get any better if we just let this stuff fly all around us. Let's stand up. Let's make an example. Let's set a standard. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Come on down, Tammy.

Tammy Pittman, P-I-T-M-A-N. Good morning. Yeah, still morning. Wanted to talk about a provision that seems to have backfired on the large solar project that's on Tacopa Road. They relocated the tortoise. Did you know that the tortoise were sent to another location and they were decimated by badgers? Yes. And by the way, they only get, they take the tortoise that are above a certain size. The smaller ones, we'll just let them fend for themselves and get run over by vehicles, etc. So they need to do something to protect our desert tortoise. That's not a population that comes back easily. And then somebody else mentioned the... crust being disturbed and all of the brownouts that we get because of the wind. That's another thing they have to decide. Beatty's going to have it. They're actually talking about doing another solar project here, extending right next to the solar project on Tacopa Road. We've had multiple haboobs since that happened, whereas the crust that was there has been disturbed, and so now we get twice as bad. So we have to think about that. Thank you.

Thank you. Serena, do we have anybody on the phone, please?

The caller is unmuted. Please speak and spell your name for the record.

Good morning, Ms. Herman Lewis, L-E-W-I-S. Everybody knows all the negatives, the environmental disaster, the use of water, the ugliness. I mean, if you're going to put it somewhere, put it out in the middle of nowhere where there's nobody around. The power will obviously go to the greater California. It's not going to benefit us. I think that these developers think that they're going to be able to pay off commissioners, staff, people within Knight County. I don't think that's possible. I don't think any of you there will take payoffs. I really don't. It's not just because the light is shining on you and everybody's watching. I don't think you'll do that. I think you are going to vote for the people, which is no solar. Thank you.

Thank you. Come on down, sir.

Hello, my name is Dion Kimsel. I just wanted to highlight what the last caller said about the water. That is the main concern for me with these solar panels and data centers. It's going to require a lot of water to clean these and we already have a limited water supply that is over distributed and excuse me, I'm being told that I can't use water at certain times of the day to water plants and grow food. So I don't see how it's fair that a big company like these solar companies and data centers are allowed to do the same thing. Thank you.

Thank you. Serena. Do we have anybody on the phone please?

Yes, chair. The caller is unmuted. Please speak and spell your name for the record.

Hello, Commissioners. Michael David Garcia, GARCIA. How's my volume and tone? Okay for you, Chair?

It's good to go.

Thank you. Thank you. And wow, what a performance by Mr. Bruce Johnson. Way to hit it out of the park. I believe what he challenged was your subject matter jurisdiction. So I'd like to see that. And folks, we are so close in recognizing that. the people here in Nye County don't benefit, but the easiest way through fraud and deception is to figure out who benefits. It's obviously not us. We need to look deeper into this Avanti. We need to dig deeper, and there's a lot of NDAs in play that you don't see. It's a non-disclosure agreement. We need to start tracking how many each commissioner has with these DAs, and it's an easier journey. Granted, it's less travel, but Article 1, Section 1 of the Nevada Constitution is front-loaded and plagiarized in 35 states. Article 1 is a declaration of rights. Section 1 is an inalienable right to mankind. Thank you all.

Thank you.

Go ahead, please, in Peru. Thank you. Helene Williams, W-I-L-L-I-A-M-S. I would ask that this board... Any development project, any and all, must include the amount of water that they are going to use. These solar projects come here and they never state how much water that they're going to use. And they're going to use lots of it to clean their panels. They'll have no choice because there'll be so much sand, like the haboobs, which are no fun. With that being said, All development agreements must include the amount of water use and a cleanup and abatement. There should be a bond on all of these solar projects, a million-dollar bond plus for cleanup and abatement. A bond will make them behave a little better. Thank you.

Thank you. Come on down, Lorraine.

What do you know? I'm speaking about something other than zombie lots. Lorraine, G-I-L-B-E-R-T. I am concerned because there was no provision in here for our natural resources, our environmental protection, nor our health protections. As a utility challenge lot owner, I can't put solar on my property. Why is it that 1,600... acres of property, private property can't. Somebody talked about constitutionality. That is kind of a constitutionality quirk. I just want to protect Nye County. And I don't want to see a door opened in Beatty that then opens a door here for us, too. So please just consider the environmental impact. Because once it's gone, it's gone. Please consider the health impacts, because once our vulnerable population starts dying off because they can't breathe, they're gone. Once our turtles are gone, they don't come back. So we need to protect our environment, protect our people, and protect our health.

Thank you. Serena, do we have anybody on the phone, please?

The caller is unmuted. Please speak and spell your name for the record.

Yes, Matt Sadler, SAD, LER. Look, commissioners, we went through this for years now, years back, and I was afraid this can getting kicked down the road and eventually it's going to keep resurfacing over and over and over again. You know, we elect you commissioners to make good decisions for us. It's not always by, you know, whether a certain small sampling of people in some other community in Nye County think it's good. At the end of the day, you guys know what's good. Your conscience will dictate what's good. Let's stop being the suckers of the entire West where everybody wants to dump their garbage, have their facilities, have their medical waste, everything under the sun dumped in Nye County. Time to just say no. Take a chance. Let this be an example. If it's not too late to turn the page back, go ahead and vote no against all this. I'm all about obstructing all this nonsense. Thank you. Thank you for that.

Go ahead, Tony.

Tony Hoverman, HOV as in Victor. E-R-M-A-N. Okay, so this is another thing that takes a lot of water. This lady should not even be here. It shouldn't have even gotten this far. So now we got MetaWaste, we got the AI Center, and we have more solar coming out here. Solar creates a lot of, the area around the solar becomes a hell of a lot hotter. So what our commissioners are doing basically is selling us people out. They're going to bring in all this revenue because they can't seem to operate within a budget. They can't balance their budget. So they're going to take on all these things that are going to bring in money so that the town keeps going. obtaining more money. It's just like a balloon. Eventually it's going to pop because you can't keep existing the way we're existing. And it's not fair to the people that live out here. I don't want anything else that's going to suck the water. the watered out of my well. Oh, and Great Basin Water Company was, as everyone knows, bought out by a Californian company. If you were at the well meeting last week, the rep from the new company was doing his dog and pony show to us. He didn't have any information. But basically, yeah, it's happening. So those of you that are on city water, you just get ready, man, because your water bill is going to go right through the roof, and there's not going to be it. damn thing you're going to be able to do about it because California's going to own city water so I don't want any of this stuff none of this stuff should have gotten to this point you guys aren't working for us I want to know who's watching you guys because obviously no one's no one's watching over you because the people don't want it and all this stuff keeps going down this lady shouldn't be here We shouldn't have gotten that far. And you're just ruining Pahrump. Pahrump's not a dump. Pahrump's not an opportunity for California to come in here. It's not. And it's not for the people. Because not one person in this audience wants... the solar, the metawaste, or the AI centers out here. Yet, everybody, all you guys just seem to like, yeah, we'll just put it on the back burner. We'll just shove it under the rug and bring it out later when nobody's looking. And I bet you guys, my life, that's what's going to happen.

Serena, do we have anybody on the phone who isn't yelling?

No, Chair.

Come on down, Diane.

Diane Southworth, S-O-U-T-H-W-O-R-T-H. I was looking at this. I only have one question. It says on here, located on two parcels, totally approximately 800 acres. That's not 1,600. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else on the phone, please, Serena.

The caller is unmuted. Please speak and spell your name for the record.

Good morning, commissioners. My name is Chris Lally, L-A-L-L-Y. And please forgive me, I'm battling a cold here. But I'm speaking in opposition to this item here, the Sarco Solar Project. I just want to be clear, I'm not here to argue against every, against solar energy in general, but I just think, you know, an 800-acre private solar project should receive final approval, shouldn't receive final approval unless a county, the public all have clear written answers about the impacts here and you know i understand it's not on basins 162 it's not planned for that but still water is as always a major concern and i don't want to overstate that but um you know that actually proves the larger point nye county has multiple stressed and sensitive groundwater basins and water does not become a minor issue just because a project says it will have quote-unquote minimal needs or won't, you know, drill its own well. As other residents have spoken about, you know, dust control still takes water, construction takes water, site maintenance creates impact. So if water is being trucked in, the public deserves to know from where, how much, how long, what basin or community is ultimately carrying that burden, you know. And this is all also about roads, emergency access, fire risk, long-term maintenance, visual impacts, and decommissioning. So if this project is abandoned, damaged, under-maintained, or becomes a problem years from now, Knight County should not be left holding the bank. I know the project is intended on a piece of private land, but private land does not mean private consequences. A project of this size creates public impacts, and those impacts need to be addressed before approval, not after. So I'm I'm wholeheartedly asking you to vote no today, and if the board is not willing to vote no, then at minimum, very minimum, continue this item until there are stronger protections in writing for water sourcing, dust control, road impacts, emergencies, response, and again, just commissioning. Thank you for your time, and I implore you to listen to residents here on this issue.

Thank you for that. Come on up, Patricia.

Patricia Robb, ROBB. I just want to say that I think it's really good that all of Nye County is coming together to speak for people that can't speak for themselves. I know for a fact with what I'm dealing with, with a group of owners for the utility challenge lots, most of them live out of state. Ten o'clock at this time is not convenient for a lot of people to call in. Everything that everyone has said here is valid. It makes sense. And I know that it really should be up to the people what they want in their community. And to stand up for Beatty, I think is awesome because that is part of Nye County. We are the third largest county in the entire country and nobody wants to see it turn into what we're turning it into otherwise. And the fact is we're standing up for everybody.

If you guys want to get through these items, we can't have outbursts, please. Let's be respectful to the speakers.

So just the matter of fact is, Beatty is like our brother or our sister. And so is Tonopah and everything within my county. We care about our county. We care about our town. So please listen to the people. They have very valid concerns and reasons why they feel the way they do. So thank you.

Thank you. Serena, one more check, please.

The caller is unmuted. Please speak and spell your name for the record.

Yes, this is Tim Bohannon, B-O-H-A-N-N-O-N. The environment has been discussed a lot and the other concerns with water and infrastructure. I'm going to focus in on the finance. Surprise, right? The question of finance, and we had a change from a federal subsidy perspective with solar. Does that change the economics on this project and betterment of Nye County? That's a question. That's something that needs to be disclosed, needs to be discussed, and needs to be aware of the people so they are aware of what that decision is. As far as the town of Beatty, I haven't heard much in this discussion of what their opinion is and how strong they are with that. You know, we have backup, but I've been looking for what kind of feedback are we getting there. Same feeling if it was up in Tonopah. Thank you.

Thank you. Come on down in Pahrump, please.

Russ Meads, MEADS. I just wanted to commend staff on this. So while I was listening to the comments, which are valid comments, however, I read through the development agreement that's actually proposed to be looked at today. Every one of these issues have been addressed in the development agreement, including a bond requirement, including environmental requirement. Water disclosures have all been made. This project does not tie into the grid. I have no dog in this fight. I don't know this project specifically. I just read the backup that was given to us to read. And really appreciate that you guys have gone through that process of a special use permit process and a development agreement to address all of these concerns that we've heard today that you have been responsible and have done that. And I appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you, sir, for being an educated and informed speaker. Serena, one more time. Do we have anybody, please?

The caller is unmuted. Please speak and spell your name for the record.

Paul Dela Cruz, D-E-L-A-C-R-U-Z. I just want to know if you guys are aware that someday people are going to quit coming out here to visit. Because there's nothing really to see but solar panels and data centers and metal waste. The horses will be gone. The racers will be gone. Are you prepared to not have tourism anymore here? Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? One more time, please.

No, Chair.

Are you...

Jeannie King, K-I-N-G. I agree with Helene as far as the water goes. We should have studies on everything that's going to suck our water out of our basin. And Beatty has a river up there, I believe. And you really got to be careful of taking their water and get input from them. Secondly, who's the lady that's been standing here for the last 20 minutes? And is it appropriate for someone to stand by the podium? As a nurse, I'm sorry when somebody was standing with a clipboard and I'm taking care of my patient. Oh, you work here?

She's with the planning department. Okay. Yeah, but still, it just... She stood to the side so that we could let public speak. That's all. Provide her a chair. Okay. Okay. Are we close, do we have, are we, you got me?

No more callers, sure.

Closing public comment, go ahead, Keona.

Thank you. A lot of the questions that were asked through public comment can actually be answered if you go through the backup for each item, item seven, item eight, have them broken down. I even went so far as to tell you how many pages are in the decommissioning report, so on and so forth. The other question regarding, it was like 1,600 acres. No, it's actually 800 acres. So one of them is it's a portion of a larger parcel. It's 160 acres. So that added to the 600 and whatever adds up to the 800. One of the first questions I recall hearing was that I'm wondering where the constitutionality comes in for a development agreement. Actually, NRS 278. That's an agreement with governing body concerning development of land. That is what we have a chapter in Nye County Code that is 1632 that is solely devoted to development agreements and the things that are required. 1710, which is the solar ordinance, that spells out all of the items that are required for the preliminary development plan, which was approved earlier this year. And then there's also a section of items that are for the final development plan, which have been provided during the preliminary review before a vote was made. There were a couple of things that the board asked to clarify with the final development plan. Those have also been included. You basically have everything that we've been provided forwarded over to you. And that's about it.

And I just want to point out that every single member of the public is privy to the same exact information that I am. And it's all right here in the backup. So we're required to sit around and read all of this stuff so that we know what the hell we're doing. You guys will have as much power through information as you wish if you just read it. Commissioners, do we have anything for Kiana? Commissioner Jabbour.

Thank you, Chair. Well, I appreciate Kiana's response to some of the questions, and I just want to reiterate Uh, it is correct. And I, I know sometimes we scan and we, we look at things and get things, uh, in it's inaccurate information. So it is 800 acres according to what's in the backup on both items seven and eight. This project is not connected to the grid. Um, the folks, uh, that asked about a baby, this is a 30 mile distance. north of, north of Beatty in the middle of nowhere, different basin as, as it's already been explained. And as I've said before, um, BLM, for example, when, when that project came before us and the people came to us, whether it was via text, phone visits, et cetera, um, BLM's criteria was to bury a solar panel five feet into the ground. And I vehemently objected to that, that if there was some type of solar project in Nye County, that those panels had to be removed and disposed of outside of Nye County. We didn't want them here. And we rejected a recycling plan. a recycling solar company, if you remember that project that came in from our neighbor of Silver Springs. And so I've said it before and I'll say it again. We are not the Land Czars. This is private property. It is not connected to the grid. It's not going to affect California's power. It's not to benefit them. It's not to harm anybody in Beatty. It's in a different basin. I'm not sure if I mentioned that. And I will say this. The good people of Nye County, throughout the county, we had a professional fight within the last four months. And it was in regards to the IPMC. And the, the common consensus was Bruce, please fight for us. We have our rights. We're private property owners. We don't want government on our land. Keep them off. We don't want to be fined for this, that, or the other. And of course we have to be reasonable and still comply with NACs, NAS and NRSs and international building codes. That doesn't give a green light to ignore those. Not at all. So I didn't just fight by myself. All of the commissioners fought for you. And I'm speaking to the residents and taxpayers, which we are as well of Nye County to eliminate this IPMC. And it was very difficult. It was hard. And here we are that, that, and I appreciate, I've said it before, whether I like what's said or not, I appreciate the feedback because all feedback is great feedback, not just good feedback. It's great feedback. But if I go down the list of everything that was said, a lot of the information is misinformation. It's inaccurate. And I apologize if perhaps you didn't read all of the backup or Somebody just mentioned it to you, and then the knee-jerk reaction, we just went with it like a wildfire. So I don't know if you have any questions for me, Chair, but I will turn back over to you. CHAIRMAN BRYANT L. Thank you, Commissioner.

I have no questions. And if there's nothing else, I'm ready for a motion if somebody's interested.

I'm sorry, Chair, I missed that. There was some conversation here.

That's OK. That's OK. If there's nothing else, I'm ready for a motion if there is one.

I will motion to approve as written on numbers seven and number eight. Second.

We have a motion on the floor and a second. All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye. Tabor is aye. Boscovich, aye. That carries four with one absent. Thank you. Number nine, please.

Item nine, 10 a.m. timed item for possible action, public hearing regarding the fiscal year 2027 Community Development Block Grant, A, overview of the FY27 CDBG program, B, summary of past performance by Nye County with CDBG funding since 1982, and C, invite the public to provide project ideas and input on past or potential projects.

Thank you for that. Good afternoon, Stephanie.

Fairly. Good afternoon, commissioners. Stephanie Elliott, E-L-L-I-O-T-T. I am the Nye County Contracts and Grants Manager. Today we're kicking off the first of three public hearings that we'll be discussing community development block grants. or CDBG, say that fast five times. And the community development block grants are mostly focused on infrastructure. So I have a short presentation, and then we can open it up for any sort of public comments. Any application that's submitted to the state, so we do go through the state of Nevada Governor's Office of Economic Development, requires that the applications adhere to at least one of these three national objectives. So the funding for CDBG is funded through the Housing and Urban Development, through the federal state, and then, excuse me, through the federal administration, and then it's passed on to the state. The state will then allocate the funding throughout the state of Nevada. Nye County is actually a low income or moderate income county where 53.54% of Nye County residents live in households with their incomes at or below 80% of the area median income which means that any sort of project within Nye County would qualify. There are two other areas here that also would qualify with urgent community need needing to be specifically approved by CDBG before we even start the application process. One of the goals of having the meeting today is actually to discuss some of the prior projects that Nye County has completed. So in the backup and in the presentation, there's over $7 million worth of activity that's occurred right here in Nye County since 1982, most of these being infrastructure projects. And you'll note that in some cases, they were not always infrastructure projects. We do have active projects right now. You can see here on the photo, that's actually the new concrete slab. We had gone out to bid for this, and it's being partially funded for two new fuel tanks. What you see in the photo here are the old fuel tanks. We've got new fuel tanks in construction. We are just waiting for the day to get those installed onto the new pad. Really loved this photo because there's actually airplanes on the apron in that background, if you can see it. So that is an active project. We're getting ready to close out the prompt fairgrounds utilities project We recently awarded a contract for the secondary. Well the Carver's arena revitalization We've just completed the environmental assessment and we'll be bringing this before the board and then we have an agenda item coming Regarding engineering and that was awarded specifically again for the fairgrounds. I Eligible activities for 2027, it's all infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure, with a little economic development on top. The grants team was able to attend a conference for CDBG, which is required to apply for the grants, and it was very interesting being a part of the allocation meeting and understanding a little bit more on how the money gets divvied up and chosen. So for instance, you saw on that last slide, we got a $75,000 grant. We asked for 600. So it's not guaranteed that we're always going to get the amount that we ask for. And eligible projects include mostly construction, and we're talking water systems, sewer systems, streets, roads, any sort of infrastructure project that would create jobs or retain jobs. Community planning is also interesting because the Fairgrounds recent grant is a planning project, and that's so that we can do an environmental assessment as well as some engineering. Up in GABs, we've recently had to do a preliminary engineering report, so sometimes that's the starting point for these huge infrastructure projects, and CDBG can be used as a stepping stone for a larger project. If we do have a project in place that may displace any households, there are certain conditions that Nye County would need to abide by to help those families. And the really important slide here is our timeline. So online, and you can see that there's a link here on our Nye County website, we do have preliminary applications available. I have a few in print as well if you need them. The deadline is August 21st, and that is a Friday, so those are going to be received via email. If you have any trouble with that, please let us know. We can always accept a paper application and convert that for you. Applications are available for any Nye County department or any sub-entity, so any of our towns, any of our districts are eligible to apply. The applications are also open for any non-profit or for-profit, any sort of commercial business, any organization, as long as it's an infrastructure-based project, but you must be registered in SAM.gov for Nye County to sponsor your individual business application. We'll be back before the board on September 15th to discuss the different applications that are available and see if you'd like to move forward with some of them, none of them, all of them. And the real critical piece is once we submit the applications you'd like to have move forward, CDBG from the state will then let us know which one of those would be considered eligible. At that time, we'll bring the eligible projects forward on November 17th. Again, all of these dates are pending, final decision dates on the meeting dates. And we just want to make sure that when you do submit your application, you've got the timeline and proposed budget. The entire thing needs to be completed in its entirety. I did just pull up a photo of the Nye County website. So when you go to Nye County and you hover over on the right hand side, departments, you'll find finance. On the left hand side, you can see it's like the third one down, community development block grants. This is actually where you can go to send an email to our grant administrator, Stephanie Erga. There's some resources down at the bottom, including the preliminary application. There's also the Community Development Block Grant website for the state, and then a link to the economic development strategies that Nye County has put in place. Again, that's also on our website. And that's really important because your project needs to kind of coincide with that economic plan. And also approximately $3 million will be made available. And that's not for Nye County. That's for the entire state. So you can see why it is a very competitive application process. get a moment please read this really great quote that reminded me of just how nye county residents are as well as the whole state thought it was interesting from mr james nye a governor of the territory of nevada back in the 1800s and then just available to thank everybody for your time and we can open it up to the public for any sort of project ideas or if they had any concerns about past projects thank you

Thank you very much, Stephanie. All right, let's see if we have any public comment on this item. Serena, do you have anybody for us, please?

Yes, Chair. The caller is unmuted. Please speak and spell your name for the record.

Okay, come on down, Marianne.

Chair, I do have Joe Westerlin here in Tonopah when you're ready.

Thank you, Commissioner. Go ahead, Marianne. I forgot your name.

Marianne Hollis, H-O-L-L-I-S. I've been following this grant funding for the six years that I've been here. I can recall when I first started to follow it that there were between six and eight applicants. And for whatever reason, the number kept dwindling. And some... applications were rejected for paperwork or other issues however uh... for the last well going from twenty sixteen to twenty six ten years for more than i've been here eight of the projects eight of those sixteen have gone to the fairgrounds the last round i'd like to think i'm educated about this Commissioner Boscovich, but I'm open to Stephanie correcting me, for a total of $2 million. And the last round was $700,000. It was the entire amount of the grant for a well. Now, my point in bringing these up is I don't want anyone in the county to be discouraged in submitting a project when they look at the history of where the money's really going because of an obvious position to influence where that money goes and who gets it. Having said that, this was just some of the research that I've been doing, hoping to have the Fairgrounds Ad Hoc Committee Get some legs on it. It's been stalled. And after six weeks, I want to know why the design build for half a million dollars has not been produced yet. Does it even exist? I asked about it before. Does it even exist? What's the holdup? We've been promised it. Beth and I were at a meeting with Commissioner Strickland, Mr. Wagoner, and Commissioner Koenig. And she said, I'll get it for you. That was like, what, two months ago? And I've been through four sources trying to get it. So I'm just hoping that this pattern of money going to the fairgrounds has some oversight in it other than how the commissioners delegate where they want that money to go to. There needs to be some other entity not just the applicant, but some other entity to have an oversight besides what you people decide to do. Thank you.

Serena, do we have anybody on the phone, please?

Yes, Chair. The caller is unmuted. Please speak and spell your name for the record.

Julio Diaz, my name's D-I-O-D. Thank you, Commissioners, for hearing me out. My name is Pastor Julio Diaz. I'm with the Vine Church here in Pahrump. And I'd like to mention that we're a little bit later on the agenda, item number 26, but one project that, since we're talking about grants, one project I would like to mention is the development of our church-owned land for youth recreation and soccer field space.

We currently have about three acres of land. TODD BANDUCCI- Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but you got to wait till your item, OK? We'll get in trouble if we commingle them.

TODD BANDUCCI- OK, OK. So we can talk about the grant? TODD BANDUCCI- Yeah, not till you get to your item.

TODD BANDUCCI- OK, sounds good. Thank you. TODD BANDUCCI- Thank you very much, and I apologize. Come on over, Tammy. I'm sorry, Joe. I got to do Joe first. I'm so sorry.

Go ahead, Joe. Thank you. Joe Westerlin, Tonopah Town Manager. Last name is W-E-S-T-E-R-L-U-N-D. And the town of Tonopah and Tonopah Public Utilities has Shaw Engineering as our engineer of record. We had them conduct a professional engineering report for our storage tanks in town. We have known for a while that we are close to not having enough storage to be required, that is required by the state of Nevada. And so we did a PER for storage tanks and it came up with three different scenarios. We took the cheapest of the three scenarios which would require us to install a 500,000 gallon tank up on the Ararat Mountain where we currently have two 500,000 gallon tanks. We worked with the State Revolving Fund and we have been approved for $2.5 million on a project that is gonna cost us $3,195,472.32. And that's a engineer's estimate. We've been trying to bridge the gap on that for about three months, figuring out how we were gonna get the funding for it. And we're still trying to work on how we're gonna do it, but I would like to put this in as one of the projects that we're requesting $695,472.32. to bridge the gap with state revolving fund to build and install the 500,000 gallon tank on the Arat Mountain.

Thank you, Joe.

Come on up, Tammy.

Thank you.

Tammy Pittman, PITMAN. So I just wanted the public to be aware that we got $2 million to put in a well, but that area is actually under the Great Basin service area and didn't need a well at all. The county sued Great Basin to be able to put in a well, so we could have had water service without that. Just wanted you all to know.

Thank you, Tammy. Sorry. Come on down, Debra. caught me in mid-yawn.

Deborah Thomas, T-H-O-M-A-S. I'm wondering if we could get a grant to help with the zombie lots and getting water to those zombie lots, where they could put put lots together and I don't necessarily want to put them together but they need to be have an area where a well could be built and water could be stored and where if they were to put solar on their buildings they'd be able to um to, they'd be able to have electricity and they'd be able to have water as well. I think that would be a really good thing for these people. Thank you.

Thank you. Serena, do we have anybody on the phone, please?

The caller is unmuted. Please speak and spell your name for the record.

Yes, Amy Nelson, N-E-L-S-O-N. So here's my New Jerk reaction. I was looking at the chart that Stephanie was reading from, and I happened to see slums in my county. Where in the heck are they? I had no idea we had a slum area. We had a lot of homeless people in a park. Now they're in the other park. But I think a really good idea, speaking of the other park, E and H, maybe somebody can put a block grant together for a splash pad over there because there's a lot of summer activity where kids go there to play ball or the little ones go to play and, you know, scorch themselves on some of the slides and the swings. So a little splash pad Over there might be something nice for the whole community if that can be done on one of these block grants. But there's a lot of ideas. That's just mine. Thanks.

Thank you. Did she say slums? Go ahead, Dwight.

Dwight Lilley, L-I-L-L-Y. I think that the way to spend this money would be for people that need help. You know, we have a fairground project that was mentioned. We don't even know what the fairground project is. There's been $500,000 spent on a plan, and nobody seems to know what the plan is, or at least nobody disclosed it. So why don't we turn the attention to people? We need transportation between Pahrump and Las Vegas. for people who need to go to doctor's appointments or other emergency services who can no longer drive? Or how about people whose power had been threatened or is shut off in the heat of the summers here because they did not have the money to pay for it? Or some type of indigent medical care have a project for that? How about a project, a community grant project for the people rather than for storage tanks or something else, some infrastructure that doesn't help. It was mentioned in the presentation how the county is full of people that are below the poverty level, the income level, that can't really pay for the services. I think we need to turn the grants towards the people. Thank you. Thank you. Come on up, Linda.

Linda Clark, CLARK. I think it's great. we want to do all these wonderful things in this town and we have all this grant money that we can do it for unfortunately the only thing we see is money being spent on a fairgrounds that nobody wants so we put wells in we're going to put grass in oh we're going to put grass in that we have to pay for the water when we have no water because they don't want to spend the money on Artificial grass which I don't know which one costs more it would be interesting to see a budget on that grass versus not grass Water and no water those are things that kind of bug me The other thing that is interesting is we have streets Schools we're going to be needing. We're going to be needing shopping. We know that. We need streets that get people around instead of everything on two main streets, a highway, one of them, and Nance and Homestead. Okay. They're all nice streets, but they're not going to accommodate another 5,000 to 10,000 houses that you guys want to put in here. And we have no infrastructure to cover it all. So where do we stop and say, this is more important than this is more important? How do we decide that? We don't get to. You guys always do it for us. We can come up here and speak our whole heads off, just like we did on this solar stuff. You don't listen to us. Okay, maybe we missed a few questions. Little tidbits here and there. So what? The bottom line is that people don't want it. And you keep doing it anyway. So I don't even know why we have these meetings when you give us the chance to talk when you don't listen to us. I know you don't want to listen to me, and I don't care whether you listen to me or not. But you've got a whole audience out here and a whole town that try to communicate. And the other problem we have is the time frame. We know, and you know specifically, people can't come to all these meetings because of the hours you operate it. And they want to go home. And then what do you do? They come here to listen to something, and you change the agenda so they can't even hear that or talk about it. So they go home. Think about that.

Serena, do we have anybody on the phone, please? We can stop the meeting, or we can continue.

The caller is unmuted. Please speak and spell your name for the record.

. My first thing is Commissioner Boscovich and DA. I have four projects that I want to talk about, so I hope I can have an additional minute or two, because you guys are asking for input. So you said no?

Follow up with Stephanie, please.

Okay. Okay. Well, here's the first thing is the Cowboy Code Coalition Foundation is proposing the creation of the Nye County Property Assistance Program funded through the CDBG grants. It will provide a practical solution for residents who are elderly, disabled, veterans, low income, or otherwise unable to clean up their properties or correct code issues. Rather than relying on enforcement, the program would provide supervised employees, trained volunteers, equipment, and community partnerships to help residents remove debris, address hazardous conditions, demolish unsafe structures, remove conics containers or whatever else needs to be done, including getting permits. The program would be administrated by a nonprofit subsidy of the Cowboy Code Coalition Foundation. The county's role would be limited to receiving the grant reports and monitoring the use of grant funds. We would get the code violations and or people that want their property cleaned up. request then we would open some offices here in town and other parts of Nye County and we would send out volunteers who are volunteering to help clean up these properties at no cost to the residents this whole thing will probably entail about 30 people that we can hire and pay if we get this grant we're at is asking for About $935 for the first year to pay for the people equipment and everything else having to do with that. That way code compliance can stop being called and that way they can check on other things that that or we can maybe eliminate them. That's the first thing. The other one is for the animal shelter. They have already put in a request to the governor. Not the governor to our. and asked him for money to put in the epoxy in the kennels. And usually the money that he has gets divvied up into a whole bunch of different projects. So if they don't get all the money, then we would like to apply for this so that we can go ahead and help them.

Thank you, Beth. Follow-up, though, with Stephanie, would you please? She would be happy to hear from you.

Come on up, Patricia.

Patricia Robb, ROBB. Growing pains, yes. Okay, we'll get past all of this somehow. Everything's going to work out fine. I just know it. Now, over a year and a half ago, when I started this whole thing with the utility challenge lots, I actually paid a private grant writer to seek out and find funding in order to help with infrastructure for a sewer line to an area that has water connection but no sewer lines. I figured if we can at least help one area, that's better than ignoring them all. I do know that with a lot of the utility challenge lots, Getting water or sewer lines out there is probably next to impossible and way too expensive. But for those areas that do have water lines but no sewer, after I found a grant, granted it was only for a million dollars, but I figured something's better than nothing, John Ashcraft with Great Basin Water Company said, no, we cannot accept it due to Rule 9. Rule 9 bars them from accepting any grants. Yet I had received all the information necessary from them because they were all for it. until the grant happened. I don't think they thought that I was going to make it happen. Other than that, I have also presented a list of possible grant places to Stephanie at one time. And I've also asked about that. But it all seems to have kind of been ignored. Now, I know Great Basin Water Company will not disclose where all of these lines are. They say for security reasons. But I can tell you right now that some of those areas are over here off of Bedrock Street, Canyon Street, Dapple Street, East Wind Street, and Feather Street. They all have water lines, but no sewer to them. So if we can at least help one area any way possible with a grant, that would be awesome to be able to allow those people to build on their land. Now, as far as the utility challenge lots that cannot get that, we're not asking anybody for any money. The owners are taking responsibility for that. So that won't cost anyone. It will only help bring benefits to the town and prosperity where needed. Thank you.

Thank you, Patricia. Serena, do we have anybody on the phone, please?

The caller is unmuted. Please speak and spell your name for the record.

Hello, Commissioner. It's Michael David Garcia, G-A-R-C-I-A. Can you hear me OK?

Yes, sir. Go ahead.

Thank you. Thank you. I just wanted to make sure I was reading this clear. When it came to funding since 1982, so you're soliciting a performance Evaluation, correct? Did you need to refer to counsel?

We're not answering your question during your time, sir.

Oh, I got you. I got you. It's funny because I couldn't even say where you were calling in last time, last meeting. But anyhow, when it comes to state and federal funds that you're responsible for monitoring these block grants, I'm pretty sure y'all are aware of that. Pretty much all of them come with civil rights protection. Now, basically, is that subject? When we're challenging constitutionality, you're basically saying it's subject to county rules, ordinance, and or NRSs. Is that correct? That's your belief in NRS ordinance or a county rule can override the civil rights of a grant block that's state and federally funded? That's known as a per se crime. That would be a violation of Article 1, Section 10, where you pay these officials to oppress. The easiest way to get your feet wet when it comes to fraud, waste, and abuse is through these contract blocks. Are you all ready for the right to practice? We have a right to practice. Let's go. What are you scared about? Show me. If we can't do it right, let's run it back. Let's take a defensive mindset. I don't know if it's indoctrination or it's just a psychological disease that you're dealing with. But we're talking about your service to the people. Wake up and snap out of it, tough guy. I've heard you threaten many people over here when it comes to the expression of the First Amendment. Your rules, your ordinances don't supersede the First Amendment, nor the protections. I don't care if you've got a policy man running around as the sheriff and you've got a DA that's failing our schools and our commissioners, as well as the people. Wake up, people. Where are the pencil ledgers when it comes to Esmeralda County? Where are those block grants? Who's receiving those? I have never heard anything about that, huh? Child support? Want to talk about that? CPS? The constitutionality? It doesn't end and begin with an NRS, people. Wake up. Thank y'all.

Serena, do we have anybody else on the phone, please?

The caller is unmuted. Please speak and spell your name for the record.

Does that mean? All right. Can you hear me?

Oh, my God.

Okay. Well, if you can hear me, then I'm going to keep going. Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is Chris Lally, once again, L-A-L-L-Y. I just wanted one last comment here because it involves our district, District 5, as an unincorporated community. Pahrump obviously relies heavily on county level decisions and grant opportunities like the one we're talking about here. I appreciate that these grants can be used for important public needs in a county like ours. Obviously, we really need them. But my main concern is echoing what Marianne said about transparency and priorities. And from what I can see from that presentation and And what we've seen over the years here, a significant number or amount of CDBG funding in recent years has gone directly towards the fairgrounds project. And whether someone supports that specific project or not, I think residents deserve a clear explanation of how that became such a high priority and what other projects were considered and how much public input was gathered before continuing direct grant money towards that project. Obviously, our township and the county at large have real needs like roads, water planning, public safety, senior services, accessibility, healthcare access, basic infrastructure, all matter to our residents. And so when grant money, this precious grant money is available, people should be able to clearly see how projects are chosen and why one is being prioritized over another. I'm not here to say that every fairgrounds expense was wrong or improper. It's not my point at all. My point is just that grant money is still public money, and a resident should not have to piece together after the fact where it went, what it accomplished, and who actually benefited. So I'm asking you guys going forward, I would like to see, and I'm sure others would agree, we'd like to see more plain English breakdown of past CDEG spending along with a clear comparison of future project ideas. We want to see the costs, guys. We want to see the public benefits. because all I hear a lot of it online is a lot of negativity and you never hear the benefits. So these are phenomenal projects that benefit the community. I mean, you guys should be bragging about them publicly and showing us numbers, you know, because a lot of folks fill in the information when they are not told information and that's the problem. So we need to learn, we need to be shown more information about how each project ranks against other community needs and If these grants are meant to serve the public, which they obviously are, then the public should have a meaningful role in deciding where they go. That's my opinion. Thank you very much.

TODD BANDUCCI- Thank you for that, sir. Serena, do we have anybody else, please?

The caller is unmuted. Please speak and spell your name for the record.

Good afternoon, commissioners. Bruce Johnson, G-O-H-N-S-O-N, and Mr. Garcia. Well said. Commissioners, when he talks about NRS and statutory versus constitutional, I don't know if you all think that everything that is statutory is lawful. There's a difference between being lawful and being legal. So as you consider the Community Development Block grant program, I ask the board to begin with a foundational question. What constitutional and statutory authority governs the acceptance administration and conditions attached to those federal funds. Federal grants often come with requirements reporting obligations and policy conditions. The public has a right to understand not only the benefits of accepting grant money, but also the obligations and commitments that accompany them. Cincinnati County has participated in this program since 1982. I encourage the board to provide a transparent accounting of its long-term performance. What measurable public benefits have been achieved? What continuing obligations remain? Were any local policies or priorities changed as a condition of receiving these funds? As fiduciaries of the public trust, transparency requires more than reporting dollars received. It requires explaining the legal authority. the conditions accepted, and the long-term impact on the people of Nye County. I respectfully ask those questions be answered on the record before additional projects are considered. Thank you.

CHRIS JERRAM, Thank you for that. Serena, anybody else, please?

ELIZABETH BUTLER, The caller is unmuted. Please speak and spell your name for the record.

ARIEL BENTON, I don't know. A-R-R-O-Y-O-B-Y-I-N-G-T-O-N. I am the administrative manager for Beatty General Improvement District. And I just want to quickly say thank you for continuing to participate in this grant program because I do believe that disadvantaged communities like Beatty, Nye County, we need these opportunities to receive help to pursue these larger projects in a relative timeframe. As some of you guys know, the Anglo Gold Ashanti Mine is projecting a population increase here in Beatty. If any of you have traveled here, you will know that baby doesn't have many opportunities for youth in our community to participate in any activities. We are our board has purchased playground equipment this last year, and this fiscal year, we're going to be pursuing the installation. They paid just over $195,000 for the playground equipment, and we're expecting the installation cost to be around $150,000 to $250,000. It majorly depends on whether or not the cooperative contract will be approved by the district attorney after reviewing it. Otherwise, we're going to have to go out to bid. So our entity and our community, they have recognized the immense need for additional recreational opportunities in our community. Beatty Town Advisory Board, they contributed up to 25% of the equipment costs during fiscal year 26. And Anglo Gold Ashanti has approved to do the demolition and prep work for the site, which was estimated around $38,000. So I would hope that Nye County would consider our capital projects for this grant to help alleviate the costs on our small entity. And then I have one other project. that we could probably use help for funding if it hits the criteria for the grant. Our swimming pool has not been opened this season. We have a problem with our filter because it has been spewing sand back into the pool. So it's been incredibly difficult to find someone to maintenance our filter due to it's almost 20 years old. It's an old sand filter and it needs to be updated. So the board has expressed interest Updating our pool filter to the same system that prompts pool has so I would hope that would also be a consideration Thank you Thank you for that Serena.

Do we have anybody else, please?

No chair Close one moment chair. I do have a public comment. I need to read into the record Okay, go right ahead. She was unable to attend. Her name is Cheryl Butler Adams but le are ad AMS and She is the president of the Pleasant Valley Homeowners Association, and she did write to us a few weeks ago. So on behalf of Pleasant Valley Homeowners Association, I respectfully request that Nye County consider including the restoration of the red curbs within our subdivision as a project for community development block grant funding or any other available public infrastructure grant. For more than three years, our community has requested that the faded red curbs throughout Pleasant Valley be repainted. We've been advised that the project remains on a waiting list due to limited road maintenance funding. The red curbs within our subdivision are not cosmetic. They were established to protect fire hydrants, intersections and emergency access routes. Their purpose is to ensure that fire apparatus, ambulances and law enforcement vehicles have unobstructed access during emergencies. Over time, the paint has deteriorated to the point that many of the red zones are difficult to identify. As a result, vehicles routinely park in these areas, creating safety concerns and making enforcement more difficult. Pleasant Valley is a community of approximately 98 homes, and the residents pay the same county property taxes as every other Nye County taxpayer. We understand the financial challenges facing the road maintenance department and appreciate the work they perform with limited resources. However, public safety improvements such as maintaining designated emergency access zone should remain a priority. Because these are county maintained roads, we respectfully request that Nye County submit this project as part of its community development block grant program or pursue any other available state or federal funding that could assist in restoring these critical safety markings. This project directly supports public safety by preserving emergency vehicle access, improving visibility of designated no parking zones, enhancing compliance with fire safety requirements, protecting residents, visitors, and first responders. The Pleasant Valley HOA stands ready to assist the county by providing photographs, documentation, community input, and any additional information needed to support the request. We appreciate your consideration and hope the county will partner with our community to complete this long overdue public safety improvements. Again, that was Cheryl Butler-Adams.

Thank you for that. And I actually closed public, but I'll let you go if you're fairly quick, Susie, please.

Thanks. I appreciate that. Susie Hertz, H-E-R-T-Z. It just seems apparent to me that there are many projects that have been brought up in this brief amount of time that fit into what Stephanie was calling infrastructure that the community has legitimate need and request for and none of them fell under fixing or developing something for the fairgrounds. So my point is that I'd really appreciate it, we as citizens would really appreciate that these other issues be looked at on equal or better footing than what's going on with the fairgrounds because that's what the people are asking for. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. We're going to close that out and go to commissioners. Do you have anything for Stephanie? There's really no action we're taking on this.

Yes, sure.

Go ahead, sir.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Stephanie Elliott and Stephanie or guy. I want to thank you very much because after hearing this item guaranteed, uh, you're going to be getting a lot of phone calls and applications, uh, to review and flag, uh, et cetera. And so I, I just want to help clarify, uh, because there are a lot of, there's a lot of good information, uh, regarding some projects that, that will be coming forward. And I am not defending in any way, uh, shape or form, uh, what's happened in the past, uh, by mentioning the, uh, the fairgrounds, Uh, but I will say this is that the CDBG, uh, program has a committee through the, through the state. And we, as the commissioners review, um, after your review, and then we, we make recommendations and we're not the ones that determine, uh, what gets funded. And so many of you will recall that, um, just outside of Pahrump, one of our neighbors within Nye County, applied for the CDBG grant. And the last hour after it was submitted, and when I say hour, I'm exaggerating because it was weeks after it was submitted, there were some change orders. And according to the criteria for the CDBG program, any change orders are a no-no. And then it's basically an automatic, disqualification of, of the program. And so they didn't know that, um, no harm, no foul for that year. Uh, they, but they had to reapply the following year. So my request, uh, Stephanie, please is to reach out to former applicants, um, reach out to Beth, uh, regarding, regarding some of her perspective projects. Some of the folks that have come here before us have, some great ideas, uh, the people in Beatty. And then of course things are prioritized and, um, we're realistic in letting them know, uh, w what would be reasonable to move forward and push forward, uh, to the CDBG committee. So that would be my request. And again, thank you very much for your diligent work, yours and your staff in regarding, uh, any of the grants programs. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Commissioner. Okay. Thank you, Stephanie.

If I could just say in closing, this is the opportunity for people, including our residents, to submit applications. We're not going to move forward with any projects unless there's an application submitted. So please make sure you take that time. If you're not a private entity that's going to move forward with a sponsored application, we would look for a county application. Department to be the project manager of that application Please remember and if you could share the screen again the eligible projects are infrastructure only there are community service block grants offered through the state of Nevada and HHS, our local health and human services, already applies for those. This is infrastructure projects only. And also, if you have not completed an environmental assessment on the proposed property, bottom left-hand corner here, you're turning into a planning grant, and we can help you with an environmental assessment and get you grant funding for that.

And I think that was it.

So please, if you have questions, you've got my email, you've got Erga's email, please reach out to us. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you for that. Okay, we're going to take six minutes at the request of Commissioner Jabbour.

Only because I've received requests out of the rub.

Chair, the commissioners aren't back yet up here.

Oh. Thank you.

You are all alone.

Hello, Corey.

Hello, how are you?

I am living the dream. If I was any better, it would be illegal.

I was just thinking the same exact thing.

I'm counting down the days so I don't have to listen. Yes, we're going to go to 24, but we're waiting on Commissioner Jabbour or Bain. Oh, yeah. Sorry, I didn't know you were talking to me. Just so you know, we're going to try to do a few items and then have to take a break so the staff can eat lunch.

We have to feed them?

Mm-hmm. 24, yeah. Well, because I have staff that needs lunch, and that is going to take two hours. And I'm the chair, so if you want to run for office, win, and become chair, then you can do whatever you want.

How's that?

All right, commissioners, we've got them. Let's roll. 24, please. 24.

Item 24 for possible action, discussion and deliberation to approve, amend and approve or reject a letter to the Bureau of Land Management protesting the final environmental impact statement for Purple Sage Energy Center, FKA Golden Current, published on June 12th, 2026. Protest letters are due by July 13th, 2026.

Thank you, Manager.

Hello, Megan. Howdy, howdy. My name is Megan Labadie, L-A-B-A-D-I-E. I am here to present to the board for their consideration a letter to the BLM. Sorry, I'm catching my breath. I had to run in here.

I do that. I do that when I don't see somebody in the audience somewhere, then I call their item. Just kidding.

I can appreciate that. So the BLM published a final environmental impact statement for the proposed Purple Sage Solar Energy Center located in Clark County on the Nye border within Hydrographic Basin 162. The National Environmental Policy Act process allows for a protest period prior to the issuance of a record of decision by the BLM. This letter analyzes the impacts to Pahrump Valley region resulting from solar development along the county border within the Pahrump Valley Basin. First and foremost, the letter insists that BLM evaluate impacts to the Pahrump Valley from the cumulative impacts of existing and foreseeable operations and development. By which I mean, there are at least six projects compacted in the area right now that are either existing, approved, or in the permitting process with BLM. and they're disturbing approximately 25,000 acres of federally managed land altogether. The letter additionally protests several natural resources, socioeconomic and public health and safety impacts that should be avoided, minimized or mitigated. And that should basically cover the letter. I'm happy to take any questions you may have.

Thank you for that, Megan. Let's go ahead and open public comment on this, see if we have any people on the phone. Serena, please.

The caller is unmuted. Please speak and spell your name for the record.

Yes, Amy Nelson, N-E-L-S-O-N. I attended four or five different BLM conference calls when they were doing their research for this. And BLM is really not interested in destroying the Mojave Desert. Because they don't care. They don't care what kind of destruction takes place, because when the last president was in office, this is what their agenda was. Build these things everywhere. Now it's not so much the case. But I know our governor did sign something that approves them, probably going to cost him an election, but the majority of people that live on this side of the mountain are fully aware that they're building here because they're using our water that well owners are selling them, people with water rights. They're selling them regardless of The people that don't want them. Pardon me. I hope that every commissioner who lives here understands there's some of us, like me, I'm 80 and I'm not in good health. I won't be able to move out of here. There's a lot of people like me here. You guys, you can go anywhere you want when you retire. You don't have to stay here. But for those of us that call this home now, this is something that we adamantly oppose. We don't need them. If you want to put a solar system on your roof or on your grounds, go right ahead. Nobody's going to stop you. But for these solar projects that damage the Mojave Desert and destroy our plant life and animal life, We have to say no. Thank you.

Thanks, Amy. Mr. Fender, come on down.

Ah, you remembered my name. Nice of you.

Can you spell it for me, though?

Last name is F-E-N-D-E-N. F-E-N-D-E-R. I was going to ask. As a reminder, I've been at this now for quite some time, at least six years, in trying to stop the solar farm in our immediate vicinity. And I want to remind everybody about this, that a bunch of us put this together a few years ago. And we went and ran the neighborhood. We made these up. Right here, it shows these seven solar farms right here, adjacent to the Clark County and Knight County line. I've read this draft. It's an excellent draft. But what was missing? The amount of water that this particular project wants to use. This particular project wants to use between 900 and 1,000 acre feet of water. This is just the one project. Now, we know that Yellow Pine uses an excess of 500 acre feet of water, but we don't know the exact number. But all these projects here have to sign in through these environmental impact statements exactly what their plan is, and it includes the amount of water they want to use, and they get submitted not only to the state, and they get sent to the federal, which are in the federal register, and through the local PUC, and you get a docket number. So you can always find this information. But I'm glad to see we finally have something here. The county has literally written a really good letter to stop this project. And the reason for it is it's mostly water now. Now, what we're going to see here is a lot of data centers coming in, and the only reason why, because we've done a really good job at slowing down these projects. And so these renewable energy companies, they want to get another source of income, and they have found it. Now, in 2011, Governor Sandoval signed an order that permits all these renewable energy projects, or whoever wants to build one, a data center. They give them special little benefits discounts on building a one of these data centers and so this Has been upgraded now in the last two or three years So this money is now available and it's very similar to the monies and the discounts the federal government gave to the solar projects for the Inflation Reduction Act and the Green New Deal so I am so glad that this County has gone this far. So that's all I got press on you're doing good.

Thank you, sir Come on up, Susie.

Ditto. Susie Hertz, H-E-R-T-Z. Just a comment that I am so, so very glad that you put teeth in this and you took the time and paid attention to the fact that Clark County is just no regard for Nye County. They have no regard for our water basin and they have no regard for our quality of life. And I asked you earlier in an earlier meeting to pay more attention to what goes on in Clark County and how it impacts us. And this is a nice result to see. So please do send this letter and let us stay vigilant on this and other related matters. As I was just reading through the detail on the last project in Beatty, And what wasn't brought up earlier was that the purpose of those solar installations and panels is for a data center. So where there are solar panels, there will be data centers as far as corporations are concerned. And it is my hope, my express hope, and my express request that this Board of Commissioners strikes down any of those attempts from here until Whenever they stop. Thank you.

Thank you. Serena. Do we have anybody on the phone, please?

The caller is unmuted please speak and spell your name for the record Hello commissioners Michael David Garcia GA or CIA It's my Connection, okay. Can you hear me?

Yes.

Oh, thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. Enjoy the laughter. You know, we need a little more joy. I know.

Also, I just kind of want to bring it home.

You know, not only will the reversal of Chevron help the people, it should help the county. You know, you really got to come at the lens that Chevron pretty much unaligned the administrative rule of law. And all these three-letter agencies, BLM, especially the EPA meeting that's going on tonight. The best thing you can give them is EPA versus West Virginia. That already shut them down years ago. With Chevron, you actually have jurisdiction. Nobody has the right to impede or infringe on your jurisdiction, whether it's Clark County, whether it's a state, or whether the federal government does it. The problem is, is nobody knows how to stand up to them. You need to throw Chevron at their face and challenge subject matter jurisdiction when it comes to an infringement of the people and y'all's jurisdiction. You know, let's open it up. You know, let's stand on common ground. Let's stand on God's trust. Let's use the principles that the Constitution was intended. You need to send all of these three-letter agencies packing. Not only do we recognize Article I, Section 10 violations, there's also Article I, Section 8, and that's the United States Constitution for all you veterans that keep up. But anyhow, thank you all. And start enforcing it. Start using the law. Stop using this administrative rule of law. And we need to have them. Impose it on your federal and state governments also. They have no right. They have no right to impede on your subject matter jurisdiction. You're in charge in Nye County. Nobody else. Act like it. Throw some balls, levels, however you want to call it that doesn't offend you.

Thank you.

Don't get left holding the bag.

Thank you. Go ahead.

Go ahead, Linda. Oh, God.

You should just have a switch on this. Some kind of sensor.

Oh, dear.

Linda Clark, CLARK. Well, I was around when they started with that solar fight that we had almost seven years ago. And at that time, we all got together and supported each other, especially the south end of the town. because that's where it was going to be affecting us. Well, it's still affecting us, or going to, or trying to. And we said then, and we're going to say now, and we're going to keep saying it, no. And that's my favorite word. As far as BLM, you know how much I hate them? I hate them more than I hate everything else. They're a worthless government, I can't even say the word, piece of you know what. They don't do anything. It's all about them. And I've said that before about a lot of you. So what I want to say is we don't need any of this crap in this community. God didn't give us this land to destroy it. He put our animals here, our wildlife, everything here for a purpose. And the purpose was not to destroy it. And he gave us the water as the link of life for everything. And we can't keep just destroying it and letting people destroy it. Because who's going to end up being the one that's gone? Us. And that's not right. We don't deserve that. And so I agree with making things better for a lot of people. But these people don't care about us. It's not in their backyards. And I've said that a lot. A lot of stuff we do is not in anybody else's backyard except for ours. And we don't want it. We just need to keep saying no, no, no. And maybe one of these days it might get through their skulls. If it doesn't, then we need to go back to our Cal Bay justice. Thank you.

Thank you. Serena, do we have anybody on the phone, please?

The caller is unmuted. Please speak and spell your name for the record.

Bruce Johnson, J-O-H-N-S-O-N. Good wisdom there, Mr. Garcia. And we hope that all you board members absorb things that are being said. Jurisdiction is changing from history from what we all know it. And all this administrative law stuff, administrative decisions, a home rule, All that stuff is going to go bye-bye. We're going back to the fundamentals. And if you don't believe me, just Google that up, whatever search engine you use, President Trump's words and Supreme Court words, right? We're going back to the fundamentals. A lot of statutory stuff has gotten way out of hand. So along with that, there is no benefit in any of this solar stuff. And, you know, the caller that mentioned earlier about these big Habibs, you know, when we were set up for the 4th of July on Saturday, I videotaped about four or five different ones that came straight across the field where the fireworks were at. And a couple, two or three of those were like 200 foot wide. So, well, that might be exaggerated, but they were at least 100 foot wide. They're pretty huge. These solar fields play a big part in that because of the updraft that is being created from them, from the heat that is being dissipated off of the solar panels, and it's causing thermos. Those thermos, along with the geoengineering and the components that are on all these 5G, 6G towers, which actually I'd like to go on the record and ask if any of you commissioners have ever been explained what each one of them components on each one of them towers does. And I will provide that in an email because I would like for you to answer that on the record. Because if you don't know, then you should know so that we are well informed as well. And I thank you.

Thank you for that. Go ahead, Dwight.

Dwight Lely, L-I-L-L-Y. I think we need to change the name of the Highway 160 from the Mountain Pass up to 95 to the Rodney Dangerfield Highway. because we get absolutely no respect from the state, the legislature, or Clark County. There was a proposal years ago by Clark County to actually pump the water out of Basin 162 over to Clark County for use by the Southern Water Authority. They tried to pump water out of the northern part of Nevada and got shut down by the federal government. So with this infringement here by projects coming out of Clark County over here is really troubling because we don't have any respect. That's why all these data centers are being proposed for here, solar project, metal waste, you name it. We don't have any respect. We don't have any power. So I believe the only way some of this is gonna get stopped is by, environmental protests, endangered species, other items to get the federal government involved to shut these projects down because we're gonna get mowed over by Clark County with their projects coming here. We got, what have we got? Space ports, solar panels, data centers, waste. We don't even know what the next waste project is coming. I'm sure there's one proposed, another waste project coming to Pahrump that we'll have to fight off. But I appreciate the letter, and I do agree with the comment that that letter doesn't have the water listed that's going to be used, and it's sort of not getting to the point. Because the real point is that Basin 162D is protected, and the amount of water should open some eyes. In fact, I'm surprised this state engineer hasn't even stepped. Maybe he has, but he's been bought off or something. I don't know. Anyway, well, the last state engineer got fired because he didn't want to go along with this. Governor Lombard, if you're listening, you have lost my vote completely.

Thank you, Dwight. Serena, do we have anybody on the phone, please?

No, Chair.

Come on up, Leah. Leah Aldridge, ALD, RIDGE. Let me get this straight. Okay, Beatty wants a solar farm. You guys all listened to what everybody had to say here, and nobody wanted it. Still voted to go ahead and prove the development. Anyway, okay. And Commissioner Jabbour made a point of saying that it doesn't tie into the grid. But he didn't say where that power is going to go to. Where it's going to. The data center they're going to build over there, okay? So, sorry, but the town of Beatty's dead. They just, you know, they just voted for their own demise. See ya. Can't get it back. So, but we're all for writing a nasty gram to the BLM. Somebody told me that stood for Bureau of Lunatics and Morons. So make sure you address it correctly. Thank you.

Thank you. Come on up, Tammy.

Tammy Pittman, P-I-T-M-A-N. I want to echo Mr. Fender's statement. I appreciate the letter. I would like to also see it include the water usage being stolen. Anyway, we need to add water usage. But anyway, other than that, it's a very good letter, and I appreciate it immensely. Thank you.

Thank you. Serena, anybody on the phone, please?

No, Chair.

Closing public comment. Commissioners, I just closed public comment. I'm sorry. Come on up. Let's reopen public comment for her only. I got you. I got you. You got to push the button.

Gwen Doyle, D-O-Y-L-E. Trust me. Has anybody, for God's sake, looked at Lake Mead? The whole state should not be having any data, anything that takes up our water. I lived in Vegas. I went to desert-friendly landscaping to save water. But now look at Vegas. And look at here, all the houses that you're coming in, more money, tax money for everybody, or for whoever's getting a kickback. And not only that, you get the metal waste. You're gonna wake up some morning and you're gonna have some ailment that you never had before. All this poison's going in our system, poisoning our water. I say no to all this. Fake meat is going dry. The whole state should be saying no to all this. And you know what? I can cry. It breaks my heart. And is money all that important? Is all that, you're going to wake up some day and you're going to die. You're going to wake up and die. Get all this money that you're getting from these companies, they're paying you to have them come in? Is it worth it? Is it worth it? Our animals are coming in from the desert. Let's say no. Let's say no. I know what, the money that is being spent on some of the projects here. You could take that money and put it on our children and give them things that keep them here for their entertainment. It's money well spent. It's not being wasted. It takes a lot for me to get angry. It takes a lot more to get up here. I wish you all well.

and good health thank you very much for that okay commissioners um i'd like a motion if you don't have anything else mr chair i'd like to make a motion to approve the letter to the bureau of land management protesting final environmental impact statement for purple sage

Two board seconds.

Motion, second. All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Board is aye.

Boscovich, aye. That carries four with one absent. Thank you. 16, please.

Item 16, consent agenda items. These are items that staff recommend for approval. The board reserves the right to move any consent agenda item to the regular segment of the agenda should issues arise that need to be addressed, discussion of any item from the consent agenda items that needs review before a decision is made. This is item 16-1, 16-2, 16-3, and 16-4, but we are going to pull out 16-2, 16-3, and 16-4 for discussion. So if you were to vote now, it would just be on 16.1.

So can we discuss two, three, and four, and then do them all at once? Yeah, okay. Sure. Let's do that. So we're gonna, whoever is requesting discussion on two, three, and four, let's talk.

I am requesting discussion on three, because number one, they haven't paid their taxes.

That's not good.

Number two, they're illegal. They don't have a permit to even operate.

I'm going here. They went to the RPC, and the RPC denied their cup and the waiver. They have no approvals to be operating there because we have directed them to all firework facilities have to move into warehouses and not store in containers. They have active code compliance on the property for operating with no cup. and expansion of the use with no county approvals. So my recommendation on that one would be to deny 16.3.

CHRIS RODGERS, OK. Commissioner Jabbour.

JAMES JABBOUR, Thank you. Thank you. Before I move to 16.2 and 4, I believe Commissioner Koenig, was that a motion, sir? CHRIS RODGERS, Yes, sir. THEN I WILL SECOND YOUR MOTION.

ALL RIGHT, MOTION AND A SECOND. LET'S VOTE ON THAT ONE. OH, SHOOT, PUBLIC COMMENT, SORRY. OH, GO AHEAD, COMMISSIONER BAY. I WAS JUST SAYING AYE. OH, SORRY. LET'S DO PUBLIC COMMENTS.

OKAY. DOES ANYBODY HAVE ANY? DO YOU WANT TO OPEN PUBLIC COMMENT ON ALL FOUR OF THEM?

I HAVE TO DO THIS FOUR TIMES. CLUSTER F. OKAY. LET'S OPEN PUBLIC COMMENTS. SERENA, DO WE HAVE ANYBODY ON THE PHONE?

No, Chair.

On all of them. It's all of them. Any of them. Any of the consent items you want to talk about.

The one I want to talk about is number three.

Perfect.

Okay. That seems to be, well, they're all bad, but okay. Linda Clark, C-L-A-R-K. Number three. Okay, John, you just described that they have some violations and things that they're not doing properly. So why would we even want to consider them? But my main concern is, why in the hell do we need another fireworks place? We don't need fireworks. We don't need any more pot houses. What purpose are they serving? Most of this goes to California or some other place. OK, we get money off of it in taxes. But you know what? It's not in their backyards. It's in our backyards. And I don't want any more fireworks stands here. We're going to end up with a bunch of dogs that are lost. and hurt because they're running away because they're scared. And I know I have two big huskies, and they're big babies. And they just shudder the whole night and the whole week and hide in the closet, hide under the bed, anywhere they can hide in my bed. We don't need any more firework places. And they're surrounded in this whole community. And why? I don't know. It makes no sense to me at all.

Thank you. Serena, do we have anybody on the phone, please?

CHRISTIE WOODARD.

No, Chair. CLARE DUDA. Closing public comment. OK, so that was a motion and a second. We already have, let's vote on 16-3. CHRISTIE WOODARD. Aye. TODD BANDUCCI. Aye. TODD BANDUCCI.

Aye. TODD BANDUCCI. Aye.

TODD BANDUCCI. Aye. TODD BANDUCCI.

Aye. TODD BANDUCCI. Aye. TODD BANDUCCI. Aye. TODD BANDUCCI.

Aye. TODD BANDUCCI. Aye.

TODD BANDUCCI. Aye.

TODD BANDUCCI. Aye.

TODD BANDUCCI. Aye. TODD BANDUCCI. Aye. TODD BANDUCCI. Aye. TODD BANDUCCI. Aye. TODD BANDUCCI. Aye. TODD BANDUCCI. Aye. TO

Thank you. Thank you, Chair. 16-2, usually we do get an updated report. I don't know if Mr. Whalen is in chambers in Pahrump.

Can I speak to that, Bruce, or Commissioner Givore? Of course. The problem with that is several months ago, our friends at NDOT, have decimated Pahrump Valley Public Transportation. So essentially, Mr. Whalen doesn't have a job anymore because there's no company to have a job with. NDOT has taken responsibility, and they've taken all of the vehicles from us, and they've given everything to Southern Nevada Transportation. So they're running it, and there is no Well, the company still exists on paper, but there is no more Front Valley Transportation. So there'd be nothing to give us.

I see. So, Commissioner, thank you for that. If you don't mind, then I'll ask the question then. We approved through the RTC, Regional Transportation Commission, and then moved on and moved forward to the board of County commissioners us sitting as the board of County commissioners specifically, uh, for monies, uh, for veterans transportation. And, um, and I know that the veterans, uh, also, uh, DAV had provided a grant to the organization. So, so with the passing of the torch, was that also passed over to, what did you say? Southern Nevada?

Right. NDOT did not take veterans. They left that with us with no vehicles or anything else. No money is going from the county to veterans or public anything. I stopped the money that we had approved. And I'm in discussion with veterans groups on getting a veterans back again because right now we've got veterans who have to go to doctors or do whatever. And we used to take them for free and now they can't go. So there's an ongoing discussion and someone should go take care of NDOT.

OK. Well, I thank you, Commissioner, for the explanation. I mean, if they took the vehicles and we still have, or we, the group, the organization had monies and then it was given back or you stopped it as far as being transferred. So what I'm hearing, and you'll correct me if I'm wrong, is that the organization vet trans will come back before us requesting almost the same monies. back from the county, that was given back to the county?

We don't know what's going to happen, Commissioner. Like I said, we're trying to regroup with veterans, working with the veterans finance group to see what we're going to do. So we have to buy a lot of, it's just very confusing.

I understand. Well, that's why I wanted to discuss this publicly. And I thank you for the... information, I think.

It's heart wrenching that we had to do that to the veterans.

Yes, I, well, I agree. And, and I believe it was a Mr Dwight Lilly who, who mentioned, uh, it would be great if we would be able to put in a program, uh, to be able to get people, uh, from Pahrump to Las Vegas for medical, appointments and including the veterans. So, um, that would be a wonderful project for somebody to take on. Um, okay. If we're good with 16, two, I will go move on to 16.4. Is there anybody in chambers for a 16.4 chair?

Um, well, who would you like?

Whoever is representing the company, if they are there. Republic Services. Yep.

I see one coming down now.

Thank you.

How about now? There you go. Jane O'Neill, O-N-E-I-L-L.

Thank you and welcome. Mr. Jabbour, what do you have for Mr. O'Neill?

Thank you, Mr. Shane O'Neill. Good afternoon. How are you, sir?

Good. How are you doing?

Thank you. I, um, well, I know that, uh, the report was comprehensive and from memory, you're going to know exactly what I'm talking about. So on page six of the backup, sir, number two, uh, It reads compliance or noncompliance of the permittee with the terms and conditions required by the board of County commissioners. And the bullet point is us ecology. Nevada did not have any formal violations or enforcement actions in the year, July, 2025 through June, 2026. Are you with me so far? Yes. Thank you. However, us ecology Nevada did sign a settlement agreement with end up for alleged violations and reported a self reported. You self reported two incidents. One was for improper labeling of hazardous waste containers and the other was improper treatment of the waste.

Yes sir.

Are they a result of each other? Yes they are. Okay. So I can tell you, sir, that I'm glad that in depth was involved and that there were no formal violations. And I appreciate the company self reporting. However, from personal experience of being on 95, two to three times a week in the months of March, April, and may usually in the evening, sometimes in the mornings, a very offensive and putrid odor approaching and departing the vicinity of the facility. So would it be fair to say that it was in due imparting of this improper treatment of the waste?

No, the smell that you're referring to was most likely from treatment of leachate from a landfill. So it is a, I agree it is a very unpleasant smell, but that's just the nature of that material and that project has since completed and is no longer being accepted.

I see, and am I correct in the timeframe of my experience?

Most likely, yes.

Okay, and I thank you for that candidness, Mr. O'Neill, because I'm not the only one that travels on 95 and experienced that, and I did receive some concern calls regarding the smell. But as you said, let me continue, as you said, you no longer accept that type of waste from entities, ABC, what have you.

We no longer are receiving that material from that landfill where we were getting it from. I'm not saying that we don't ever receive or treat leachate anymore.

I see. Okay. Well, I appreciate you being there in Pahrump and I am satisfied with your response. I appreciate it. And please know that people are concerned about what we're smelling as we're traveling.

CHRIS RODGERS. Thank you. Any further questions? CLARE DUDA. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

CHRIS RODGERS. Thank you. CLARE DUDA. No, sir, not from me. CHRIS RODGERS.

Thank you, sir. CLARE DUDA. OK. Commissioners, if there's nothing else, let's take a motion on this. Everything but 16-3. Well. Two and three are out, so one and four.

TODD BANDUCCI- Chair, I'd like to make a motion to approve 16.1, approval of the minutes of the joint meeting held on April 7, 2026, and 16.4, approval of SW-26-2. TODD BANDUCCI- The board seconds.

TODD BANDUCCI- We have a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Mr. Borzai? Moskovich, aye. That carries. Four with one absent. All right. It's lunchtime. Three o'clock. Reconvene.

Good, Chair.

All righty. Welcome back, everyone. And let's open item four, please.

Again. Item four, approval of the agenda for July 7, 2026. I just got a request. It was put on here by mistake because we've already heard this item. Item 20 is going to be pulled.

Thank you for that. 20.

All right, let's do 19 item 19 for possible action discussion and deliberation to a approve a contract with Frank Kumo Esquire to serve as a special prosecutor to investigate and take appropriate legal action to include criminal prosecution or other civil action on a DUI case and other related charges due to a conflict with the Nye County District's Attorney Office, and B, approve funding the contract in the amount not to exceed $30,000 from 10101 General Fund. KEN HOWARD JR.: Thank you for that.

So I have a disclosure I need to make, I think. I'm going. I don't need to. Are you sure? KEN HOWARD JR.: Yeah. KEN HOWARD JR.: OK. Never mind. We will talk to the DA.

Apologize eyes on this one. I think you know putting down their $20,000 probably took everybody's heart away But no Unfortunately just used an old Agenda item and I should have should have updated that because the other thing is is that actually the appointment? It does not is not approved by the Board of County Commissioners. That's actually a responsibility. That's my prerogative as to who to choose as a conflict attorney and the other thing is is that I would also indicate that I would cap it at $5,000. It should not be that much for this type of a case. And with that, if there's any questions.

The only question I have is I assume, and I know this without even asking, that this case will be treated like any other case.

Absolutely.

I've got one question. Go ahead. On a case like this one, Could we seek restitution if they're found guilty to recoup our money, since this isn't something we would normally face with any other DUI case?

TODD BANDUCCI- I don't think we can do that, because it's not really. I just don't think we should start doing that. It's not that person's fault, per se. What's that? Well, the DOI's fault, but the fact that it has to come to the county commissioners and have another council appointed, we've never done that before. I don't know if we really should start that. It is just kind of the cost of doing business. It's really costing my office doing business. Um, but, um, the other, the other thing that I do, I mean, cause right now, obviously I don't have any budget to cover this. I mean, so it does have to come out of the general fund. Um, but, um, the thing is, um, you know, this attorney, we've used him on two other matters. Um, a phenomenal attorney. He's a, um, former chief deputy of the Clark County DA's office, probably one of the most respected prosecutors in the state. And one thing I like about him is he gets the thing done. And I think even our previous actions he's done with us, he's been way, way, way under budget. So we're not even anticipating it'll be 5,000, but I just need to have some contingency there in case something happened.

Okay, my only concern, like I said, is I had someone close to me have a case last year and he ended up taking the exact same type of deal that, not even a deal, same guilty plea that anybody else with a first time offense like that would take. So certainly no favors and obviously I already knew the answer to this one.

Go ahead, Zena. I actually have one question, actually two questions. It says general fund, but general fund has many departments, and I'm just looking for clarification from the DA where in the general fund. Can it be your department, or are you asking for a special department? area other than your department to charge it is my first question and my second question is more of just an understanding and i don't know if this is possible this is just me looking at it from um fresh eyes, I would say, or inexperience. Can we move this person out of your department and take somebody from the sheriff's office that's an investigator and kind of swap them until this case is done?

It's not an investigator. This is a prosecutor.

Oh, OK. Never mind.

And the problem is that I don't have the budget to support this. This is not part of my budget. As I said last time, I got like $3,800 left. I take this out, then I have nothing else to do. So, you know, it is unfortunately the situation we're in, but I do need some assistance to be able to prosecute this case.

Okay, we'll make it happen. Or we won't. All right, let's open public comment. Serena, do you have anybody on the phone for me, please?

The caller is unmuted. Please speak and spell your name for the record.

Come on up, Tammy.

Tammy Pittman, P-I-T-M-A-N. I hope everybody had a good lunch and are ready to rock and roll. So I wanted to call it to Attention of the discipline related abuse point two point ten point eighteen and then down from the handbook So and Any employee may be found to have violated this policy on the basis of any appropriate evidence, including but not limited to direct observation of illegal use of drugs, prohibited use of alcohol, or possession of illegal drugs or alcohol, or related contraband, etc., etc. But it basically ends with, employee's voluntary admission, then it gives everybody the right to terminate that person. So he doesn't have to be on our staff, and he can pay his own $5,000. So, I mean, I don't think we're really saddled with this millstone if we don't want to be.

Thank you. Serena, anybody on the phone, please?

The caller is unmuted. Please speak and spell your name for the record.

Yes, Amy Nelson, N-E-L-S-O-N. Not too long ago, we fired a DA for getting DUIs. DUIs are a really serious infraction. And if this guy's a prosecutor, he absolutely knows he broke the law. He knew he was breaking the law when he got in that car or whatever he was doing. And he should go get his own attorney like everybody else would, and do it that way. And in the state of Nevada, the first time DUI, you can have it reduced to a moving infraction. You don't have to admit guilt to anything. You just have it reduced. Now, my husband was a drinker, and he got several DUIs, so I'm pretty familiar with the state and how they treat DUIs. The first time you get one, you can get it reduced to a moving violation. So I don't think we should be paying for this guy's attorney when he absolutely broke the law, knowing that he broke the law. And in his position, that is terms for termination, in my opinion. Thank you.

KEN HOWARD JR.: Chair, real quick, can we offer clarification? This is not the county providing him a defense attorney. This is a prosecution.

And he's not a DA. He's an investigator.

Well, and also, the citation that was cited goes for someone who does something while on duty. He was not on duty. So that's why we have issues with acting like we can just terminate him because of a DUI. Again, that provision has no application to this whatsoever. Thank you for that.

Come on down and prompt, please. Hello. Push the button. I don't know.

There we go. My name is Anne Underdahl, UND. ERD, AHL, I too have been married to some drinkers, not necessarily in this state, but DUI has a lot of consequences. This person is a professional. At this point, if he's not been to court and convicted, he has to be presumed innocent. But if he is convicted of this charge, he needs to be aware. Well, he should be aware as an attorney. He's a professional regarding the law. that consequential damages would come under his own purview. So from that standpoint, I don't see where this body would be having to pay extra legal expenses for this person.

Thank you for that. And again, he's not an attorney. He is an investigator in the DA's office. Go ahead, Dwight.

Dwight Lilly, L-I-L-L-Y. I saw this item, and then somebody mentioned to me, and I looked it up, there's no backup material at all on the item listing any retainer agreement, any fee agreement, anything. And then I recall that we had a The district attorney couldn't prosecute a former commissioner here, and we used a district attorney up in Esmeralda County to prosecute the person. So I guess the question is, we have $30,000 here, but we don't have any way of determining how that's going to be spent or why it's even $30,000. There's no backup explaining that.

So... Change to $5,000. Excuse me? It's been changed to 5,000. Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Serena, do we have anybody on the phone, please?

No, Chair.

Come on up, Leah. Leah Aldridge, ALD, RIDGE. I want to know why did the district attorney refer this case to the state AG's office? Because that's usually standard protocol if there's a bone of contention or a conflict within the office. Has that been done? And if it has been done, can we see the rejection letter? So why he would be referring it to this other law firm? Also, I'm very concerned that this law firm, to my understanding, I could be wrong, donated $5,000 to Mr. Coonsey's campaign, maximum donations, and also $5,000 to your campaign, maximum donation. Did I read that wrong? Okay, stand corrected. So would this be a way for the taxpayers to pay back for that donation? It just, you know, raises more questions than it answers here. So... Yeah, refer it to the state AG's office. Let the taxpayers off the hook. That's standard protocol. Get her done.

Serena, do we have anybody on the phone, please?

The caller is unmuted. Please speak and spell your name for the record.

Come on down and prompt, please.

Hi, my name is Melody Keith, K-E-I-T-H. I just don't see why we need to be spending $30,000 on this. If he had killed somebody, what would we be doing? He wouldn't have a job. This is a serious offense. He shouldn't even have a job, as far as I'm concerned.

Thank you. Come on up, Tony.

I was in the commercial business insurance industry for 40 years.

Can you spell it?

Oh, H-O-V as in Victor, E-R-M-A-N. Thank you. And if you had a DUI, if you were dumb enough to get a DUI, you don't even come back to work because you were in the insurance industry. And there is an implied... status that you have to show, professionalism in that role. You can call a friend. We didn't have Uber in the day, but you can call a taxi. You didn't have to get behind the wheel. That was his poor judgment. Ron, kind of like your boyfriends when he got popped for the dope.

Yeah.

And Michelle Fiore's. Yeah. Why are we paying? Why is Michelle Fiore still getting paid? She's been off the bench for two years.

You don't have to take that up with the state.

I don't. I'm just saying. Why is all this stuff falling on the taxpayer? These people are professional people. They know better. They're old enough and they know better. He can pay for his own legal counsel. Thank you.

Come on down to Pahrump, please.

Anthony Greco, GRECO. So we're going to pay a prosecutor to go light on him. Send it to the AG's office. Let everything fall where it's got to fall. Let's stop covering up for people out of work for the government that screw up.

Thank you. Serena, do we have anybody on the phone, please?

The caller is unmuted. Please speak and spell your name for the record. The caller may have themselves muted. You need to unmute yourself.

Go ahead, Linda.

Linda Clark, CLA Arcade.

We'll come back to them. OK. You're good.

I agree with what Tony said. Why are we paying for somebody else's mistakes? I mean, they made it. They pay for it. Brian? Do we not have anybody else in the DA's office that can handle this?

I have a conflict. Every attorney in my office, by law, has a conflict. So nobody in my office can prosecute the case, which is why I'm doing what I'm doing. And I will also say that this individual will prosecute circles around anybody for the Attorney General's office. Trying to get any work out of the Attorney General's office is next to impossible. And I also remind everybody that when you refer cases to the Attorney General's office, they also charge us. It is not free. So there is really no difference there.

Okay. It just seems like a lot of money that we put out for things in this county that we shouldn't have to. And if I did what that guy did, are you going to pay for me?

Are you going to pay for me? Do you want to pay for me?

No, they don't want to pay for me. They don't want to pay for you, Ron or John. So I have to pay my own way and my own bills. So the guy makes a lot more money than I do on my Social Security. So I think he should pay his own bill. We shouldn't have to. No offense, Brian, but why are we doing that? I don't get it. Thank you.

CHRIS RODGERS JR.: Thank you, sir. CHRIS RODGERS JR.: Brian, correct me if I'm wrong, but he is paying his own bill, right? We're paying the prosecute not to defend.

BRIAN GRAYBEAUX JR.: He has to retain his own attorney. CHRIS RODGERS JR.: Thank you. BRIAN GRAYBEAUX JR.: This is the prosecution's expense, only a prosecution expense.

CHRIS RODGERS JR.: He has to pay for his own defense. CHRIS RODGERS JR.: Gallery, I will stop this damn meeting and clear it. Serena, do we have anybody else on the phone, please?

The caller is unmuted. Please speak and spell your name for the record.

Hello, Commissioners. Bruce Johnson, GOHN, SON. Yeah, sorry about the prior one. I was muted. Thank you for giving me the microphone. So, you know, I understand conflicts of interest. Sometimes they require an appointment of a special prosecutor. My question is broader than this individual case, and I've brought this up before. Why is it that we don't have a grand jury in place in order to be able to handle some of these cases. And I'll end it there.

CHRIS JERRAM, JR.: All right, Serena. Anybody else, please?

No, Chair.

CHRIS JERRAM, JR.: Closing public comment. Commissioners? Wait a minute. How come is Bruce and Ian up there? Oh, there they are. You guys got anything for Brian or anything on this item?

Well, I barely drink, but I think I'm going to start.

I didn't drink at all until I started, so there you go.

I don't drink either, but I wish I had at lunchtime.

I mean, I appreciate, and I understand, I totally understand everybody that came up, and there was a little confusion as to Is it for the prosecuting attorney or the representing attorney of this individual? And the DA has corrected an amount of $30,000, which I was concerned with as well until he brought it down to up to 5,000. So it may not even reach that amount. And I also understand that if you didn't have a conflict, I would assume myself that because of the affiliation that probably, you know, we would want to go easy on this individual versus an outside firm to be hired. Um, that really has no affiliation with this individual, um, is going to stick to the facts, stick to the law and prosecute accordingly. And by the way, um, we did have a public commenter, any of us that have gone through the jury process, this individual, if he's not been, or she has not been involved or been through the court system, they are innocent until they're proven guilty in court. And so we have to, this is the system that we live by and we have to respect that. And it is unfortunate this individual made this crucial mistake in their career, because this may, if they're found guilty, this may end their career, unfortunately. But we have to go through the process. And I'm not sure that the comptroller's answer was, or question was answered in regards to general fund, but which category of the general fund, because of the deficit that we're faced with, Uh, Xena have, have you been trying to navigate to see where we can find this monies for the prosecutor? If we were to move forward with this item?

So we still need to come back with some cost saving measures and I think once we have a budget in place that has solid programs, cost saving programs, I will be able to give a better answer. So at this time we don't have the money, but I acknowledge the importance of this item that needs to be addressed.

Could it come out of contingency?

We have, I believe, about 800,000 in contingency. So can it come out of contingency? Yes, it can. It could also come out of LATCF.

Okay.

Mr. Chairman, real quick. Yeah. I just, you know, just to clarify, I am, I'm moderately concerned that people don't understand what's happening here. So if we don't do this, then there will likely be some kind of dismissal for want of prosecution or something like that. So it's actually the opposite of what people are saying. If we do not fund this, then the person who, whoever this is, I don't know the person, will not be prosecuted. And so then it will set the precedent that if you work for Nye County, and some people may like this, and you get in trouble for DUI, you're not going to get prosecuted. We certainly don't want to set that precedent, but that's what would be happening if we didn't do this. It's actually the opposite when people go up and say that they don't want the money to be spent. And as far as the conflict, these are rigid rules that attorneys have to abide by. It's not something that is a decision of a handful of residents who can say, well, we don't see a conflict here. These are rigid attorney rules that cannot be broken. You can't. you can't have somebody in that office prosecute. So it's a person to prosecute the wrongdoing or alleged wrongdoing of an individual. And if we do not pass this, then correct me if I'm wrong, I think it would just be dismissed because we're not prosecuting. And that's all I have to say. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

CLARE DUDA.

Thank you. All right. If there's nothing further, I'm ready for a motion.

Mr. Chair, I'll make a motion to approve the contract with Frank Kumo and approve funding the contract in an amount not to exceed $5,000. I would like to change that to LAT-CF, but this doesn't give me the opportunity to amend, does it?