By MARK WAITE

PVT

TONOPAH — Nye County Commissioners will consider approving a brothel license for Dennis Hof, the flamboyant owner of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch near Carson City, during the Nye County Licensing and Liquor Board meeting at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday.

The five county commission members and the sheriff comprise the Licensing and Liquor Board. The hearing will be part of the county commission meeting, which begins at 10 a.m. It can be viewed by video conference from the Nye County Administration Building in Pahrump.

Hof expressed an interest in buying Joe Richards’ brothels in Crystal, but not the Cherry Patch 2 in Lathrop Wells. He has appeared in the HBO series “Cathouse.”

Coincidentally, the Nye County Licensing and Liquor Board Thursday voted 3-1 to schedule a hearing Sept. 7 for Richards to show cause why his brothel and liquor licenses shouldn’t be revoked.

But the motion is null and void, because there wasn’t a vote in favor by the majority of the six-member board as required by state law, Nye County Chief Civil Deputy District Attorney Marla Zlotek said.

County commissioner Lorinda Wichman, who made the argument for a show cause hearing at a July 7 meeting, ended up voting against. The other two members of the board, Commissioner Joni Eastley and Sheriff Tony DeMeo were absent.

“I wanted more time to do my homework,” Wichman said of her nay vote. “I have not had enough time to make sure I understand what’s required of me, my job.”

Richards pleaded guilty in a plea bargain March 2009 to bribing former county commissioner Candice Trummell and was sentenced in July 2009 to five years probation, a $250,000 fine and one year in a halfway house. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last month remanded his case back to U.S. District Court to strike a ban on criticizing Trummell or her family as a First Amendment violation, but upheld the rest of the sentence.

While former Nye County Chief Civil Deputy District Attorney Ron Kent counseled the commission in January they could consider the show cause hearing, as the appeal dealt with unrelated issues, his successor, Zlotek, felt it was best to await the decision on the appeal to ensure Richards didn’t raise other issues, like ineffective counsel.

Nye County Code 9.20.120 allows the Licensing and Liquor Board to deny a brothel license to any applicant convicted of a felony.

CDBG

Other action on the commission agenda Tuesday includes the acceptance of a $190,000 community development block grant, the county’s sole application under the federal CDBG program, for the design of a Tonopah effluent storage and reuse system.

Bids for the Pahrump chip seal program are up for consideration. The low bid is $1.3 million.

Criteria for placing citizens on a do-not-adopt list for the Nye County Animal Shelter will be up for consideration.

Medical Systems Management, which just won approval for a five-year renewal of the lease for Pahrump Medical Center, has asked to sublease some space to a third party.

A 20-year lease agreement with Bullfrog Land Development Inc. for land at the Beatty Airport is up for approval. The company plans to construct a hangar.

Nye County will consider applying for another major federal grant program, following the inability to qualify for the multi-million-dollar TIGER I and TIGER II programs. This time commissioners will consider applying for a $1 million Sustainable Communities Regional Grant Program through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. This grant would coordinate planning efforts involving housing, land use, economic development, workforce development, transportation and infrastructure investments.

Cal McKee is scheduled to give an update on the Frontier Gold Northumberland Mine.

Wichman asked for public hearings on accepting seven Nye County roads as RS 2477 roads on the Nye County Board of Road Commissioners agenda at 10:15 a.m.