ELECTION 2014: Schinhofen wants to continue work with DOE

Commissioner Dan Schinhofen formerly ran a landscaping business in California before moving to Las Vegas in 1994. He moved to Pahrump in 2004.

Schinhofen first ran for county commissioner as an independent and lost to Republican Peter Liakopoulos in the 2006 general election by a vote of 958 to 836; he ran as a Republican in 2010, defeating Democrat Laurayne Murray 2,005-1,207 to win his first term. He also served on the Pahrump Regional Planning Commission before running for commissioner.

Schinhofen has the important county commission liaison position on nuclear waste, he also serves on the Regional Transportation Commission, is the liaison to the Public Utilities Commission, the Nevada National Security Site advisory committee and is the liaison on state legislative issues.

Schinhofen talked to the Pahrump Valley Times recently about his upcoming reelection campaign.

Why do you want to run for a second term?

I’ve got a lot of things started. I got the RPC more proactive. I got working on developing the (Calvada) Eye, working on Yucca Mountain, which we’ve made good movement towards getting a better relationship with the DOE. I want to shepherd that through the next four years.

Q: What have you accomplished in the last four years?

A: I’ve worked with planning to make it more accessible, easier to work with.

We haven’t done anything ourselves. There has to be a vote of the people. There are certain areas we want to move forward. Mine has always been infrastructure. That’s why I want to serve on the RTC (Regional Transportation Commission).

Q: You have advocated less government and lower taxes, yet you voted to increase the sales tax a half-percent and you want to increase the local gas tax.

A: On the sales tax, it was an advisory question, I said at the time in ‘06 if it passed I would support it. It got a fair hearing. It was needed to staff the jail.

On the road tax, I had a change of heart because I saw all the details. I saw where we cut in the last four years $5 million in the general fund and we cut 50 employees. You cut first then you reassess and look at what you need to do. On the road issue, we doubled since 1993 the number of roads we have to maintain, the cost of doing a mile of road back then was $70,000 to $80,000 and now on average it’s $200,000. In the meantime, cars have increased mileage so we’re collecting less.

We have the authority to increase it but there’s not the political will on the board to increase it. What I’m going to do again is put it on the ballot.

Q: You have been an advocate of privatization, like the animal shelter.

A: What can be privatized, what can best be operated the way we do? The longevity cost on employees is really hurting us.

We have cut, it doesn’t mean you can’t make the scope of government smaller. There comes a point where you’re at bare bones and in some of our departments we’re really at minimum amounts. We need to look at alternatives like privatizing the animal shelter, animal control.

Q: You have been an outspoken advocate of Yucca Mountain, do you want to see it open or just finish completing the license application?

A: We need to see the science, we need to get the license done.

I think it would be the biggest economic boon to this county and Southern Nevada that we could possibly have. But I’m not willing to put the cart before the horse here. We need to have the science. Why the state says it’s unsafe but they don’t want to see the science is a mystery to me.

The idea we don’t want to be a dump for the United States, we already are, there’s Area 5 (at the Nevada National Security Site).

The jobs it would create in construction and then the jobs it brings in, the operation of it, not to mention every other place I’ve been, Oak Ridge, Idaho Falls, all the other communities that deal with the DOE all have great roads, the DOE builds them office complexes, they get to rent out to the public. What does Nye County have after 60 years of setting off nuclear tests and Area 5? Nothing. It’s time to stop saying no, stop to hear the science, see if it can be transported safely. They’ve transported it safely for 60 years, never been a spill of material.

If they’re going to be doing the stuff, shipping stuff to Yucca Mountain there’s going to be a rail system. They won’t be coming to town like the low level waste is. I would get them to build a bypass, get them to approve the highways. I’ve gone a long way to build a good relationship with them and to get them to realize we are the host county, not Clark County.

The resolution (to finish the licensing process) passed my first month in office, seven counties in Nevada signed on. I think by the end of the year we’ll have a resolution by the majority of the counties that says we want to see the science and if it’s released we need to negotiate.

Q: But a number of citizens who spoke at the U.S. Department of Energy hearing at Nevada Treasure RV Resort Nov. 14 on the uranium 233 shipments didn’t want nuclear material coming through Pahrump.

A: Some of those people that spoke had no idea it was being shipped already. We have material going out to Area 5 and we have for years. The more they learn of the facts of the matter the more they would be placated.

I’m meeting with the state working group that meets with the Department of Energy that (Governor) Brian Sandoval set up. They’re going to meet up with us prior to meeting with DOE. That’s one of the things I saw started and why I want another term.

Q: You’ve pushed for $500,000 for road improvements, what is being planned?

A: Manse, Homestead from Gamebird to Manse, in the next year or two that (repaving) will be done. The bypass from (Highway) 372 to (Highway) 160, Barney-Gamebird, that road was accepted; now it’s going to end up being paved, so it’s a complete link on the south side you can get around town on.

Q: Water will be a big issue in the future. What are the solutions?

A: We have to answer the state engineer on our water issues. Those issues can be solved. As soon as you talk about they’re going to cap our wells, I have a well, I’m not going to cap anybody else’s well; that means my well is going to be capped. That’s not how we’re going to go about this.

They say the recharge rate is 12(,000 acre-feet per year,) I see it at 19, 20, 21. If he doesn’t use that figure that every acre that’s been divided that could have a well will use two-acre feet, I had a meter put on my well so we could check what the usage is, I use a quarter acre-foot per year.

Q: It was a controversial decision to ask the attorney general’s office to prosecute Sheriff Tony DeMeo for exceeding his budget.

A: Given the facts I had I’d make the same decision again.

The state didn’t exonerate him; they didn’t want to prosecute him because they didn’t say it wasn’t willful. That relationship between the county commission and the sheriff we’ve gone some way to heal that. I think it will be fixed in the next year, communication is key.

Q: What do you think about taking over the Town of Pahrump?

A: I asked to have that put on the ballot and I was shot down. I made a motion and it died for lack of a second. Butch brought it back a couple months later.

Four commissioners live here in Pahrump so it’s no longer in the town’s interest to have an elected town board because the town is adequately represented.

The town wasting our money suing those people who voted against them is sickening. I wish they’d just roll over and quit spending money to fight it out. We’ll see how it plays out. I’m sure there will be an advisory board, how that advisory board is set up we have yet to determine. Services won’t be impacted. People will still have services, the same services we have now are going to continue, it basically takes away their checkbook.

My plan is to absorb as many (town employees) as we can.

Q: What do you think of your opponent, Pahrump Town Board member Bill Dolan?’

A: My opponents run for multiple offices. I’m only running for this. This is the only thing I want to do to help this community so when my kids grow up there’s jobs for them, they don’t have to leave the county to find work.

I respect him. He served our country and anybody who wants to run for office, God bless you. But our core differences are I don’t think we need a city. We don’t need more governance and we don’t need a city to incorporate to make this their place to live. They have yet to show me how incorporation will provide better services and they have yet to show how they’re going to pay for it.

You have local control, you have four commissioners who live in Pahrump. I don’t know how much more local control they want to have.

They increased taxes three years in a row. You can expect more if my opponent gets elected. He was appointed, he lost, then he won the second time with Amy Riches.

Q: You’re still receiving disability while being a commissioner?

A: They cut me off, I make too much money, I get $26,000 per year. I was collecting it, I paid into it for 30 years for disability insurance. I still remain with the same medical issues as I did before. I can’t hold a regular job. This isn’t a regular job where I have to clock in and sit down for eight hours.