Letters to the Editor of the Pahrump Valley Times

Where is our town government? Part 1

We have a lot of new residents in the town of Pahrump and they may not know why the county commissioners govern the town of Pahrump and that we have no town government. In fact, it is also possible that many of the former residents have forgotten why we no longer have an elected town board. Let me refresh your collective memories.

Please understand that this letter is not to minimize the responsibility or importance of the Nye County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC). Personally, I believe that they are doing the very best they can but are overwhelmed by this vast responsibility of caring for the county (their jobs) and the town of Pahrump (our job).

While some negative actions taken may have been not intentional, I believe that the BoCC has made some mistakes in their efforts to manage and govern the affairs of the town of Pahrump.

Some past, current, and future mistakes (and possible future plans) are:

1. Closing the Town Office and combining the town and county.

2. Terminating town employees as a duplication of a county function while ignoring the town’s needs.

3. Merging the town funds with the county funds to augment the county deficit and possibly changing Pahrump to a township reducing the town to a subdivision of the county.

4. Failure to keep the town and county as separate entities along with the funds, the assets and the employees.

With this open letter, I am recommending that the BoCC allow the residents of Pahrump to vote again now that they have seen the results of the BoCC sitting as the Pahrump Town Board since January 2015.

I believe the people of Pahrump want to govern themselves and the BoCC must allow for that accommodation. Failing to follow the “Will of the People” I foresee a push for incorporation to retain the Pahrump Town entity.

When we look at the overall picture, the residents of Pahrump should (and probably will) demand an elected town board under the NRS or incorporation. It will be up to the actions (or non-actions) of the BoCC as to what happens from here.

Let’s look at how we got into the situation in which we find ourselves and when it happened. Here’s the background for the town of Pahrump losing its elected town board.

On July 17, 2012, the BoCC Agenda item #11h stated the proposed County Question #2 which stated, “Shall the Pahrump town board form of government be discontinued? Yes / No.”

It was Election Day, November 6, 2012, when County Question #2 was on the ballot asking the above question. There were a total of 14,357 votes cast and here are the vote results:

Yes – 7,294 - 50.8% (To abolish the elected town board)

No - 7,063 - 49.2% (To retain the elected town board)

The difference was 231 votes, which means that if 116 people had voted the other way, the results would have been different and we would still have an elected town board.

By this vote in 2012, the town of Pahrump not only lost the town governance, but it also lost the opportunity to ever have a town board under that NRS since the laws in the state of Nevada have changed. However, it can establish a town board or advisory board under a current NRS.

I was recently informed that there is a group of residents who are already planning a method to return to a town board (or other) form of town governance apart from (or under) the Board of County Commissioners. For this group, I say “please step out of the shadows” because you have a large contingent of supporters. Also, stepping out of the shadows would require this group to work openly and work with the BoCC.

Please remember that the BoCC is not the enemy and never has been. Unfortunately, they are county commissioners, not town commissioners and they should also not be the Pahrump Town Board.

If you agree with me, contact your county commissioners and talk to them instead of merely complaining to each other.

Dr. Tom Waters (Air Force Veteran)

Former Town Board Member (2011-2014)