Nye County seeks to move license administration duties

Nye County is starting the year off with yet another attempt to amend Nye County Code, this time in an effort to remove the administration of privilege business licenses from the Nye County Sheriff’s Office.

Instead, the county would like to see those duties in the hands of Nye County administration. The item apparently came at the request of Nye County Commissioner Lorinda Wichman and was addressed during the commission’s Tuesday, Jan. 2 meeting.

There are several different types of privilege business licenses in Nye County, including those for liquor, gaming, fireworks and brothel operations.

The county is planning to shift the administration of all four types of licenses to the county administration department. In addition, the county will reportedly be seeking to place the responsibility of inspections relating to those licenses with county code enforcement.

The backup for the item detailed the expected timeline for the process necessary to implement the proposed changes. The determination of responsibilities and identification of objectives should already be complete, along with nailing down the code and policy changes necessary to support the action. The information stated that application intake would be transferred to county administration as of Jan. 17.

By Jan. 29, the proposed code changes should be submitted to the Nye County District Attorney’s Office for legal review. Proposed code amendments are set to be handed in by March 6. The target date for transferring license oversight and agenda item submission from the sheriff’s office to county administration is April 23.

Wichman noted that while she was satisfied with what county staff had produced that morning, there was a portion of her request that had not been incorporated.

“The only thing I wanted to mention was, when I made the original request to do this, I also wanted it to include the periodic inspections of those license holders to go to code compliance,” Wichman stated. However, due to the way the item was written, Wichman said a separate agenda item would be needed for that action.

Nye County Commissioner Butch Borasky made the motion to approve the transition of privilege license administration, which was seconded by Wichman.

As the item came to a vote, Wichman took the time to add, “I just wanted to thank staff for putting this together. This is an amazing document that shows exactly what we should be doing.” The motion to approve passed with all in favor.

Nye County Sheriff Sharon Wehrly said she was amenable to the move, so long as it is what is best for the community and helps the county function in a more efficient manner.

“If it solves the problem, is cost-effective, benefits the people of Nye County and is accomplished within the parameters of Nye County Code and Nevada Revised Statutes, my staff and I will partner with the county to make this work,” Wehrly stated.

Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes