The town of Pahrump’s finance and human resources directors have been terminated in an reorganization move.
Mike Sullivan and Terry Bostwick have each worked inside the town office for more than 10 years.
They were summarily dismissed shortly after reporting to work last week.
Nye County Commissioner Frank Carbone said the decision was made as a cost-saving measure.
“We gave the county manager the authority to do that when we put her in place of the town manager, and it was up to her to look at what was necessary,” Carbone said. “The town manager has the authority to reduce or hire or whatever she wants to do. The board directed her to be the town manager, and she’s doing her job and took that action.”
County Manager Pam Webster has overseen the town’s operations since the Pahrump Town Board was disbanded in January 2015.
Though it’s unclear how long county officials were mulling the decision, Carbone noted that he and colleagues took a long look at town personnel contracts and made the determination to terminate in order to save money.
When asked whether any similar actions are planned for other town of Pahrump departments, Carbone took a measured ‘wait and see’ position.
“There is that possibility, but again, the town manager has the responsibility to look and see where there are things that are operating well, or not operating well,” he said. “We’re not just getting rid of people, willy-nilly. We are looking at what’s the best way to bring consolidation. This did not have anything to do with any kind of wrongdoing.”
Additionally, Carbone made certain to say both the town and county budgets are entirely separate.
“You can’t take things that are town related and move them into the county,” he said. “We are always keeping the town and the county separate, and that’s part of our process. Their budgets are separate to ours and we don’t want to co-mingle. Those salaries will not go to the county, it will go into the town’s fund. Right now, the town is in a budget surplus.”
Carbone said county officials will also take a look at Pahrump’s ambulance services.
He noted the board will consider how an independent company would fare in the community.
“With a private company compared to what we have now, we want to see what would be best and we will look at whether the ambulance should be used for just transport and have EMS be separate,” he said. “I haven’t pushed for a review of that because the town manager is the county manager as well as the comptroller and we’re middle of the finance period. Right now, we need to get a budget together.”
The commissioner also said county officials plan to continue various projects that were initiated by the Pahrump Town Board years back.
“Eventually we are going to get to those things,” he said. “Once we see enough money and surplus, we can start doing some of those things. We have these parks that they want to bring up to speed and we managed to put in things like the fireworks shooting site at the fairgrounds. All of the funds that come in from that go into the town.”
Carbone also mentioned the latest effort to save money is nothing new.
Sullivan earned a base salary of $101,977.44, with total pay and benefits $153,089.97. Bostwick’s base salary totaled $66,211.20 total pay, with benefits $96,439.70.
“We eliminated the town manager a couple of years back, so that is a savings,” he said. “We don’t have any town board meetings anymore so that’s another savings. Pam Webster has been doing the town and county manager duties and not getting paid any additional money. She has a full plate.”
Webster is also the acting county comptroller following the departure of Amy Fanning in March.
Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes