Walley's Timeshare Condos. More to come--featuring "The Taxpayer's Tunnel"

I remember a few decades ago when Walley’s was a laid-back little spot by the side of the road where the locals could bask in the hot springs for a couple of bucks. Not any more. You know you’ve become a big business when the local media and the county refers to you as a “developer.”  I suppose that the construction of multiple condo units that have nothing to do with the hot springs also qualifies Walley’s to be called a developer.

On April 2nd, the Douglas County commission voted unanimously to allow David Walley’s Hot Springs and Resort to build another 190 time share units south of Genoa. The resort has plans for twelve more units on the east side of Foothill Road and two hundred and sixteen new units on the west side.

Foothill Road has a 55 mph speed limit, and a blind curve right where Walley’s Hot Springs is located. The Town of Genoa initially objected to the construction on both sides of the highway, because any pedestrian trying to cross the road would face a significant risk of getting hit. To circumvent the objection, Douglas County Commissioners suggested to the developer that they construct a pedestrian tunnel under the highway. The developers jumped on the idea, and they have proposed a tunnel “wide enough for golf carts.”

The developers have also demanded that the county pay $150,000 for their private, $300,000 tunnel. The county commissioners expressed eagerness to throw money at the developers, but county attorneys had to remind the commissioners that “prevailing wage” laws would apply, since the cost would have been over $100,000. In a double-barreled flip-off to the county taxpayers and to the workers who will be building this tunnel, the commissioners settled on shoveling “only” $90,000 into the developer’s trough, guaranteeing that the laborers will be payed less than they deserve and that the developers will get free money at the taxpayers’ expense.

Only one commissioner, Dave Brady, questioned whether the redevelopment agency had the money to throw at this project, but the county manager, T. Michael Brown, bluntly pointed out that the county had the money to donate to the tunnel project. No-one on the commission raised any objections to giving money to the tunnel project based on the fact that it’s a private venture that will only benefit Walley’s Hot Springs. Considering that many of the county commissioners also have strong ties to builders and developers, this is not surprising.

Here’s the Mission Statement from the Douglas County Community Development website:

“To enhance the quality of life for the citizens of Douglas County by providing the highest quality and professional service to the citizens of Douglas County in the areas of Engineering, Planning/Code Enforcement, Building, Water/Sewer Utilities and Roads.”

So, how will this tunnel enhance our quality of life in Douglas County, whose money is being doled out to the developers? How will it benefit the residents of nearby Genoa? Can we park our pickups in Walley’s parking lot and use the tunnel to cross the highway to get to the shooting range just up the road? Considering how exclusive Walley’s has become over the years, I doubt it.

Developers don’t need taxpayer handouts. If they can’t afford a project, then they should either get some bank to give them a loan or just abandon the project. They shouldn’t be groping in the taxpayers’ pockets. County Redevelopment money should go for projects that will actually benefit Douglas County residents instead.

Hey, Douglas County…can I get $40,000 so’s I can build me a circle driveway?  Ummm, sure– it’ll “enhance the quality of life” of Douglas County citizens.

Gibbons to Nevada Legislature: "Here my input, ya suckers."

In a churlish gesture of callous disregard for the state of Nevada’s economy, Governor Gibbons has told the State Legislature’s Ways and Means committee that he’s done with the budget and that the budget now is the sole problem of the lawmakers.  “When the budget was sent over [on] January 15th, it was balanced. [...] It’s the legislature’s budget now.”

Since the tourist business in NV is currently anemic and in constant flux, especially after the holiday season, the Ways and Means Committee had requested input from the Governor on how the executive planned to deal with declining room tax revenue projections. Since tourism and room taxes are a major source of income for our fair state, it would make sense that the lawmakers have the latest, most accurate information upon which to base their decisions.  However, it appears that Gibbons doesn’t want to play. Instead, he’s putting all the state’s eggs into the “Stimulus Money” basket.

Here’s Gibbons’ entire letter to Finance Committee Chairman Morse Arberry:

By letter dated March 2, 2009 you asked the Department of Administration to answer several budget-related questions. I wanted to take the opportunity to personally answer one of tho e questions. The others will be answered by the Department of Administration by way of a separate letter. Specifically, you asked how I plan to address declining forecasts for room tax revenue. The Nevada Constitution requires that I propose a balanced budget to the Legislature before the commencement of the regular session, which I did in January of 2009. Once that budget is proposed, it is up to the Legislature to decide whether to accept or modify that budget. The proposed budget was based on the revenue projections available in January of 2009.

As we both know, revenue projections constantly change as new information becomes available. [well, duh... that's why Chairman Arberry was asking you -- Ed.] The room tax revenue projections referenced in your letter will undoubtedly change several more times as the session proceeds and updated information becomes available. If the Legislature wants to address each and every change in revenue projections then that is certainly the Legislature’s prerogative as the  budget is in the Legislature’s control at this point and the Legislature has its own fiscal staff.

However, I feel that projections should not be addressed piecemeal. Therefore, I will be happy to provide further recommendations either in a budget amendment addressing stimulus dollars or after the Economic Forum next meets and provides legally-binding revenue projections.

In a stunned, two page rebuttal, Chairman Arberry said that he “will be forced for the first time in my 15-year tenure as chairman of the committee, and possibly the first time since Nevada became a state, to make decisions without further input from the Governor.”  He goes on to chastise the governor in an official letter:  (emphasis added)

However, I am truly amazed with your assessment that the Governor’s responsibility ends when the proposed budget is submitted for review by the Legislature. One of the basic understandings of developing any budget is that some of the assumptions that are made will need to be amended due to better information being made available over time or due to changing economic conditions. This fact has been true in the over 20 years that I have been a member or chairman of the Assembly Committee on Ways and Means. Based on this most basic budget premise, as well as past practices of the Chief Executive over the past 30-40 years, and possibly since Nevada became a state, when necessary, Governors have recommended adjustments after the Executive Budget was submitted for legislative review to ensure that estimated revenues and expenditures remain in balance for each fiscal year of the upcoming biennium. However, your letter indicates that the Governor’s responsibility concerning the state’s biennial budget ends when it is submitted for review in advance of the legislative session. I believe you are the only Governor in at least the past 30-40 years that would make such an assertion, and I strongly disagree with your position.

Other than the response you provided to me yesterday, I have yet to receive the information I requested from the Director of the Department of Administration, which was requested to be received no later than March 16. 1 sent this request on March 2 and provided two weeks to allow sufficient time to develop the required information. As you know, the Legislature has only 120 days to complete its work. Providing the Budget Division two weeks to develop this information is as much time as can be allocated; yet as of today, I still do not have a response to the majority of the information I requested. I also have no idea when the requested information may be received. I find this most disturbing and unprecedented in my 15-year tenure as chairman of the AssemblyCommittee on Ways and Means.

“Disturbing” indeed. What we have here is a governor who is either so incompetent that he can’t perform the duties expected of the executive office, or he is so indifferent to the state that he’s refusing to work with the legislature to ensure that Nevada has the best possible budget during this economic crisis.  My read on this is that it’s the latter. I betcha that you’ll see the legislature do its best to hammer out a workable budget, only to have Gibbons try to force some last-minute amendments so that they escape in-depth review. Then when the budget fails, he can sanctimoniously blame the legislature while reaping the benefits for himself and his cronies from his last-minute changes. Either way, his behavior is childish and ill-befitting a chief executive whose responsibility is to the citizens of the state.

I wish I could say I’m making all this up. But here’s the letters in question:

Scan of Gibbons’ letter Scan of Arberry’s rebuttal

My advice to Chairman Arberry: You can do a better job than this loser of a governor. You don’t need his mealy-mouthed input anyway.

On July 14th,  2007, Jerome Calevro and his wife, Maria Amelia, left Torrance CA on their way to Lake Tahoe with their children, Bernadette and Jerome.They were looking forward to spending vacation time at a time share at the lake. After hours in their pickup truck, they were almost to their destination. Meanwhile, south of Gardnerville, Dawn Miley sped past several cars, struck a roadside reflector, then overcorrected, careening into the path of the Calevro family. Her SUV struck the Calevro’s truck head-on, and the truck rolled. Emergency responders pronounced the family on scene and flew Miley via helicopter to the trauma center.

In December, Miley pleaded guilty to neglect of duty by self-medicating her diabetes without a doctor’s supervision, which is a felony. She had been driving with altered mentation secondary to “low blood sugar.” In her defense, Miley stated that she was not under a doctor’s care and could not afford health insurance, and that she had just had an argument before she drove off. She had been driving south on Highway 395 at a reckless speed, streaking past cars on the two-lane road. Ten miles south of Gardnerville, just south of Leviathan Mine Road, she struck the Calevros family, killing all of them.

On Monday, March 9th, Judge Michael Gibbons sentenced Miley to probation, 500 hours of community service, and he ordered her to pay $11,044 restitution to the victims’ survivors for funeral expenses. No jail time.

Court documents show that Miley had caused a three-car collision in 2002 in California injuring herself and six other people.

Here’s what Judge Gibbons said at the sentencing:

“You appear to be as remorseful as anyone I’ve ever seen. You have no criminal record. You had no health insurance at the time, and were not under the direct care of a doctor[...]Unfortunately, no one is here to speak for the victims, [as] they were all killed.”

Although Miley has a record of previously causing a significant accident, the judge apparently didn’t acknowledge this.

I am stunned that the sentence was as inconsequential as probation. Dawn Miley killed four people. She “self-medicates” herself. She had just had an argument and had traveled ten miles at high speed, driving recklessly, which sounds a whole lot like road rage, even if it did end up with low blood sugar.

Yes, Dawn Miley was diabetic. However, she made the conscious decision to medicate herself instead of seeing a doctor. I have a real problem with this. The court reports that Miley’s blood sugar was low. What was her blood sugar level at the scene? It’s never mentioned. What prescription drug was she using to irresponsibly self-medicate herself? If she is not under a physician’s care, how is she obtaining this medication?

The judge uses self-medication, secondary to lack of insurance, as a mitigating circumstance. However, many patients with psychiatric disorders self-medicate with alcohol and nicotine, because those substances help to stabilize them. Yet, if they were to get into a similar auto accident, they would be excoriated and sent to the big house for years. You might say, “Ah, but that’s different–that’s alcohol, and that impairs your thinking, and they chose to drink.”  Well, improperly medicating one’s self and ignoring the fact of a preceding stressor which can precipitate a low blood sugar episode is also a choice.  I see no difference here between the two situations.

Should Miley be punished because she is a diabetic? No, absolutely not. She should be punished because she exhibited a dazzling lack of responsibility or judgment which cost a family their lives.

Diabetes is an insidious, terrible disease, and it can evolve over time. Careful medical supervision is the only way to ensure the proper medication at the proper dosage. Over my many years as a paramedic, I’ve probably met over a thousand diabetics. The vast majority of them closely monitored their disease and were careful to administer the correct medications to manage it. Most of them drove, and yet, most of them were never in accidents due to low blood sugar.  Why? Because they were responsible members of society who understood their disease and knew when it was safe for them to drive and when they needed to stay put. These diabetics took every reasonable and proper step to ensure that they were safe and that they didn’t endanger other people.  That is a mitigating situation. Someone who takes all precautions, carefully manages themselves under the ongoing care of a physician, yet has a traffic collision–that’s an accident.  Someone who doesn’t medicate correctly, self-medicates outside of a doctor’s control, and storms off after an argument–that’s not an accident, that’s an innocent family suffering from the consequences of irresponsible behavior.

An entire family was killed. Thousands of years of ancestry and bloodlines was snuffed out in a tragic blink. This is a family who’s entire existence has vanished, whose voices will never again be heard. My thoughts are with their surviving relatives, and I hope they eventually find peace and that the Calevros family gets justice.

This is just incredible. Megyn Kelly and Arizona Republican Senator Trent Franks on Fox News have actually stated that Nevada’s Democratic Senator Harry Reid is pushing through an earmark on the spending bill to construct a high-speed link from Disneyland to the Moonlite Bunny Ranch right here in our own obscure little corner of heaven. The absolute magnitude of this line of crap is staggering, yet strangely hilarious at the same time. Now there are plenty of blogs and online outlets already examining this fetid whopper of a lie in balanced detail, so I’m not even going to bother. I’ll take the unbalanced approach instead, thankyouverymuch.

There is a pet project here in Carson City called the “V & T Railroad.”  The train route, a whopping seventeen miles long, is a recreation of an 1870′s narrow-gauge line from Carson City to Gold Hill. However, the closest the track gets to Moonlite Bunny Ranch in Mound House (apropos name, no?) is 0.65 miles, and the terminal is 2.5 miles away. I know, because I measured it myself. The V & T project has absolutely nothing to do with Disneyland; it has been a local topic for fightin’ and tax squabbles ’round these parts long before the economy deflated; and, frankly, I think a V & T whistle stop at the Bunny Ranch would be a good tourist draw. Whooo-whooooo! Well howdee-do, Miss Kitty!

So…an express rail from Alice and the Queen of Hearts to Alice–the Queen of Tarts, or how about From “It’s a Small World” to “Round the World”?  Or, in terms the Republicans will understand, “Eight Billion, same as in town.”

This bizarre line of attack from the Republicans and their mouthpieces all makes twisted sense when you look at the following study in New Scientist: “Porn in the USA: Conservatives are biggest consumers.” I suppose it’s just wishful thinking: Take the kids to Anaheim for a ride in the teacups,  then just hop the high-speed rail to Mound House for a ride on the D-cups.

I’ve watched this clip several times, and I have to giggle every time. Megyn Kelly’s salacious breathlessness and off-camera stifled snickering just make the clip for me. Well, when Rupert Murdoch fires her, I’m sure Dennis Hof can work something out for her future employment.

A new bill, AB234, has been read into the Nevada Legislature today. Sponsored by Assembly Minority Leader Heidi Gansert, a Reno Republican, AB234 would require that DNA be collected from people who are arrested for a felony.  Mind you, that’s “arrested” not “convicted.” If approved by the legislature, this would enable police to go on fishing expeditions, conduct mass arrests, and collect DNA samples for any person caught in the dragnet, innocent or otherwise, without a court order or a warrant.

There is a provision in AB234 stating that anyone found innocent of the felony for which they were arrested shall have their DNA sample destroyed. However, this doesn’t ameliorate the fact that the state could now force innocent people to have their DNA taken against their will, and there is no provision for ensuring that the police have indeed destroyed the sample. Once law enforcement has the sample, they’re not going to be willing to destroy it, regardless if the person was innocent or guilty.

In 1894, the United States Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s finding of guilt, stating “The law presumes that persons charged with crime are innocent until they are proven by competent evidence to be guilty.”  This was based on centuries of English jurisprudence, and is so ingrained into the system that it has been enshrined into Common Law.   AB234 is Republican Gansert’s attempt to do an end-run around centuries of judicial wisdom crafted by generations of people who seem a lot more in-tune than she is when it comes to freedom and rights.

AB234 flies directly into the face of the 4th Amendment of the Constitution protecting citizens from “unreasonable search and seizure” and requiring warrants to collect evidence. But Assemblywoman Gansert and the other Republicans that support this bill sure don’t seem to care about the Constitution, in spite of endless GOP trumpeting about the sanctity of the document.  I expect Ben Franklin is choking on his angel food cake about now.

In a perfect world, professional boards would serve to protect consumers. Unfortunately, this is seldom the case; the boards take it upon themselves to protect their profession. Take for example the Chiropractic Physicians’ Board of Nevada.

In 1999, then-governor Kenny Guinn appointed Dr. Larry Davis to the board.  Davis pushed through a regulation that permitted chiropractors to treat patients with whom they were sexually intimate, as long as the patient signed an “informed consent” waiver.  This regulation flew in the face of accepted standards of professional conduct.  M.D.s, dentists, and–up to this point–chiropractors would refer their significant others to a different provider.  Davis, in 2003, slipped the provision through as part of a larger package of regulations dealing with professional conduct, with the approval of fellow board members, Drs. Clyde Porter and Ian Yamane.

If a new patient signed a waiver that happened to have had this provision lurking in the endless stream of fine print that no-one ever reads, then unscrupulous doctors could weasel their way into a relationship with the patient, and then point out the waiver if the patient complained. In Colorado, this is a “violation of trust by a person in position of authority,” and it’s a class 3 felony. However, ethical considerations had no influence over Larry Davis. 

Other members of the board were stunned when they discovered the provision.  From the Las Vegas Review Journal: Read the rest of this entry »

You’ve probably heard about this. Northern Trust, one of the many reckless banks at the root of the current financial crisis, has been greedily slurping at the TARP bailout teat to the tune of $1.5 Billion dollars. Meanwhile, once they got the money, Northern Trust a) sponsored a PGA tournament. b) Flew clients and employees to California and put them up in 5 star hotels, like the Ritz-Carlton. c) Hired entertainment acts such as Chicago,  Earth, Wind and Fire, and Sheryl Crow.

Now, a fiscally-responsible conservative should have been up in a dither with righteous indignation. However, it was the Dems and not the GOP that fired off this salvo to the CEO of National Trust demanding that they pay back the money “frittered away on these lavish events”:

Mr. Frederick H. Waddell
President and Chief Executive Officer
Northern Trust
50 South LaSalle
Chicago, IL 60603

Dear Mr. Waddell:

We are dismayed and angered to learn that Northern Trust recently spent millions of dollars on a PGA golf tournament sponsorship and associated parties at the same time it has taken over $1.5 billion in federal stabilization funding under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. According to published media reports, your bank not only sponsored the Northern Trust tournament at the Riviera Country Club, but also hosted clients and employees at places like the Beverly Wilshire and Ritz Carlton hotels and gave away Tiffany souvenirs. If this is accurate, we are demanding you take corrective action.

At a time when millions of homeowners are facing foreclosure, businesses and consumers are in dire need of credit, and the government is trying to keep financial institutions – including yours – alive with billions in taxpayer funds, this behavior demonstrates extraordinary levels of irresponsibility and arrogance.

We insist that you immediately return to the federal government the equivalent of what Northern Trust frittered away on these lavish events. Federal taxpayers should not and will not stand for such abuses, and we will insist that any future Treasury support for Northern Trust be conditioned on a thorough reform of your company’s policies and practices.

We look forward to your reply and immediate reimbursement of these funds.

Sincerely,

Reps. Barney Frank, Carolyn Maloney, Brad Sherman, Dennis Moore, Wm Lacy Clay, Stephen F. Lynch, Brad Miller, Al Green, Gwen Moore, Paul W. Hodes, Keith Ellison, Charles Wilson, Bill Foster, Andre Carson, Mary Jo Kilroy, Steve Driehaus, Alan Grayson, Gary Peters

(source: blog of the Speaker of the House)

According to current Nevada law (NRS 338.080), contractors working on public projects costing more than $100,000 must pay their workers the prevailing wage.  Essentially, this means that contractors are not allowed to hose their employees by paying them minimum wage if they work on a project funded by the taxpayers.

Gardnerville’s own Republican Assemblyman James Settelmeyer has co-sponsored a new bill which will destroy the fair wage provision of the existing law. AB195 was introduced on February 18th by a whole gaggle of Republican Assemblymen and one Republican Senator:  Goicoechea, Goedhart, Hardy, Cobb, Carpenter, Christensen,  Grady, Hambrick, and Senator Rhoads.

AB195 raises the minimum cost requirement from $100,000 to $3,000,000.  In other words, the Republicans have eagerly listened to their Big Developer contributors and have hosed Nevada’s citizens. In these tough times, your average working Joe could sure use a paycheck that meets prevailing wage standards instead of some minimum wage stipend.

What is different about a project that costs $250,000 versus a project that costs $4 million? The construction workers do the same work. Just because a project may cost less than $3 million doesn’t mean that the work itself is any easier.  Let’s say one contractor gets a job fixing a pedestrian bridge over the Truckee River for two million dollars.  Then, compare that to another contractor that gets to build a highway bridge for fifteen million dollars. What’s the difference to the workers? A skilled welder still makes the same fillet weld on either project. A supervisor directing a concrete crew still has to know how to complete a successful pour. If a pre-stressed concrete beam falls on a worker’s leg, the injury is the same. If a worker slips and falls from either project, they get killed. Why should the workers on the less-expensive project be paid less?

It’s because Republicans like Settelmeyer have allied themselves with big business and developer interests that only have greed as a motive. There is no concern whatsoever for the working families of Nevada; it doesn’t matter if they vote Republican or Democrat; they are only annoying gnats to politicians that suckle at the teats of big business. This is exactly the kind of behavior that destroyed America’s economic stability over the last 8 years, and it’s disgusting to see it continue today.

Keep your eye on Settelmeyer. He’s also submitted Bill Draft Request 28-387 which would further limit prevailing wage requirements to only a few counties.

Gardnerville’s Republican Assemblyman, James Settelmeyer, he of the “Corn Flakes for Prisoners” fame, has decided that government transparency and accountability is a despicable sin. To that end, he has proposed Bill Draft Request 390 that would remove the requirement that counties in Nevada publish a quarterly list of bills and invoices paid. Yep, according to Settelmeyer’s dream bill, citizens should not have the opportunity to hold their governments accountable for their tax dollars.

The Pahrump Valley Times has gleaned these interesting tidbits from Nye County’s quarterly list:

• A $532.52 payment every two weeks to the Ohio Child Support Payment Center (Looks like taxpayers are footing the bill for some politician who had become remiss on his child support payments)
• A $525 payment to the National Rifle Association (I thought payoff money was supposed to move in the other direction)
• Subscriptions to magazines that have a distinctly personal bent:
  • $14.95 subscription to Mother Earth News,
  • $24 subscription to the Vegetarian Times,
  • $16.98 subscription to Fitness magazine,
  • $29 subscription to National Geographic magazine in Spanish
• A $5,563 bill for the Tuscany Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas Oct. 27 (WooHoo! Par-tay and strippers! Taxpayers foot the bill!)
• A $1,500 payment to the Tonopah Middle School Boosters (So, the taxpayers got to pay for school twice?)

This is the kind of stuff that taxpayers need to know. Granted, there isn’t an income tax in Nevada, but the state has raked us over the coals in so many other ways that we should absolutely have the right to know where our state money is going. We’re in a economic crisis in this country, which is compounded by the fact, that, well…we’re in Nevada.