Ex-Clark County coroner, pastor vying to become next public administrator

Former longtime Clark County Coroner Michael Murphy wants to be the county’s next public administrator and is facing a challenge from a former office staffer.

Murphy was previously brought in to the administrator’s office to ease tensions caused by former Public Administrator Robert Telles, who was arrested months later for the murder of Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German.

Murphy was appointed after German began reporting on allegations lodged against Telles by his staff.

Telles killed German outside the journalist’s house in September 2022. A jury found him guilty in 2024.

‘Finish what I started’

Previously a little-known department, the public administrator’s office is tasked with safeguarding the property of people who die in the county when relatives can’t immediately be found.

A filing period for candidates in the 2026 elections opens in March.

It wasn’t clear if current Administrator Rita Reid, who was elected in 2022, will seek re-election. She did not respond to messages seeking comment.

“I’d like to go back to the office and finish what I started,” Murphy said Thursday. “This is an office that’s complicated. It has a complicated task, and you want the right people in place,” he added.

Murphy oversaw the office for under a year after German’s initial reporting.

“In just 10 months, with the help of existing staff, he stabilized operations, returned order to a department shaken by scandal, and ensured families in mourning were no longer neglected,” according to a campaign release. “He is now running to make that culture of integrity permanent.”

Credentials

This will be Murphy’s first time running for elected office. Although he’s filing as a Republican, he described the approach he would take as nonpartisan.

He outlined campaign initiatives in a phone interview Thursday.

Murphy said he wants the office to partner with private entities to streamline its processes and reduce the number of cases.

He proposed launching an educational campaign to inform the public about the office’s duties so they can better prepare for death.

In a news release announcing his campaign in December, Murphy said he wants to implement oversight to prevent abuse, waste and mismanagement.

Also, he intends to overhaul and modernize the office’s internal systems and boost services for grieving families, the release said.

After a quarter-century career in law enforcement, the county appointed Murphy as the chief of its coroner’s office, where he served from 2002 to 2015.

Post-retirement, he spent two years with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children running an unknown-victims identification program and founded a consulting firm.

Clark County has contracted him for work since, such as when he temporarily returned to the coroner’s office midway through the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

Challenger

Former public administrator’s office investigator M.J. Ivy has also thrown his name into the race on the Democratic side.

He said Thursday that he and Telles met when they were both campaigning in the 2022 elections, when Telles was seeking re-election and Ivy was running for a Nevada System of Higher Education regent seat.

Reid, a public administrator’s office staffer, defeated Telles in the Democratic primary that June.

Ivy, who had lost his own race, was hired by the department shortly after.

“I would never deny knowing him,” Ivy said about Telles. “From what he presented to me and the community, he was a good dude.”

However, he added that he didn’t know about “sinister things” Telles might have been dealing with. Ivy, a longtime pastor, said he still prays for him.

Ivy, who no longer works in the public administrator’s office, said he wants to return because he had seen deplorable conditions survivors of the dead dealt with, particularly when there was no will or communication before their loved ones’ deaths.

“I think we had an office of folks who really wanted to do a good job and do better things but the leadership was poor,” Ivy said.

He said he would ask the county for more funding and new positions. Ivy would advocate to modernize internal systems to expand services for Clark County residents who live in rural areas, he said.

If elected, Ivy said he would set up workshops with trust attorneys and probate judges to educate the community about the office’s duties.

Ivy would also decrease the number of contractors the office works with and increase collaboration with nonprofits.

Ivy, a former owner of a communications firm, has served in multiple volunteer positions locally, including the Clark County School District community policing board and Nevada State University’s department of education community board, the website said.

He’s pursuing a doctorate in public administration.

“When elected, I will insist on an open-door policy that will solicit mended hearts and determined collaboration,” Ivy wrote on his campaign website. “No leader will be as available as me.”

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.