Sunset panel wants Nevada Legislature to eliminate four inactive state boards

CARSON CITY — A state legislative subcommittee recommended Tuesday that the Legislature next year abolish four inactive state boards and commissions, including the Advisory Committee Concerning Sickle Cell Anemia.

But in making their recommendations, the Sunset Subcommittee of the Legislative Commission also stipulated that other state boards or agencies take up the duties of three of the boards. Their administrators also would have to inform the subcommittee by January 2016 that the duties of the abolished boards are being handled.

Also recommended for termination were the Collection Agency Advisory Board, the Advisory Committee for the Prevention and Treatment of Stroke and Heart Disease and the Nevada Academy of Health.

Legislators created the Sunset Subcommittee in 2011 to review hundreds of state boards and commissions and determine if they are needed.

What they have discovered is many of these boards have not met for many years and no one has been tracking what they have been doing. Last month directors of some agencies said they lack the funds to support these boards and just have not been filling vacancies.

The Sickle Cell Anemia Committee was established with great fanfare by the Legislature in 1989 to gather information about the disease and recommend screening and awareness programs. Legislative staff members found no records of any meetings that the committee ever held.

A national news report Monday showed that much progress has been made in combating the affects of sickle cell anemia, which brings horrible pain to victims. Forty years ago it limited their lives to an average of 14 years from the onset of the disease. Sickle cell anemia predominantly affects African-Americans, Hispanics and people of Mediterranean descent. About 100,000 Americans have the disease, in which normal red blood cells turn into sickle shapes.

Another board, the Newborn Screening Advisory Committee, also includes in its duties looking at sickle cell anemia.

While the sickle cell board may be abolished, the subcommittee recommended the state Board of Health and the Department of Health and Human Services continue to address sickle cell issues.

The Advisory Committee for the Prevention and Treatment of Stroke and Heart Disease was created in 2009, but there are no records of it ever meeting. State officials said its objective — to develop plans to address cardiovascular diseases — could be transferred to the Advisory Council on the State Program for Wellness and Prevention of Chronic Disease.

The Nevada Academy of Health was created in 2007 to become a medical think tank that someday could become a not-for-profit corporation. But legislative research found it has not met since 2009 and duplicates the efforts of the Governor’s Workforce Investment Council and the Health Care and Medical Services Sector Council.

The Collection Agency Advisory Board was enacted in 1989 with the duty of advising legislators on bills necessary to regulate collection agencies. The subcommittee did not stipulate that any agency should take over the collection duties.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901. Follow him on Twitter at @edisonvogel.