Water authority cancels Mulroy job review
A meeting 20 years in the making had to be called off at the last minute by the Southern Nevada Water Authority over concerns about state law.
Water authority board members were due to conduct their first formal performance review of longtime general manager Pat Mulroy on Thursday, but the special meeting was canceled because authority staff members worried that proper notice had not been given.
Copies of the agenda were sent, but there was no mention of the meeting on the authority's website.
Mulroy has served as general manager of the Las Vegas Valley Water District since 1989 and of the water authority since 1992, but she has never received a job review from her governing board.
At the prompting of Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak last year, the boards of both agencies developed new procedures for evaluating their top administrator.
Mulroy's first review by the water authority board will be rescheduled for a future meeting in March or April.
Authority spokesman Scott Huntley said the evaluation definitely will not be done during the board's next meeting on Feb. 29.
That could be a good thing for Mulroy because the agenda for that meeting is expected to include what figures to be a lively discussion of a proposed rate hike.
Huntley said staff members decided to cancel Thursday's special session when a question from the Review-Journal led them to discover that the meeting had not been posted on the authority's website.
Sisolak has said his call for evaluations had nothing to do with Mulroy's performance. He said that she is entitled to a review and that the move should be seen as a positive thing.
The County Commission oversees the Las Vegas Valley Water District. The Southern Nevada Water Authority is run by a regional board made up of representatives from its member utilities: three county commissioners and one city council member each from Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas and Boulder City.
Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350.
