Water coalition has budget, $64 million, not much work

It lacks a mission or even office furniture, but the Clean Water Coalition will continue to have a paid staff for at least a little while longer.

On Thursday, the coalition board approved a budget for the coming fiscal year that includes salaries and benefits for General Manager Chip Maxfield and an executive assistant through September.

The coalition's four-member board will vote next month on a plan to return all but $1 million of the money the regional agency currently has in the bank.

The roughly $64 million would be divided up among the coalition's member agencies, with 51 percent going to the Clark County Water Reclamation District, 26 percent to Las Vegas, 13 percent to Henderson and 10 percent to North Las Vegas.

The coalition was formed to build a regional wastewater pipeline into Lake Mead, but that project was shelved in December 2009 after roughly $70 million was spent on studies and design.

The coalition is expected to be dissolved but not until North Las Vegas and Clark County resolve their legal dispute over the use of a county storm channel to release wastewater from the city's new treatment plant.

County Commissioner Larry Brown, who leads the coalition board, said that court fight could last months, and he doesn't want the salaries of two staff members "locked into that."

Maxfield, a former county commissioner, makes $161,000, and his assistant, Martha Jones, makes $48,000 a year, not including benefits.

Maxfield said there are a number of details to attend to as the agency is dismantled, but he acknowledged that there isn't enough left to do to justify full-time jobs for two people.

"The majority of the work has been done," he said.

Thursday's vote would allow Maxfield and Jones to remain on the payroll until no later than Oct. 1, but the board could let them go sooner once their services are no longer needed.

It takes the board's unanimous consent to dissolve the coalition, but North Las Vegas City Councilman Robert Eliason has blocked the action.

After Thursday's meeting, he said the city intends to keep the coalition in place until an agreement is reached with the county over use of the Sloan Channel.

Eliason also said North Las Vegas might try to use its share of coalition money for a pipeline that would eliminate the need to flush treated wastewater down the county's channel, but the
$9 million the city could get back won't pay for a $30 million pipeline.

Other board members previously have said the money should be returned to the individual sewage ratepayers from whom it was collected.

But board member and Las Vegas City Councilman Steve Ross warned that it could be hard to find some ratepayers because so many businesses folded and residents lost their homes in the economic downturn.

Brown said he worries that people who paid the coalition's connection charges and user fees might have the "false expectation" of a full refund.

But departing Henderson City Councilman Steve Kirk, who was attending his final coalition meeting, said Nevada's second-largest city will not be using its share of the coalition money for any sort of "pet project."

"We're going to figure out a way to give it back to those who paid it," Kirk said.

The Clean Water Coalition no longer will have an office as of June 30. Maxfield and Jones will finish out their jobs from some vacant desks at the Clark County Regional Flood Control District's downtown headquarters.

"We can move the five paper clips and two computers over there until the board approves the termination agreement," Maxfield said.

Last week, the coalition's furniture and other office equipment was auctioned off in a sale that netted about $25,000.

Maxfield said he bought a few items during the auction, including a projector, a laptop computer and some table skirts he snapped up for the wife of a friend who wanted the fabric.

Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350.