Lee: Reality check needed for state OSHA at zoo, elsewhere

State Sen. John Lee read this week’s column on the Las Vegas Zoo’s battle with OSHA officials with a sense of deja vu.

He’d heard before the story of inspectors from Nevada’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration office placing burdensome fines on small businesses. Proposing a $13,200 penalty on the diminutive zoo, a nonprofit run on a slender budget, was another example of bureaucrats gone wild.

Zoo Director Pat Dingle admits the fines could shut down the facility after 31 years.

"Nevada OSHA seems to be pushing (businesses) out of the state as fast as we can bring them in," Lee says. "No one wants employees or animals to get hurt," but overzealous inspectors can easily apply undue pressure. And that makes him question whether state OSHA has the right mission.

It should work to increase safety, but increasingly it appears content with applying fines that can put small operators out of business.

OSHA doesn’t exist to "fine you for everything it can," Lee says. "It’s amazing to me that this seems to have happened in the last two years. They’ve become code enforcers, a quasi-Building Department."

What next, Lee asks, will OSHA want to start inspecting building or remodeling plans?

"It’s an issue," the legislator says. "It’s not just a now-and-then problem."

Lee has received complaints from a variety of businesses about alleged OSHA abuses and overreaching.

When he returns to Carson City, "There will be some kind of hearing in whatever committee I’m in to discuss the actions and the threats. ... They only have the power that the Legislature gives them. They don’t have the power of intimidation and threat."

As for the zoo’s predicament, Lee observes that the best result likely is a reduction in the amount of money it is fined for its inferior wall sockets and the official’s opinion that the trained zoo employees need to wear better protective gear when feeding the animals. This despite the fact OSHA’s duties don’t include the proper care and feeding of zoo creatures.

Lee tells a story of a small business owner who was fined $1,500 for failing to have three pieces of paperwork properly displayed. That’s $500 per piece of paper, and that fine placed a burden on the business owner.

"We want people safe, but these tactics are abusive," the senator says

Meanwhile, Gov. Brian Sandoval’s office has been made aware of the OSHA problems at the Las Vegas Zoo.

Will the state’s chief executive step forward to help the struggling nonprofit?