The Pahrump town ordinance that would have established the administrative position of a police chief to determine if a Pahrump police department would be feasible was unanimously struck down by the Pahrump Town Board Tuesday, Oct. 24.

The ordinance would have given a new police chief administrative powers only, and he or she would not have had the power to arrest or detain a person. The police chief would have been paid $250 a month for his services.

Before a vote on the ordinance was taken Laurayne Murray asked the board for further explanation as to why the ordinance was necessary.

Chairman Richard Billman, who proposed the ordinance, said the purpose of the ordinance was to "determine what a police department would cost."

"When we get a committee ... that takes six months, and then we shelve it and get another committee," said Billman. "This way we can get it done with limited expense."

Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo also addressed the board and asked them why he was not consulted on the matter and said he would be more than willing and able to give them the information they required.

"I don't know why you didn't ask me," said DeMeo. "I know how much it costs to book a person, we do it every day. I know how much it costs to maintain prisoners, we do that every day. I'd be more than happy to work with the board on this."

DeMeo also said he felt that the NCSO was already doing a good job of ensuring the safety of the residents of Pahrump.

DeMeo then gave the board a list of estimates as to what it would cost them to run a police department based on what it cost the Nye County Sheriff's Office (NCSO) to run.

He told the board that based on information he had received, that they were looking at a police force of 44 officers, it would cost the town $3,273,978 to pay officers' salaries, including benefits, if they were to match the NCSO pay rate, which they would have to do.

He also pointed out that it would cost about $44,000 for fully outfitted patrol cars and $643,028 to run a dispatch center. He explained that it cost $77 to book a person, and that a conservative estimate of 1,800 people being booked would result in expenditures of over $1,380,000 for the town.

And those figures did not even include the cost of a facility, fuel for cars, forensic services, or coroner services, which DeMeo pointed out, they would have to commission from him because he was the coroner.

"There's a lot of hidden costs here that you're not considering," said DeMeo. "(Public safety) is not a profit-making organization."

Furthermore, DeMeo took issue with the fact that the new police chief would not have the power to arrest or detain a person, or have the authority to use force.

He said this was a "blurring of the lines" in regard to enforcement capabilities, and also said that "being a chief of police is not a part-time job."

He explained that if they established a position of police chief, then the town of Pahrump had already established a police department.

Willis responded to DeMeo by explaining that the position was just meant to establish an "independent" assessment on the costs and that the ordinance was "just to explore if we need augmentation (for the NCSO)."

He pointed out that Clark County had park police and campus police and other augmenting law enforcement officials and that the Las Vegas departments did not seem to have a problem with those offices.

DeMeo countered that these were services already being adequately provided by the NCSO and that parks were already covered by the U.S. Marshall Service.

Murray then questioned why the ordinance would give the police chief power to establish a police force as opposed to just giving him the power of research.

Vice Chairman Ron Johnson added that the ordinance was a "semantical nightmare" and that "we pay the town board big money to do this, we should be able to get any study we need (from him)."