MARK WAITE / PVT County officials and a few members of the public, sit in the meeting room at the Nye County Administration Building watching commissioners meet in Tonopah. Advertisement

Urbano Zuniga showed up at the Bob Ruud Community Center Tuesday morning to find out what Nye County Commissioners were going to do about a sink hole in front of his house on Park Ridge Avenue.

A sign was posted on the front door notifying the public the county commissioners meeting in Tonopah could be viewed by video conference at the county administration office, at 1510 East Basin Avenue, just west of the courthouse.

Zuniga was apparently still unaware where the meeting would be held. A reporter showed him the way.

Last month, animal advocate Maureen Rose complained she couldn't find the administrative building either. The county commission for the last two months has been video-conferencing Tonopah meetings to a small meeting room in the administration building.

'I'm supposed to do my best to save the taxpayers a buck here and there. We only get between seven and 20 people showing up (in Pahrump) for these Tonopah meetings. I've been seeing that since February or so. We decided it might be more proper to invite people over here if we can keep our equipment running," Nye County Manager Ron Williams said.

The county manager noted the Bob Ruud Community Center isn't an official meeting place for the first commission meeting of the month.

In fact the county commission agendas for the Tonopah meeting -- held in the county seat the first Tuesday of the month -- don't list the fact the meetings can be viewed by video-conference at all, to avoid any problems with the Open Meetings Act in case the equipment goes down. The Nevada Attorney General's office issued an opinion scolding the Esmeralda County School District last year for posting a meeting agenda listing a meeting in Goldfield could be viewed from Silver Peak and Fish Lake Valley, but the video-conferencing equipment went down and the meeting continued.

Williams said it takes four people to set up and take down the equipment at the Bob Ruud Community Center. Plus the county has to pay for air-conditioning or heating. He said the county could schedule a video-conference from Tonopah to the Bob Ruud if there was a big issue.

Nye County Commissioners accepted a bid of $252,740 to install the video-conferencing system between Tonopah and Pahrump back in April 2004. It was heralded as a way for the residents to monitor meetings 165 miles north in Tonopah and save on county employees driving time.

Former Nye County Commissioner Patricia Cox, who advocated the video-conferencing system, didn't like the fact the videos were transmitted to the administration building.

"That's not right because the public knows that it's supposed to be at the community center for regularly scheduled meetings. They're feeling they're not getting a good turnout. It's easier to set up at the administration building but you don't know what's going to be on the agenda. You don't know what kind of a turnout you're going to have," Cox said.

Previously, one or two of the county commissioners -- either Cox or former Commissioner Candice Trummell -- would stay behind in Pahrump to attend by video-conference. Now all five commissioners attend the first monthly meeting in Tonopah.

"At least we could see if the system was up and running. That was the whole purpose of the video-conferences, people could see there wasn't back room deals going on," Cox said.

Twice this year the equipment broke down. Cox said there was only one time in the two and a half years she served on the commission the equipment broke down. During the first breakdown earlier this year Pahrump residents were totally in the dark, the second time the public could listen to a telephone conference call in the administration building.

At Tuesday's meeting the sound was going out occasionally. At one point Nye County Road Foreman, Dave Fanning had to hold up two fingers to indicate from Pahrump he was attending a meeting with Utilities Inc. of Central Nevada at 2 p.m. Tuesday. Up to 17 people crowded into the small meeting room.

County Commissioner Butch Borasky said it's necessary to travel to Tonopah every month for the county commission meeting there.

"The concern I have is the time delay between here and there when we're voting on something," Borasky said. He added, "I think it's better for the commissioners to all be there in one room."

After the Sept. 4 county commission meeting Borasky, along with Commissioners Joni Eastley and Roberta "Midge" Carver were having lunch together at a Tonopah restaurant, forming a quorum. Borasky said they weren't discussing county business, a violation of the Nevada Open Meetings Law.

The conversation overheard by a reporter included the Tonopah Fire Station project, the Pahrump fairgrounds and the upcoming visit by Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons.

Williams said the video-conferencing problem would be resolved when the county finished remodeling the building at the Calvada duck pond for meetings. That project will be fast tracked now that commissioners approved the floor plans Tuesday and will be going out for proposals for a contractor to finish the job.

Then the video-conferencing equipment will be permanently set up in the meeting room.

"We got multi-tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment we have to set up and take down and it's hard on it," Williams said. "Hopefully this (situation) will be in effect between six and nine more meetings."