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John McDonald had his letter of resignation from the Pahrump Town Board read aloud by Chairman Laurayne Murray at Tuesday's meeting.

"My decision to leave the board had nothing to do with any board member or resident of Pahrump," McDonald wrote.

The former vice chairman said his resignation was in response to his recent experience with the Nevada Ethics Commission and its staff.

McDonald was a witness in a hearing held this month by the commission to determine if Murray had acted unethically by attending a closed session during which her husband, Tim Murray -- president of the firefighter's union -- had made a presentation.

Although the charges against Murray were dismissed, McDonald said "the treatment afforded (Murray) by the commission permitted and constituted blatant political harassment ... and had nothing to do with a legitimate concern for the ethics of (Murray's) actions."

McDonald added later in the letter that the experience showed him the "uncompensated, elected volunteers" of the board were "very vulnerable to the antics of the commission," which McDonald wrote were "reminiscent of Keystone Kops running around and bumping into one another."

"Despite their ineptitude, they have the statutory power to impose ruinous fines, smear reputations and generally increase the stress level of an already stressful, uncompensated, time-consuming volunteer position," McDonald wrote.

"Coming under the authority of this ethics commission is a condition of holding office that is completely unacceptable to me," he finished.

Since his seat is not up for election this year, McDonald's position will be filled by an appointment by the governor.

There are no known or likely candidates for the position as of this writing.

McDonald was elected to the board in 2006 and garnered 5,467 votes, a margin of 27.79 percent in a race for three seats with four candidates.

From 1998 to 2000 he served as an elected member to the hospital district's board of trustees -- from which he also resigned.

McDonald quickly earned a reputation while on the board for watching money closely, consistently voting against contracts for engineers or consultants when he felt they were unneccesary.

During his time on the board he also attempted to put a plan in place for the town to have an emergency generator and water system, but consistently voted against awarding WillDan Engineering the contract for the project in spite of the town's service agreement with the company.

McDonald was certain there was a way to put the generators in place without needed an entire engineering project.