Concerned Citizens for a Safe Community held a meeting last Saturday at the Pahrump Community Library during which they discussed plans to start a recall of numerous county officials.

A new interpretation of the law states recall advocates must have the signatures of 25 percent of the people who voted in the most recent election in a given district to schedule a recall election -- not just 25 percent of the registered voters.

Besides every county commissioner, some members in attendance talked about recalling Sheriff Tony DeMeo, District Attorney Bob Beckett, even Nye County Clerk Sam Merlino and County Assessor Sandy Musselman, CCSC President Donna Cox said.

"Everybody wants to recall somebody, I can tell you that much," Cox said. "I can tell you they're going to start with Butch Borasky."

Cox said Borasky successfully persuaded commissioners to buy him and former Commissioner Peter Liakopoulos brand new 2007 Chevy Silverado pickups shortly after taking office.

"A lot of people are not happy with him. Apparently he made a lot of promises when he ran for office he's not keeping," Cox said of Borasky. "Apparently he's turned to completely the opposite of when they voted for him."

Under the new interpretation of the law, recall organizers would need to collect 621 valid signatures to schedule a special election to recall Borasky, one-fourth of the 2,487 District 4 residents who voted in the Nov. 7, 2006 election.

Borasky, a Republican, defeated Charlie Anzalone, a Democrat, in that election, 1,538 to 949.

"I'm ready for it. Let them do it. I've got a ton of people that will write letters or go in public. I know a lot of people in my district, probably more than any commissioner," Borasky said.

While he hoped a recall wouldn't happen, Borasky said, "It's part of politics."

Borasky said plenty of people have shown support for his position on the federal detention center. He added, "Every promise I made in that campaign I'm working on."

Other elected officials wouldn't be recalled over the federal detention center issues, Cox said. For instance, the committee is waiting for find out the outcome of Beckett's trial for driving under the influence after his arrest near Baker, Calif., in July, Cox said. Some committee members are upset with Merlino's handling of the elections, she added.

Musselman, Merlino and Beckett were all elected without opposition in 2006, gathering from 9,371 to 9,600 votes. One-fourth of those voters would equal about 2,400 signatures.

The county clerk's office, instead of verifying whether people signing the recall petitions were registered voters in that district, would now have to check the rolls to see if they voted in the 2006 election.

While CCSC members believe they can file a recall against District 3 Commissioner Gary Hollis and District 2 Commissionier Joni Eastley, the county clerk said they will have to wait until those commissioners have served at least six months of their current term. Eastley and Hollis were just re-elected on Nov. 4; their current terms began Jan. 1.

A fourth commissioner, Lorinda Wichman, just took her seat on the board representing District 1, replacing Roberta "Midge" Carver. Gov. Jim Gibbons has yet to appoint a replacement for Peter Liakopoulos, whose resignation as District 5 commissioner took effect Dec. 31, with two years left on his term.

Hollis, who was the target of a recall campaign that flopped over his vote on the development agreement for the Focus Property Group in September 2006, didn't want to get into an argument in the press with his opponents.

"That's their prerogative," Hollis said. "I got other things I've to do on the county level than worry about that."

Numerous efforts to recall officials have been tossed out for lacking sufficient valid signatures. The last successful recall of a county official was against Nye County Public Administrator Robert "Red" Dyer in January 2000, who was awaiting trial on numerous theft charges.

Last January, a recall attempt against Liakopoulos fizzled when the Nevada Secretary of State's office determined only 341 signatures out of a sample of 500 were valid.

Concerned Citizens for a Safe Community has branched out into other areas, like protesting the request by Valley Electric Association board members for a rate hike, Cox said.

VEA chief Tom Husted, however, said Concerned Citizens was way off the mark in trying to connect VEA's effort to add transmission lines with the proposed federal detention center.

CCSC also wants to hold fundraisers to pay legal expenses of attorney Nancy Lord, who agreed to take on their case in federal court to stop the detention center project on a pro bono basis.