The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) is posting the following information about its contracts with current and former employees. Listed below are the contracts held by former or current state employees during Fiscal Years 2008 and 2009, the time period covered by a recent legislative audit. Included with this list is the funding source, the contract purpose/situation addressed and the specific experience of the contractor.
This list includes all contracts regardless of whether they are considered consulting contracts as defined by the State Administrative Manual (SAM). All contracts, including those listed below, are approved by the State Board of Examiners (Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State).
DCNR’s contracts fulfill specific needs that current staffing levels and/or expertise are unable to meet while also providing cost savings to the state. None of the DCNR contracts use the state general fund as the revenue source; rather the contracts below are paid by revenue from fees and federal funds.
Christine Thiel
Truckee River Operating Agreement (TROA) Negotiator
Contracts with Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Director’s Office
Thiel is a former Deputy State Engineer, Nevada Division of Water Resources
Retired 7/17/04
Contract link- Contract Hourly Rate for Period: $150
- Amount Paid in Fiscal Year 2008: $12,712.50
- Amount Paid in Fiscal Year 2009: $15,150.00
- Contract is ongoing as negotiations continue
- Funding Source: Federal Grant [Non General Fund]
This federal grant to the State of Nevada results from Senator Harry Reid’s successful sponsorship and passage of the Truckee-Carson-Pyramid Lake Water Rights Settlement Act in November 1990. Along with passage of this bill, which secures and protects the state’s valuable water rights and natural resources, Congress approved federal funding to assist the parties with costs associated with negotiating the agreement.
Contract Purpose: TROA is an extremely complex negotiation that involves the states of California and Nevada, the U.S. government, the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe and the Truckee Meadows Water Authority. This negotiation requires unique water rights experience – not just any engineer, hydrologist or attorney could fill the role. Without the most qualified people at the table, Nevada water right holders and water resources would be placed in a vulnerable position, which could lead to expensive, protracted litigation. Thiel brings decades of experience with the specific issues involved in the agreement that is being negotiated. The rate paid Nevada’s negotiators is likely among the lowest rates paid to any representative at the negotiating table. Significant workload levels in the State Engineer’s office preclude involvement by current staff and, because this issue goes back more than 20 years, this contractor dealt directly with the matter during her tenure with the Division of Water Resources.
Roland Westergard
Westergard Engineering, Inc.
Truckee River Operating Agreement (TROA) Negotiator
Contracts with Department of Conservation & Natural Resources Director’s Office
Westergard is a former State Engineer, Nevada Division of Water Resources
Retired 2/8/90
- Contract Hourly Rate for Period: $150 through 8/31/08, then $200
- Amount Paid in Fiscal Year 2008: $19,233.00
- Amount Paid in Fiscal Year 2009: $28,928.67
- Contract is ongoing as negotiations continue
- Funding Source: Federal Grant [Non General Fund]
This federal grant to the State of Nevada results from Senator Harry Reid’s successful sponsorship and passage of the Truckee-Carson-Pyramid Lake Water Rights Settlement Act in November 1990. Along with passage of this bill, which secures and protects the state’s valuable water rights and natural resources, Congress approved federal funding to assist the parties with costs associated with negotiating the agreement.
Contract Purpose: TROA is an extremely complex negotiation that involves the states of California and Nevada, the U.S. government, the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe and the Truckee Meadows Water Authority. This negotiation requires unique water rights experience – not just any engineer, hydrologist or attorney could fill the role. Without the most qualified people at the table, Nevada, its water right holders and water resources would be placed in a very vulnerable position, which could lead to expensive, protracted litigation. Westergard brings decades of experience with the specific issues involved in the agreement that is being negotiated. The rate paid to Nevada’s negotiators is likely among the lowest rates paid to any representative at the negotiating table. Significant workload levels in the State Engineer’s office preclude involvement by current staff and, because this issue goes back more than 20 years, this contractor dealt directly with the matter throughout his career with the Division of Water Resources, including his time as State Engineer.
Darrel Rasner
Regulation/Guidance Development (and ARRA Project Inspection)
Contracts with Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP), Bureau of Water Pollution Control
Rasner is a former Supervising Professional Engineer
Retired 12/31/05
- Contract Hourly Rate for Period: $69.66 + expenses
- Amount Paid in Fiscal Year 2008: $97,401
- Amount Paid in Fiscal Year 2009: $36,897
- Contract is ongoing to date as the need continues
- Funding Source: State Fees and Federal Grant [Non General Fund]
The funding for this contract from inception through FY09 was from fees paid by the regulated industry. Beginning in FY10, the contractor began conducting required inspections of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) projects and was paid by administrative set-asides from federal non-ARRA State Revolving loan fund grants.
Contract Purpose: This contract was originally set up to provide timely assistance in developing regulations and guidance materials in the Water Pollution Control program and to gain assistance with transferring the Safe Drinking Water Program from the Department of Health and Human Resources’ Health Division to the Division of Environmental Protection in DCNR, as the contractor previously ran the program in the Health Division. The assistance was needed as available NDEP staff was fully committed to permitting, compliance and plan review activities. Then, with the passage of ARRA in 2009, the contract has also been used to provide field oversight of projects funded by the Clean Water State Revolving fund ARRA grant. Rasner has decades of experience managing water pollution control and safe drinking water programs.
Employee’s Company of Nevada (Temp Agency)
Gay McCleary
Air Permit Application Review
Contracts with Division of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Air Pollution Control
McCleary is a former Air Quality Permitting Specialist and Program Supervisor
Retired 7/7/99
- Contract Hourly Rate for Period: $65
- Amount Paid in Fiscal Year 2008: $57,612
- Amount Paid in Fiscal Year 2009: $44,459
- Contract is ongoing to date as the need continues
- Funding Source: Industry Fees [Non General Fund]
The funding for this contract is supported by fees paid by the regulated industry. The regulated industry continually requests that these fees be maintained at levels that ensure timely processing of federally required air quality permit applications needed by industry to operate.
Contract Purpose: Air quality permitting is a complex and highly technical process. Issues such as application and permitting requirements, dispersion modeling, emissions calculations, applicable state and federal regulations, and ambient monitoring are initially discussed in detail at a pre-application conference with representatives of proposed/modified industrial sources. Once an application is submitted, a review of the entire application and a detailed technical evaluation occurs, including review of site plans, topographic maps, construction drawings, design data, process information, pollution control equipment and supporting calculations. A technical report is then written and a final permit issued. This type of process requires experienced permitting personnel, and McCleary provides decades of experience in processing applications and issuing air quality permits. The state’s economy is negatively impacted if the permitting process is expensive and protracted and, importantly, air quality would suffer should the correct personnel not be in place to do the technical review. Significant workload levels within NDEP’s Air Permitting Program continue to outpace current staff resources, thus requiring the need for a specialized, experienced contractor to help maintain mandated permit processing timelines at a lower price than what a full time salaried position and benefits would cost the state.
Kenneth W. Lee, Jr.
Fire Billing System Update
Contracted with Nevada Division of Forestry (NDF)
Lee is a former NDF fleet and equipment manager/mechanic who handled multiple associated databases, including aspects of fire billing while with NDF.
Lee had moved to become an employee of the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT), and NDF cleared this “after hours” project with NDOT prior to entering into the contract for 26 hours of work from Lee.
- Contract Hourly Rate for Period: $76
- Amount Paid in Fiscal Year 2008: $1,976
- Amount Paid in Fiscal Year 2009: $-0-
- Contract is complete
- Funding Source: Fire Billing Fees [Non General Fund]
Contract Purpose: As a former NDF support staff member, Lee was the person most familiar with the database program used to generate fire billings for various cooperators. Contracting with Lee meant the project took a fraction of the billable hours that it would have taken a contractor unfamiliar with fire billings, thus saving considerable dollars while ensuring the billing-related work was completed quickly.
Gary Wade
Cleaning & Maintenance of Ditches – Pahranagat Water Distribution System
Contracts with Division of Division of Water Resources
Wade is a current nonclassified Water Commissioner paid by non-general-fund basin fees.
- Contract Hourly Rate for Period: $30 to repair ditches/$60 to clean ditches ($60 includes backhoe use/operation costs)
- Amount Paid in Fiscal Year 2008: $4,050
- Amount Paid in Fiscal Year 2009: $8,220
- Contract is ongoing as the need continues
- Funding Source: Water Basin Fees [Non General Fund]
Contract Purpose: This contract provides necessary equipment to remove debris and sediment and otherwise maintain the Pahranagat Water Distribution System. Maintenance of the Pahranagat system is a requirement of the Division of Water Resources. Wade is employed as a water commissioner by the state to administer water rights near Alamo, Nevada. As a water commissioner, Wade is on-call 24 hours per day to maintain water distribution. Water commissioners are not classified employees of the state and are statutorily exempt from state personnel laws. Wade’s wages are about $8 per hour during irrigation season and $7 during off season. The Pahranagat system is about 95 miles north of Las Vegas and, since the Division of Water Resources does not own a backhoe for Wade’s use and rather than renting a backhoe at $1,545 per month – plus the cost of transport from Las Vegas – Wade instead charges $60 per hour for use of his personal backhoe. The state only pays for the time the backhoe is in use, rather than a year-round monthly rental at a cost of about $18,540.
National Mercury Deposition Network
In 1995, a National Mercury Deposition Network (MDN) was established across the country to help address worldwide mercury contamination in the environment. Samplers are located in all 50 states and this equipment measures mercury deposited into the environment. The MDN is the only network providing a long-term record of total mercury (Hg) concentration and deposition in precipitation in the United States and Canada. There are two MDN sampling sites in Nevada. Both are located in northern Nevada and are specifically established to measure mercury deposition in rural areas. One location-driven sampling site is located at the Gibbs Ranch in northeastern Nevada near the Idaho border. The second location-driven sampling site is located at the Lesperance Ranch in northern Nevada near the Oregon border. Tony Lesperance was director of the Nevada Department of Agriculture.
Contracts are in place for each of these Nevada ranch locations as part of the network of fixed sampling locations. The work performed by the contractor on site at the ranch consists of weekly sample collection from the mercury samplers and the mailing of those samples to a designated laboratory for sample analysis. A salary of $100 per week is provided for collecting the samples along with full reimbursement of the cost for shipping the samples. Average monthly costs range from $450 to $600. These costs are paid by federal funds.
