Sunday, Nov. 26, 2006 | 7:43 a.m.
Two days before Thanksgiving, Clark County commissioners gave outgoing Aviation Director Randy Walker something to be thankful for when they awarded a $406,000 airport job to Carter & Burgess, the engineering, architecture and design firm that Walker will join early next year.
Walker, who has directed McCarran International Airport and the county's other airports for nine years, announced Nov. 8 that he will resign to take a job Jan. 30 as vice president and area manager for Carter & Burgess.
Under the deal commissioners approved Tuesday, the firm will demolish 11 homes near McCarran's consolidated rental car facility and construct a new economy parking lot.
Walker selected Carter & Burgess for the project six days before his first discussion with the company about the job opening, he said.
Negotiations between the firm and the airport about the contract occurred simultaneously with Walker's personal discussions with the firm about the possibility of him joining the company.
But Walker and his boss, County Manager Virginia Valentine, said the contract negotiations occurred between airport staffers and Las Vegas-based Carter & Burgess officials who were unaware of Walker's employment talks with executives at the company's Texas headquarters.
Airport officials say the contract was a natural extension of past work that Carter & Burgess has done on McCarran's consolidated rental car facility.
The company has received $12.6 million in airport contracts since 2000, more than any other design firm during that period, according to aviation department records.
Walker also presented commissioners Tuesday with recommendations from a task force looking at ways to improve Southern Nevada's fuel supply.
The task force, composed of Walker, tourism officials, casino executives and others, found that Southern Nevada's demand for fuel will soon outpace supply.
Almost all of the region's fuel comes from a single pipeline system stretching from Colton, Calif., to North Las Vegas. Landslides, train derailments, rolling blackouts and computer glitches have disrupted the pipeline in the past, and officials warn that such a disruption would have an even more severe impact as the gap between supply and demand closes.
The task force found that improvements and upgrades to existing pipelines and plans to increase jet fuel storage capacity at McCarran will help delay the supply problem by less than two years.
Adding rail delivery of some fuels and encouraging energy conservation through better public transit and more fuel-efficient cars would help in the two- to five-year range, the group found.
But long term, only a new pipeline from a source other than California will create true fuel supply sustainability, the task force said.
The problem is, that solution rests in the hands of private businesses that build and operate pipelines.
Walker told commissioners that Kinder Morgan, the company that operates the existing pipeline system, does not plan to build a new pipeline until Southern Nevada's fuel demand exceeds pipeline capacity by 30 percent.
Although the position usually rotates every two years, Commissioner Rory Reid is likely to be re-elected by his colleagues to serve as County Commission chairman Jan. 2.
"Rory has done an outstanding job as chairman," Commissioner Chip Maxfield said. "I think we are all leaning in that direction."
Although commissioners have not officially discussed the appointment, most share Maxfield's sentiment.
The chairman is the board's chief parliamentary officer. While his vote is equal to that of other commissioners, he can decide who speaks during meetings and for how long.
The position also is an asset for a public official looking to move up the political ladder.
Although it is not part of any official job description, the chairman often attracts publicity by appearing at public events on behalf of the board.
Reid, son of U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, won re-election Nov. 7 by a landslide. He has consistently said he is strictly focused for now on his role as commissioner.
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