Meeting to discuss Loux’s future delayed

By David McGrath Schwartz

Thursday, Sept. 18, 2008 | 1:07 p.m.

CARSON CITY -- The meeting where the state's nuclear waste commission would consider dismissing its embattled chief has been indefinitely delayed because of the agency's failure to notify the public of the meeting in time, according to Ben Kieckhefer, Gov. Jim Gibbons’ spokesman.

Robert Loux, longtime director of Nevada's Nuclear Projects Agency, has faced calls for his resignation from Gibbons and other state leaders because he improperly gave himself and his staff pay raises for at least four years.

Loux can only be fired by the Commission on Nuclear Projects.

The meeting during which the commission was scheduled to decide Loux's fate had been scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 23, but public meeting notices must be posted three full business days prior to a meeting.

Kieckhefer said the agency is looking for a new date, though as of Thursday afternoon, none had been identified.

Loux said he hoped the meeting would be rescheduled within the next week to 10 days.

"There was a misunderstanding about positing under the open meeting law," he said. "It didn't get done by 9 a.m. today. It was just an oversight."

Despite the calls for him to resign, he said he wouldn't make any comment until he met with the commission. Sen. Richard Bryan has expressed support for Loux.

Kieckhefer said: "The governor stands by his call for Mr. Loux to resign. And if he can’t notice public meetings on time, that’s just another example why."