Change of lobbyist questioned

A controversial contract to hire a Washington, D.C., firm to lobby against high-level nuclear waste from burial in Nevada is raising some heat before the item comes before the Clark County Commission on Tuesday.

Commissioner Mary Kincaid requested that the item to hire Cassidy and Associates be yanked off the consent agenda and discussed separately. The consent agenda allows several routine items to be approved at once without discussion.

Kincaid said she questioned the contract after reading the item for the first time on Friday.

"I asked the staff why we were changing firms," Kincaid said. "They didn't have an answer. I have a lot of questions."

Commissioner Erin Kenny had asked that the Cassidy contract be placed on the consent agenda. The agreement would end on March 31, 2002.

Cassidy would replace Alcalde and Fay of Virginia, which has represented the county at $36,000 a year in its fight to stop 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste from burial at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

"The Cassidy group has been extremely successful for Southern Nevada interests," Kenny said.

Cassidy had been hired by UNLV and secured $13.5 million for the university, she said.

The University Medical Center got $1.5 million in nuclear medicine and other grants through Cassidy, Kenny said. The Health District just hired the firm to look for more federal money for programs such as immunization.

The agenda item will keep Commission Chairman Dario Herrera on the sidelines because of a possible conflict of interest, he said.

Herrera said on Friday that he would not discuss or vote on the Cassidy contract, because he once considered working for the firm.

"I am not going to participate in that discussion to avoid a potential conflict of interest," Herrera said. "There is no way I am even going to create the appearance of a potential conflict."

County staff had not briefed him on the Cassidy matter, Herrera said.

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