Commission chair says he won't resign

After passing the gavel temporarily to Douglas County Commission Vice Chairman Kelly Kite for what he described as "issues in his own personal life," commissioner Steve Weissinger said Thursday he has no intention of resigning.

"Absolutely not," Weissinger said during a break in the county commission meeting in Stateline when asked about stepping down.

Weissinger, 44, of Gardnerville was cited June 13 by South Lake Tahoe police for allegedly taking a $100 bill from the safe of the Raley's Stateline Store at Crescent V, where he is a manager.

Store security allegedly caught Weissinger with the money and placed him under citizens arrest. Security said the incident was caught on video surveillance, police said.

Weissinger insists it was an accident and a cash-handling error, and that he had every intention of putting the money back.

He will appear in El Dorado County Superior Court on Aug. 5.

Weissinger told the Tahoe Daily Tribune Monday he had been placed on a two-day unpaid suspension. The store's management declined to comment on Weissinger's job status, and Weissinger declined to comment on the status of his job calling it a "personal issue" that will run its course.

When asked whether he believes he can carry out his responsibilities as commissioner as the legal process proceeds, Weissinger said he could.

"I don't see a problem fulfilling my obligations and responsibilities as a Douglas County commissioner," he said.

Commissioner Kelly Kite said later that the responsibilities of the chairmanship was voluntarily and temporarily passed to him by Weissinger.

"It was Steve's decision, and I think an unselfish one," Kite said.

Douglas County District Attorney Scott Doyle said Thursday that in Nevada, standards to remove an elected county officials are set by the Legislature, as per the state constitution.

The standards for removal cover things like malfeasance, which is intentionally not performing the official duties in office; excessive absenteeism; neglecting duty in office, which is called nonfeasance; excessive use of alcohol, drugs or controlled substance; or a certified finding of insanity in which an official is incompetent to do the job.

Doyle said these grounds may not apply in Weissinger's case, and that it is premature to speculate until a report is made by the El Dorado County district attorney.

"A lot of those grounds have no application to what we are dealing with here so the key thing is that county officials on the Nevada side of the line need to wait for the city police department to finish its investigation, make a referral to the El Dorado County district attorney if they are going to make one, and to see what the result of the referral is before there would be any evaluation on our side of the line as to what the implications could be," Doyle said.