Gibbons names two more transition committees

Governor-elect Jim Gibbons has created two more committees to advise him on the issues as he prepares for his inauguration.

Committees to deal with transportation infrastructure and health care issues will join the education and budget committees he created last week.

And like the education committee, the two new panels each have well over 20 members.

Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson, a Democrat defeated in the August primaries, will be chairman of the transportation and infrastructure group along with Ty Cobb, a former advisor to President Reagan and head of Northern Nevada Network. They are among 26 members of that study group.

Dr. Rudy Manthei, who has practiced ophthalmology in Nevada for 20 years, was selected as chairman of the 23-member health care study panel.

That is the same size as the education working group chaired by Patty Wade, a Reno business woman who also serves as co-chairwoman of Gibbons' transition team.

By comparison, the budget working group is much smaller - just nine members. It is headed by former Budget Director and Taxation Director Perry Comeaux.

All four working groups are to meet, develop and make proposals to Gibbons in their assigned areas. Wade could not be reached to explain how and when the groups will meet, how they will be funded or what their timetable for providing recommendations will be. The group with the shortest deadline, however, would be the budget working group which must prepare recommendations for changes to the budget before it is presented to the 2007 Legislature in January.

• Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.