Dayton panel's slate of candidates approved

It took a month and a lot of discussion, but the Dayton Regional Advisory Council will be made up of the board members that it recommended.

The original four candidates DRAC recommended to the Lyon County Board of Commissioners last month were approved Thursday.

Ken Gray, who was appointed by Commission Chairman Bob Milz to represent District II instead of the DRAC-recommended Richard Foley, requested his name be withdrawn from consideration.

"It has caused divisions in the community that was never my intent," Gray said. "I had some questions about the process, but there has been allegations of collusion, and I want to say I did not speak with Mr. Milz until the morning of the appointment."

After Gray withdrew, Milz offered a compromise motion that rescinded his previous appointments of Nancy Sbragia to represent District I, Ken Gray to represent District II, Teri Harris to represent District III and Dee Scott to represent District IV, and then nominated Sbragia, Harris, Scott and Foley, who was recommended by DRAC to represent District II.

DRAC had recommended Sbragia, Harris, Foley and Scott, but not Gray, to the commissioners for their approval after holding an election at the council's Dec. 7 meeting.

Harris won a three-way race in that election, with Gray finishing second and Joe Sawyer coming in third.

"I think that the proper decision was made," Foley said. "When the commissioners interject themselves and micromanage the advisory board, they can taint those boards."

Milz had originally objected to the DRAC election process, which closed nominations after Scott and Foley were nominated in October and November, then reopened them when there were no nominations for District III. At the November meeting after the nominations were closed, Gray, Harris and Sawyer were nominated for District III, and then-chairwoman Barbara Peck decided to hold the December election, which Harris won.

Milz said the vote was a compromise. "My intent is to make sure they do the right thing and follow their own bylaws," he said. "So that when we go to approve their recommendations we know they did it right."

Milz pointed out that the bylaws require representative to live in the districts they represent and there was no provision for at-large representation.

"Everyone on your board is from the area right around the golf course," Milz said. "That's not true representation of your community."

He also noted that the board violated the bylaws by not having a map on the wall during the nominations nor at the election and by having people nominated from those not living in the same district. He also said that elections were not handled in the correct years.

Peck said DRAC was working on bylaws that were approved by that board, but not by the commissioners.

Lyon County District Attorney Leon Aberasturi said the new bylaws were not presented to the commissioners because his office was working on revising and creating uniform bylaws for all the town boards.

"We were never given any formal advisement that our bylaws were not put forth to the commissioners, so we operated under them," said Barbara Peck, outgoing DRAC chairwoman.

Aberasturi said he planned to meet with each board in an effort to standardize bylaws.

"It's not just DRAC, but Stagecoach and Silver Springs have had issues on their elections," he said. "It's a good time to address the issue."

-- Contact reporter Karen Woodmansee at kwoodmansee@nevadaappeal.com or 882-2111 ext. 351.