County Recorder to Appear Before Commission

In the face of a week of closed doors at the recorder’s office, Eureka County District Attorney Ted Beutel issued a letter noticing county recorder Sara Simmons that her salary may be deducted unless she appears before the county commission to defend her absence.

The intended deduction surrounds four days in August in which the recorder’s office was closed for business.

Failure to appear and present information before 10 a.m. on Sept. 20 may result in a salary deduction, stated Beutel in his letter to the recorder dated September 8, 2016. Whether or not to deduct $900.48 from the recorder’s salary will be on that agenda.

The closed door and subsequent compensation questions surrounding the recorder likely prompted the recent filing of a Notice of Intent to circulate a petition for recall filed with the Eureka County Clerk’s office on Aug. 29.

Petitioners Donna K. Moyer, Carson B. Stinnett, and Patricia Reynolds submitted the recall notice and have 90 days to collect the required 176 signatures. Once the required signatures are validated the recall would go to a special election, noted Clerk-Treasurer Bev Conley. At that time voters would have the option to vote ‘for the recall’ or ‘against the recall’, she said.

“I’ve heard so much about county freezes and with the mines the way they are,“ said Moyer, “I felt now’s the time for me to stand up. Here we are paying for someone who isn’t and hasn’t been at work.”

“She’s getting paid county funds for not doing the job she was elected to,” added Stinnett.

The recorder’s office was also closed the first full week of September while the deputy recorder was on annual leave. Per Nevada statue 245.040 a public office must remain open during normal business hours, with the elected official or a deputy qualified to act in the county officer’s absence available.