Health district shuts down main office

Was this weekend’s abrupt closure of the Southern Nevada Health District’s downtown headquarters a genuine public safety emergency, a bit of strategic leverage in an ongoing political and legal dispute with Clark County, or a combination of both?

The timing of the closure and the health district’s lack of preparation for the action certainly invite public skepticism. But regardless of what’s behind the shuttering of the busy Shadow Lane facility, the health district and the county face urgent challenges that demand immediate remedies.

The health district’s administration has been making a case for a new main office for years. Their arguments have gone unheeded, even as other local government entities have moved into brand-new buildings.

The health district blames the county for withholding millions of dollars. When the county gave the agency a budget of $5.69 million for 2011, the agency sued. The health district argued that state statute entitled them to about $22.5 million in property taxes. In August, a Clark County judge agreed. The County Commission appealed the ruling, and the Nevada Supreme Court heard oral arguments just two weeks ago.

The extra money would go a long way toward securing a new building for the health district.

It was entirely coincidental, health district officials said, that an engineering report prepared by the Las Vegas firm of Walter P. Moore and Associates and released to the public Monday, determined the Shadow Lane structure “appears to be unsafe and should not be occupied further.” The report says the building lacks a lateral diaphragm, “an essential element in providing support for structural elements subject to wind or seismic elements and distributing those loads,” and that there is “strong evidence of sulfate deterioration of the masonry walls and foundations.”

The detailed assessment, as well as a previous, less-rigorous visual assessment, were commissioned during the course of the health district’s litigation.

“No one anticipated this outcome,” said health district spokeswoman Jennifer Sizemore. Why not? The agency clearly thought a structural examination of its headquarters was necessary. Why didn’t it have a better contingency plan in place? The health district is diverting its services — from immunizations to health cards to records requests — to a number of other valley offices that aren’t adequate to handle the number of people who rely on the Shadow Lane office.

It’s ridiculous that the health district’s dispute with Clark County has deteriorated to this point. The agency and the county must come up with a plan that secures a larger alternative location for district services as soon as possible, even if it involves placing temporary buildings in a parking lot. Then the county should immediately conduct its own review of the Shadow Lane building and, depending on what it finds, conduct a cost-benefit analysis on repair or replacement.

The public deserves a transparent process for settling this crisis one way or another.