Las Vegas Review Journal: “Boring Co., Lombardo’s office no-shows at state Vegas Loop meeting”
Joe Lombardo refused to answer lawmakers’ questions after his office helped Elon Musk’s Boring Company get away with serious and “willful” safety violations that led to two Clark County firefighters suffering chemical burns. Yesterday, the Legislature’s Interim Committee on Growth and Infrastructure held a hearing on Lombardo’s backdoor dealing with the Boring Company but Lombardo’s office didn’t bother to show up and address Nevadans’ safety concerns.
Assemblymember Howard Watts, who chairs the Legislature’s Interim Committee on Growth and Infrastructure, called out Lombardo for giving the richest man in the world’s company special treatment and failing to appoint review board members to uphold health and safety regulations.
After Lombardo’s administration dropped hundreds of thousands of dollars in safety fines without going through the normal OSHA appeals process, they then tried to delete the evidence of it from public records. Despite altering public record being a potential Class 3 felony, Lombardo’s appointed Director of the State of Nevada Department of Business and Industry could not give a single answer as to how this coverup occurred or even assure lawmakers that there was a serious investigation into it.
See coverage below:
Las Vegas Review Journal: Boring Co., Lombardo’s office no-shows at state Vegas Loop meeting
- State lawmakers expressed disappointment that representatives from Boring Co. and Gov. Joe Lombardo’s office weren’t present during a meeting Tuesday about violations and business conduct that has occurred during the construction of the Vegas Loop transportation system.
- A Tuesday meeting of the interim joint committee on growth and infrastructure was set to discuss health and safety issues during the building of the Vegas Loop project.
Nevada Current: ‘Just…the cost of doing business’: Lawmaker blasts scofflaw vibes drifting up from Musk’s tunnels
- Watts during the meeting said he would have liked to ask the governor’s office if they help facilitate such conversations for every business that finds themselves in hot water with regulators, or if the governor is concerned about a “chilling effect” on inspectors of high-profile projects like Vegas Loop.
- Watts criticized Lombardo for not filling a vacancy on the Occupational Safety and Health Review Board, an independent five-member board appointed by the governor that considers contested violations. Watts said that the board is required by state law to have two members representing labor. Only one of those spots is currently filled, and the other is occupied by a former labor commissioner, not a member of a labor union as has been the norm.
- “I can think of many unions that would be glad to provide recommendations to the governor for appointments to that board, including probably the Professional Fire Fighters of Nevada,” Watts quipped.
Fortune: Nevada legislators blast Boring Company over safety and environmental violations as Elon Musk–owned startup declines to testify in hearing
- The Governor’s Office, which Fortune reported had been looped in by the Boring Company when the company was cited after firefighters were injured in its tunnels, declined to send a representative to the hearing in a letter.
2 News: Nevada lawmakers discuss concerns with Elon Musk’s Boring Company operations in Las Vegas
- There were allegations that the Governor’s Office used political influence to remove the punishment…
- “When a company fights fines for OSHA violations, that goes through a review board,” he explained. “That board is appointed by the Governor, and it has two vacancies currently, so it’s handicapping the ability for them to hold these companies accountable.”
- Both the Governor’s Office and the Boring Company declined to show up at the meeting.
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