Councilman went in through window
The Nevada Northern Railway’s Executive Director Mark Bassett holds up an old sign that still hangs on the outside walls of the railroad’s machine shop, saying “politicians positively prohibited.”
(Garrett Estrada photo)
City Councilman Bruce Setterstrom walks out of the railroad offices Tuesday night.
(Garrett Estrada photo)
Forensic Auditor and Fraud Examiner Nicholas Miller speaks with City Councilman Marty Westland in the railroad’s parking lot Tuesday night.
(Garrett Estrada photo)
Members of the Ely City Council and Railroad Board of Trustees entered a closed railroad office through the building’s second floor windows Tuesday afternoon in order to unlock the front door to let an auditor inside.
According to Ely Mayor Melody Van Camp, the auditor came up from Las Vegas on Tuesday to begin gathering documentation for a forensic audit approved by the council at a prior meeting.
As per the railroad’s posted hours, the museum and offices were closed all day Tuesday and the Railroad’s Executive Director Mark Bassett was on vacation. After several attempts to contact Bassett on short notice to open the office’s doors for the auditor failed to receive a reply, the members of the council moved onto finding another means of entry to the building.
After receiving permission from both White Pine County Sheriff Dan Watts and City Attorney Richard Sears, Councilman Bruce Setterstrom proceeded to climb a ladder up to the second story balcony of the railroad’s offices and enter through a window by removing an air conditioning unit.
Once inside, Setterstrom came downstairs and unlocked the front door, allowing the mayor and the auditor to gain entrance to the building. City Councilman Marty Westland was also present for the auditor’s entrance into the building and remained inside while the auditor gathered the documentation.
“This is the only way to get easy information,” Van Camp said, calling the whole incident, “not a big deal.”
Bassett didn’t agree, calling the entrance a “break-in.” Referring back to a recent restraining order filed by the railroad’s management board, Bassett called the forensic audit a “moot point” due to it being “agendized improperly and never given public comment.”
The executive director criticized the council members methods, saying that Setterstrom and Van Camp tried to harass railroad employees into opening the locked doors.
“They elected to break into the building,” Bassett said. “They knew we were closed today. (Setterstrom) threatened two of my employees here. We filed a police report on his actions.”
The police report filed also included a threat by Setterstrom against The Ely Times reporter, who arrived while the council members and the auditor were in the building.
Once inside, Nicholas Miller, the auditor representing the auditing firm Bertsch, CPA & Associates, LLP, plugged into computers within the office to gather the documentation. Van Camp said that communication issues with the management board were to blame for the late notice of the auditor’s visit.
“I knew that the train was closed but I knew there would be somebody around. No management board, nobody will talk to any of us. The management board members communications were blocked, they won’t respond, they won’t talk, they won’t do anything,” Van Camp said. “So we could not alert them to say that our auditor was coming.”
Vice-Chairman of the Railroad Management Board Roger Bowers refuted the mayor’s claims of being inaccessible, saying that he had “never received anything from the mayor.”
Scott Husbands, the lawyer representing the railroad management board, said a “court would have to look over” whether or not Setterstrom was legally allowed entrance to the building, despite the city attorney and sheriff’s approval.
Husbands, whose firm Gianoli Husbands PLLC partnered with an Elko law firm Goicoechea, DiGrazia, Coyle and Stanton to draft and eventually file a lawsuit on behalf of the railroad management board suing the city council and board of trustees, said that “common sense” would have shown that not enough notice was given for the auditor’s visit Tuesday.
“There wasn’t any notice. The railroad was closed on Tuesday, like it always is on Tuesdays and Mark was on vacation,” Husband said. “For them to just show up to the depot, unannounced, when the depot is closed and expect it to be opened and expect someone to show up and sit with them while they go through those things to see what they are taking, we just didn’t have a chance to do that. They just decided to break in.”
Tuesday night’s events follow a crowded city council meeting held on Aug. 28, where the council and railroad board of trustees appointed two new members to the railroad management board, Judy O’Brien and Terry Walker. A controversial agenda item to release the other three remaining members of the board was tabled until the council’s next meeting, due to the pending lawsuit by the board.
According to Van Camp, the immediacy with which the auditor was summoned to Ely was largely due to a former railroad employee releasing information to the trustees and the auditor himself.
“This former employee was very passionate, and just really upset and felt like the new management board members needed to know of some things,” Van Camp said, who would not release the identity of the former employee or what they might have said that sparked the auditor traveling up to town on Tuesday.
It is a shame that Mayor VanCamp allowed this to happen when she sent a letter to members of the Railroad Management Board on Friday saying she would like everyone to take a 7 day cooling off period to see if things could work out. She knew that the Railroad was closed on Tuesday’s so by sending the letter to the Management Board asking for a cooling off period and ordering the auditor to be here on a Tuesday right after the Holiday shows her actions to be unethical. It was as legal for them to break in to the Railroad saying they are part owners as it would be for me to break into City Hall using the excuse that I’m part owner of it because I am a tax paying citizen of the city of Ely. I think it is time for all of them to be RECALLED from office.
Rick Stork
Rick: I don’t think you understand the ownership concept here. Read the press release from the Sheriff’s Office. Taxpayers don’t have ownership in public property. More importantly, I don’t think you understand the idea of fiduciary duty, and the idea of the Council discharging their oath in service to the City. Just some things to think about.
Wow!! Just wow…..
Sirs, I am not from Ely, or even Nevada, but I have visited the Nevada Northern RR, in 2013, stayed in the bunkhouse a few nights, took some rides, had a shop tour….it was a wonderful experience. The NN is recognized as one of the crown jewels of the railroad preservation community. I do realize that the city was the beneficiary of a huge gift when, as I understand it, the railroad owners donated the entire NN to the city of Ely, on the condition that the city operate the railroad as a museum, something the museum staff has done admirably. For the city to commit multiple criminal actions on the flimsiest of excuses should not and cannot be tolerated. city officials are sworn to uphold, not violate, the law.Those responsible for these crimes should be charged, and summarily removed from office. I would favor the removal of the city of Ely from any connection with the Nevada Northern Railroad or the museum, given their egregious violation of trust. Stanford White
I fully agree with you.
Ely city’s action were criminal.
this is what happens when you have democrats in charge. no respect for the law or peoples rights.
I think this is a break-in, pure and simple.
The entire city council and mayor should be charged if not the actual break-in but as accomplices. They had full knowledge of the action.
Please, do correct me if I am wrong, but is the Nevada Northern Railway Museum not owned by the city of Ely? If so, could someone PLEASE explain to me how accessing their own property (you folk say breaking in) to audit suspicious questionable activities by the Executive Director, breaking and entering? Someone also explain to me how this isn’t a conflict of interest: Mark Bassett wrote the rules, under no supervision other than his own, to dictate that he could select/hand pick the board of directors – HIS BOSSES – the President of the Board happens to be the President of the First National Bank of Ely, which Mark uses as the Railroad’s bank. Nobody’s concerned about that? Really? How about this: Mark Bassett was told by the same board that he picked that he could not have his wife, Joan, working for the railroad, and he ignored them without repercussion, ignore your bosses anywhere else and you get fired, isn’t that called insubordination? Funny, she claimed to be the Curator, but was also functioning as Bookkeeper. No conflict yet? Last I heard she is still there. Mr Bassett looks pretty down in the picture, I hope the gravity of his actions are weighing heavily upon him. I see he is indeed holding the sign from the machine shop, those signs weren’t simply screwed to the walls, any bets on if it was replaced to its former location? No politicians? They are ultimately his bosses, his clubhouse is getting busted up, about time.
RS-32, actually the railroad is not owned entirely by the City, it was gifted equally to the Foundation and the City of Ely by Kennecott. Mark Basset does not hand pick the board, they are appointed by the Board of Trustees which is comprised of City Council members. Additionally are you suggesting that because of where someone works they can’t be involved in our community – that is ridiculous. Finally, how do you know that the management board told Mark his wife couldn’t work at the railroad? While you check your facts maybe you should also state that Joan Basset has a Masters degree and is highly qualified for the position not to mention that the railroad also has a well respected CPA review their books monthly!! Isn’t it in the best interest of our railroad to have the most qualified people working for it? I would say your argument is busted up.
I’ve made the trip from the midwest to Ely only one time and it’s a remarkable place.
What concerns me here is what happens if the data is password protected, which any prudent would do, and the CPA can’t figure out the password.
The whole thing sounds pretty unprofessional to me, different story if had been something like an FBI raid
I can’t believe that you people I can’t believe that you people that live in that t that live in that town can’t see how corrupt it truly iseveryone there seems to have blinders on they think everything is happy and cheerful and the town is wonderful and it’s a great tourist attraction but in all actuality it’s full of crime full of sin stupidity and down right disgusting actions on the part of the local politiciansthis town used to be a place that someone would want to raise their children now it’s a place that people fear their children will be given drugstaught to visit brothelsand given the alcohol and taught how to do crime at its best. this town has gotten so far off track it doesn’t surprise me that the railroad has been derailed by its own town and its own supportersyou drive through this town and all you see are second hand storesand trashy buildings that are falling apart and trash in general on the streetsthe houses are falling apart and look dilapidated.how can this town expect to have any pride in its town and in its people if it looks the way that it does and the people act the way that they do.it seems that the elected officialsare worse than the ones that were recalled before!this town has become the laughing stock of the entire stateand all of the other states that surround it.it’s very hard for people to care about Italian and put work into it if the people running the town are so corrupt.new businesses wanted to come and open up in this town but were told if they came there that all of downtown would be put out of business yet when you drive through this town all of the businesses downtown did close and junky stores opened in their placemy family used to come to this town every summer on vacationand we would ride the train and take part in all of the local 4th of July activitiesbut now we are afraid to come to your town and afraid to partake in any activities for fear of being accused of being just as corrupt as the town itselfI truly feel sorry for the good people that still live there that they have to deal with such corrupt officials and policemen it seems in that town that there is more on the police blotter everyday then there is in the good news section of the newspaperthis is truly a sad day for your town as for me and my family we will not be returningto vacation or have any business dealings in your town again
There may be a group of people with less integrity and common sense than the Ely City Council but I ,must say that who that might be escapes me.at this moment. What they did to John Gianolii and Steve Leath was dispictable. It was only exceeded by this little — well, huge– lapse in judgement. If this is how they treat people, they need to be treated as the criminals they chose to be and be impeached from the Ely City Council.
The guilty parties need to do jail time- being politicians does not mean they are above the law. Will the police actually file charges?
This behavior is simply disgusting.
How could the sheriff and city attorney authorize such an act?
The entire city council and mayor of Ely, NV, are criminals — and should be removed from office — as well as being charged with criminal trespass!. And to even consider that the local Sheriff and Prosecuting Attorney agreed with the break-in! They are not any better at all! THE BUMS!
The City Council has oversight responsibilities. The NNRR has fiduciary responsibilities, which include audits. Let’s see what the audit reveals.
I am not from Ely, but visit… 5 times in the last 5 years, most recently in July, to visit the railroad, staying in local hotels, eating at restaurants.. It is a true national treasure.I am less concerned about the theatrics about the break in, but more concerned about the relationship between the railroad and its management team and the city…
Ely is about as far from anything else as anything in the lower 48 states… Tourists only come because you are on Hwy 50, “the loneliest road” (some of us know Hwy 6 is lonelier), because of the Nevada Northern, and a few because of Great Basin National Park… The City needs to work with the railroad instead of fighting with it… The railroad needs to work with the City as well…
I hope cooler heads from both will sit down and talk…
Randy Hees
SERIOUSLY?!?! Since when does a Sheriff have the authority to ‘authorize’ breaking and entering and other criminal activity? Either these elected public officials were ‘out to lunch’ or were ‘just kidding’ when they took the “Oath of Office”. Ely will always be my hometown but, for this instance; WHAT AN EMBARRASSMENT! THIS CIRCUS NEEDS NEW CLOWNS!!!
This town is so corrupt and is the laughing stock of the whole state!
this town makes Nevada true to its roots old mining towns and gunslingers and
brothels the only is these guys aren’t slingin guns there slingin lies and corruption!
How long are the people of this town gonna take this kind of crap??
I would suggest you all check your facts before slinging mud. The city (You good taxpaying folks) is indebted to the tune of more money than they can afford to pay for the Railroads spend thrift actions….There is more to this than meets the eye. This story is onesided and disjointed….
I suppose I would ask Glen what “the tune of more money than they can afford” means? Could you just be repeating rumors? It seems to me if you had the facts it wouldn’t just be “more money” but an actual verifiable amount. I would argue your should take your own suggestion and check your facts as well. In any case, whether the City had authority to access the building or not it sure doesn’t look good. How can they claim to care about the best interest of the railroad and then blindside the Executive Director the day after a holiday when the railroad was closed and he was on vacation. It doesn’t appear they have the best interest of the railroad at heart. I feel it is yet another example of the witch hunt we find our council members engaging in and I hate to say it, but the facts are the facts, Marty Westland clearly has a conflict which I believe seriously questions his ability to remain unbiased. Additionally, when they broke in there was not a recognized representative of the railroad present, so how can we trust anything that comes from this “audit”. An auditor worth their weight would know better. At the end of the day this railroad matters so I certainly hope the City will try to behave like adults in the future.
Hasn’t the railroad been audited in previous years. One would think if anything was wrong, it would have been discovered by now. Also, in my mind the end doesn’t justify the means. City councils actions should be above reproach. LETS START ACTING LIK3E DULTS FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!
As far as our retirement planning is concerned Ely was once considered a front runner but not now.
One of the attractions we considered an asset to the small town of Ely is the NNRR. We discussed what the existing and future liabilities of this asset is to the local tax base and its possible affects on the local small business community.
Firing at-will employees, terminating RR board members and breaking into city owned buildings with the help of the local sheriff and city attorney makes for the kind of uncertainty that is not conducive to the of atmosphere needed for small business to thrive.
One of our retirement options would require a zoning exemption but that seems out of the question in light of the dysfunction city government. We are disappointed.
Respectfully submitted.
Clinton and Geri Hodges
Anchorage, AK
All this craziness could have been avoided if only Mr. Basset would have provided the information requested by the council. This council has taken on a mess that should have been resolved by the prior council. These problems have been on going for many months if not years. It appears to me that the RR has done and will do almost anything to avoid giving the council the info requested. Is there something to hide?. In my opinion the “Guilty Dog Barks the Loudest”.
So there are problems between the City Council and the RR. There have been issues for some time. None of which I am qualified to solve and certainly don’t understand. So why can’t the officials in charge of this mess understand it and fix it? Fixing it does not warrant the kind of actions that the Council and Mayor took. If the City of Ely is the owner or ‘Landlords’ of the RR, should they not be using better judgement about entering their ‘tenants’ building. If my Landlord broke into my place and
confiscated my property, I would definitely go for legal action against them. According to the Times, the Foundations bylaws (article five) states “all books and records of the corporation may be inspected by any member,his agent or attorney, for any proper purpose at any reasonable time.” Sounds sensible to me…but was it at a reasonable time? Don’t think so.
Three words – Subpoena Duces Tecum! An easily prepared legal document served under the provisions of the Nevada Rules of Civil Procedure, which is typically quite effective when discovery/evidence is being sought. . .