Candidate for State Controller Ron Knecht talks about his experience as an economist at the candidate forum. (Garrett Estrada photo)
Local and state-wide candidates for the upcoming White Pine County general election got a chance to answer questions from the public and inform voters on why they are the best choice for the job at The Ely Times-sponsoredCandidate Forum at the convention center on Tuesday evening. Speaking to a crowd of over 140 locals, candidates for all of the local races and several state campaigns used their allotted time to go over their education backgrounds, their relevant experience and what issues they were most concerned with tackling upon being elected.
The four-hour event began with statewide candidate for Nevada Assemblyman John Ellison thanking those in attendance and speaking about how he has helped fight for important rural issues such as water rights alongside State Senator Pete Goicoechea. The format allowed for the candidate to speak for six minutes about themselves and their platform, before answering questions from the crowd. The presentations alternated between a candidate running for a state-wide position to a local one. In addition to addressing everyone in attendance at once, candidates also spent breaks in the forum answering questions one on one.
One of the most commonly asked questions from the audience in attendance was how candidates felt about ballot questions 2 and 3, referring to the Education Initiative (or Margin Tax) and an increased tax rate on mining companies respectively. Both ballot questions, were almost uniformly denounced, with only State Controller candidate Andrew Martin saying he was in support of ballot question 2. Phil Henry, a representative for the White Pine Tea Party, said he couldn’t be more opposed to both questions during a presentation by each political parties representative.
It is notable that all three “Party Spokespersons” for the Dems, Tea Party, and Repubs agree that Question 2 (Constitutional Change on Mining Tax) and Question 3 (Margin Tax on business (disguised as an education funding source)) were bad for Nevada, particularly rural Nevada. All three recommended a “NO” vote on these questions. The article failed to report that Phil Henry (Tea Party speaker) was not alone on this view — All three had the same recommendations.
It was nice to have that clarity of agreement for the voters of White Pine County: Vote NO on 2 and 3.
In my opinion. People of White Pine county, George Jones was disrespected at the candidates forum last Tuesday by both the candidate and the proctor for asking the following question related to the biography of Chris Dailey published in the Ely Times.
1. George started with his question a fact verification with the State Contractor’s Board that morning regarding the standing of Bristlecone Energy with their agency. Before he could finish the question he had, he was rudely interrupted by Mr. Dailey when Mr. Dailey blurted out “I refuse to honor that with a response.” Why?
Ref: …”CEO of Bristlecone energy, a local renewable energy company in good standing with the state ….” (Ely Times, Meet the Candidates, 10/10/2014).
Bristlecone energy does not now have and has not had a valid contractor’s license since 2011. Mr. Dailey and the proctor disrespectfully cut off Mr. Jones comment because his s6tatement specifically indicates that This company has NO active status with the state. Why was Mr. Jones so rudely interrupted? See attachment 1 for information available to anyone from the State website regarding Legitimate active contractors or call 775-688-1150 to verify whether someone you hire is legitimate same or not.
2. Mr. Jones tried to ask another question when the proctor said to move on.
“ I graduated from White Pine High School, attended UNR and hold a bachelor of Science Degree. After serving in the U.S. Naval Submarine Force, I worked as an Aerospace Engineer in the private sector. ” (Ely Times, Meet the Candidates, 10/10/2014).
At first this sounds impressive however, Mr. Jones, continued his question, with” You attended UNR from August 1970 to May 1976. A 6 year plan but still didn’t graduate.” At this point Mr. Dailey threw his tantrum and said “I refuse to honor that with a response.” Why? For those of you who have family and friends who have attended UNR, you can check this easily enough. The rest of you can check this but requires a little more effort. But look at Attachment 2. This is verification from UNR’s degree/attendee database that Mr. Dailey attended UNR for 6 years but did not graduate with a degree. Attendance only. The registrar has stated to me directly that they do not have nor ever had a curriculum for Aero Space Engineering.
So where did he get a Bachelor of Science Degree? IF he got a bachelor of Science degree, what was it in? From where? New York….. .Who did he work for as an Aero space Engineer? Why is he practicing Aerospace Engineering if he does not have an Engineering Degree? There does not seem to be anything that verifies these 3 separate comments made by Mr. Dailey. In my opinion, I believe he cannot substantiate or does not want anyone to verify any of this. It is by inference and if you do not read carefully you would make assumptions. I think any of you or your children would be proud that you got a Degree from almost any college especially if it was in Engineering since that is one of the STEM pluses. And who is ashamed of their Alma Mater unless there isn’t one?
Why is he ashamed of documenting his degree Alma Mater? What company hired him as an Aero Space Engineer if he was not an Engineer? Or was this his own business and he only represented himself as an AS Engineer? All the other candidates stated both their education and institution of completion. There is nothing that validates what he says are his qualifications.
3. What we did not get to cover before we were so rudely cut off is that Mr. Dailey stated
“ I retired from General Electric where I was named and credited with 6 patents……. My innovative approach to problems and solutions led to numerous patent s in the fields of process development , system design, and system integration…..” (Ely times, Meet the Candidates, 10/10/2014)
Do the search yourself people. “ Christopher Dailey, patents” and you end up with 3. So where are the other 3? Yes he worked for GE Medical, and you will find his name as one of many on 3 patents but none of them list him as the lead contributor. He was included as part of a team. Descriptions of the patent do not say who did what but as a technician for GE, he would not be listed as the lead unless he did in fact do the major part of the development. His position most likely was as perhaps the one who changed documents in the service manul for setting up the machines involved. Checking with and Engineering design Manager, one of the people still in the group that analyzes and develops systems requirements, and a retired program manager for that division of GE don’t remember Chris Dailey. Really? 6 patents and on no one’s radar?
Summary – In my opinion, we have lost an excellent Building inspector, an excellent county clerk, 2 people over the fire department, one to an unqualified head, and one who was convicted of inappropriate funds usage, and who knows how many more hirees by this county commission due to their abusive behavior to their employees. See “Chris Flanders’s resignation and Linn Burleigh’s opinion” Ely times. We nearly lost an excellent county employee, some of the very few who ever brought money into the county budget when he was illegally fired ten rehired due to this commission . Mr. Dailey said something about transparency and working well with others. Really? Didn’t show that in the meeting. We don’t need any more people who disrespect others just because they disagree or worse yet, we don’t need people who can’t communicate the facts correctly. And we all don’t need to be fact checking every single statement to see what part is right or wrong from every commissioner we vote in. Considering the county commissioners have found a way to circumvent the open meeting law in some cases, I believe Mr. Dailey’s statement about open meetings is just words. What part of his statement is correct?