Ely voters repudiated City Councilman Marty Westland in Tuesday election that swept most of the new good ol’ boys out of power and put a new slate on the council.
Westland was defeated by Kurt Carson 580 votes to 309. The other council incumbent Tammy Carlgren was also soundly defeated by Pat Robison 533 votes to 348. In the open race for Dale Derbidge’s seat Jolene Gardner and Mike O’Brien tied with 448 votes each.
The only incumbent to survive the thrashing was Mayor Melody Van Camp who bested Central Theater owner Don Purinton 478 to 414.
Van Camp victory was the only solace anti railroad supporters could take but it could also mean a bitterly divided city council not only on the railroad but on perhaps every single issue on the city agenda.
Van Camp will have to work with a very different city council than the one that appointed her to fill out the term of the late John Hickman a little over a year ago.
Hickman died just before the long simmering battle between the city council and the rail road management board erupted last summer amid accusations of fraud, theft and malfeasance, that also included a raid on railroad offices by two city councilmen Westland and Bruce Setterstrom and White Pine County Commissioner Mike Coster. The raid targeted the rail road offices looking for incriminating evidence of something last September.
Earlier that month the Northern Nevada Rail Road board petitioned senior Nevada Judge Bob Rose to intervene and reverse the removal of its chairman Ely Banker John Gianoli and Stephen Leith from the board.
Shortly after that suit was filed the railroad’s offices were raided and the railroad’s financial records were copied and downloaded to a portable device for the city’s contracted forensic auditor.
In addition to the raid the Ely City Council continued its efforts to replace all other long serving Management Board members with those of its own.
But as the battle for control of the railroad continues in city hall and now the courts many in Ely are wondering if there will be anything left of railroad to be claimed as a prize of war.
“For 30 years people not only in Ely but all of White Pine County and all of rural Nevada have donated their time and their money to improve the railroad to make it an international tourist attraction,” said one area businessman. “If that forensic auditor does not find a smoking gun proving out and out criminal fraud the city council has a whole lot of explaining to do.”
So far audits of the railroad have found far from stealing from the railroad, its employees particularly Executive Director Mark Bassett have lent the organization money when they should not have.
In fact it was those improper loans to the railroad the council first used as its reason to assert its control over the railroad and ‘clean house’.
What is troubling may Ely residents is that after the “cleaning” there might not be much of a house left.
As predicted by the railroad the ‘forensic audit’ of the Ely Historic Rail Road found no evidence of criminal wrong doing and the most egregious finding in the report had already been reported before.
“I am very satisfied with the outcome.” said Rail management board chairman John Gianoli.
Gianoli long with Bassett were the two of the biggest ‘bad guys’ styled by proponents of the audit
In the end the council incumbents who paid the price at the polls.