According to various Las Vegas media outlets, Clark County Commissioner Tom Collins abruptly resigned his position Monday, Aug. 10 with no prior notice or follow-up explanation.
Collins has represented Mesquite on the County Commission since his election to that body in 2005. His current term, ending in 2016 was destined to be his last on the Commission due to Nevada Constitution term limits.
“We did not get any prior notice nor have we had any communication from him as our elected representative,” Mesquite Mayor Al Litman told the Mesquite Local News on Tuesday afternoon. “He always was an absentee Commissioner in Mesquite so it doesn’t surprise me that we haven’t had any notification about the situation.”
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s front page story on Tuesday, Collins announced his resignation in a post on his Twitter account directed to Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval. Reportedly, no other Commissioners or public officials were notified.
The Governor will be responsible for appointing Collins’ replacement who must be in the same political party. Collins is a Democrat.
Collins won his 2012 re-election bid over Ruth Johnson (R) who previously served on the Clark County School District Board of Directors.
Collins was well-known for his irascible temperament often lacing his outbursts with profanity and what some called inappropriate behavior. His reputation as the ‘Cowboy Commissioner’ was well-earned for more reasons than just his hat and boots.
During the 2012 election season, Collins was cited by North Las Vegas Police for discharging a firearm inside the city limits when he shot up a tree on his property. In a separate incident, a woman was sent to the hospital after a bull escaped from his property and attacked her.
Collins created an angry response from a Piute County, UT, commissioner during the 2014 confrontation between local rancher Cliven Bundy and the Bureau of Land Management when he referred to Utahns as ‘inbred bastards.’ Rather uncharacteristically, Collins later apologized publicly for his outburst.
The Las Vegas R-J reported that the Clark County Manager Don Burnette recently blocked all emails sent from Collins’ personal email account to County employees. Several emails from Collins to County staff were profanity-laden and Burnette called them “completely inappropriate and unacceptable” according to the R-J article.
