Note: Nevada OSHA The Boring Company Inspection No. 1799833 case file document and Division of Industrial Relations legal memorandum TBC- The Boring Company Citation Issues with Inspection No. 1799833 have been uploaded to an online document folder and can be accessed here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/kqqke64fwncarz200q99t/AJ0di8c7sncQLjTYd7NzKds?rlkey=276c2ihzpqsulqo95i8arw4ts&e=1&st=2z641kvn&dl=0
Call from the Governor’s office
On May 28, Department of Business and Industry (“B&I”) Director Dr. Kristopher Sanchez received a call from Chris Reilly to discuss a matter that had come to his attention. Representatives from The Boring Company had reached out to express their concern with a notice of citation and penalty issued by Nevada OSHA that was hand-delivered to them earlier that day. Director Sanchez walked from the legislative building to Reilly’s office to discuss the matter. At that time Director Sanchez indicated that he would look into it. No commitments beyond that were made and at no time did the governor’s staff pressure, imply or direct that the agency take any specific action beyond engaging in a fact-finding exercise.
Internal fact-finding meetings
Director Sanchez convened a meeting with Division of Industrial Relations (“DIR”) and Nevada OSHA (“NV OSHA”) administrators and legal counsel the following morning, May 29 to review and discuss the citations. During that meeting, Division legal counsel reviewed the citations (the first time a legal review of the citations had been conducted in contravention of agency best practices) and determined that the citations were in fact legally insufficient, finding that three of the four legal requirements – standard applies, standard violated, employee exposure, and employer knowledge – were not met. At that time, the decision was made by Nevada OSHA to withdraw the citations pending further review.
Meeting with The Boring Company
A meeting was held on the afternoon of May 29 between state officials and The Boring Company representatives. Attendees included Chris Reilly, Governor’s Office; Kris Sanchez, B&I Director; Amanda Flocchini, B&I Chief of Staff; Victoria Carreon, Division of Industrial Relations Administrator; William Gardner, Nevada OSHA Chief Administrative Officer; Steve Davis, Nicholas Smith, Chris Young, and Tyler Fairbanks of The Boring Company; and Ruben White of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, among others.
At the beginning of the meeting, Director Sanchez announced that Nevada OSHA had withdrawn the citations prior to the meeting pending further review. Because the citations were withdrawn that morning by NV OSHA due to legal insufficiency, an informal conference was not convened or warranted. Had the legal review determined that the citations were validly issued, the process would have continued, and the company would have determined how to proceed with the next steps available to them in that process: informal conference, formal contest, or payment of the penalties as issued.
Even though the citations had been withdrawn prior to the meeting, company representatives chose to present information relevant to the invalid citations including documentation of training, receipts for personal protective equipment (PPE), and specifics around the conduct of the two Clark County Fire Department members that were injured during the training event in an effort to ensure B&I and DIR leadership had a better understanding of why they felt the citations were unwarranted. During the presentation, the company outlined that despite the PPE requirements set forth in the training plan, these members chose to only wear a portion of the required PPE, failed to utilize the provided transportation choosing to walk into the tunnel instead, and refused to immediately return to the surface for remediation. This conduct was alarming enough that retired CCFD firefighter and onsite training liaison John Wiercinski was heard yelling “what the f*ck” to those firefighters. (A copy of the company’s presentation is included in the documents folder.)
Subsequent Review of Additional Information
Nevada OSHA reviewed all of the documents that were provided and based on that review, in conjunction with the prior finding that the citations were legally insufficient, determined that the citations were unwarranted and should not be reissued. A second closing conference was subsequently held on June 6, 2025, when the employer was informed that citations would not be issued.
Finding of legal insufficiency led to additional scrutiny, immediate action by Division officials
The review of the case on May 29 ultimately determined that the case file was signed off on through the proper chain of command but that the best practice of submitting willful citations for a legal review was not followed. Division of Industrial Relations Administration began reviewing Nevada OSHA’s existing policies and procedures in June to ensure that a comprehensive casefile review would be conducted going forward. As a result, four new policies were subsequently issued including:
· NV-OPS-001 Violation Worksheet (effective July 21)
· NV-OPS-002 Inspection Narrative (effective July 21)
· NV-OPS-003 Inspection Report (effective August 19)
· 2025-01 Willful Review and High-Profile Inspection Policy (effective June 5)
DIR officials openly acknowledge that there were mistakes made by Nevada OSHA and that the citations were improperly issued. However, because of the scale and unique nature of the project, Nevada OSHA has a long history of interaction with and oversight of The Boring Company, which includes quarterly meetings with company officials beginning in 2022 before they began digging their first tunnel. Nevada OSHA has conducted eight inspections, five of which found no violations and one inspection that resulted in eight citations which were validly issued and currently pending before the OSHA Review Board, an independent board that adjudicates contested cases.
There are currently two open inspections. In these cases, and all others, if a violation is found and circumstances of the citation meet the required elements, a citation and notice of penalty will be issued.
Reporter inquiry identifies casefile deficiencies
After a reporter filed a public records request to Nevada OSHA for the casefile that was fulfilled in October, several issues related to the casefile quality were identified, and questions arose about case documentation that was not included in the produced file.
Notably, a casefile diary had been provided to the reporter outside of the public records request process by an OSHA employee. That casefile diary included a line-item with the initials “WG” (William Gardner, who was then serving as Nevada OSHA’s CAO but resigned on July 28, 2025) that indicated there was a meeting held on May 29: “CAO met with TBC reps, Director’s Office, Governor’s Office.” The casefile diary document that was produced by the public records office in October did not include that line-item reference.
DIR administration and B&I leadership had no knowledge of a second casefile document or potential alterations to the document until the matter was highlighted by the reporter. A forensic analysis of the document was conducted but was inconclusive in determining who modified the document and when.
The May 29 meeting was fully disclosed in an answer about the timeline of events before the casefile discrepancy was highlighted by the reporter. No attempt was made by current NV OSHA public records officials, Division of Industrial Relations administration or Department of Business and Industry officials to hide, delete or otherwise deny that the Governor’s office contacted the Department and that subsequent meetings were held regarding the matter. At no time did B&I or DIR leadership instruct Nevada OSHA’s leadership or staff to apply preferential treatment to this case or any other involving The Boring Company, or delete, withhold or otherwise hide information pertaining to the May 29 meeting.
Additionally, an allegation was made that after the May 29 meeting, the three citations against The Boring Company “disappeared” from the casefile. The citations were subsequently produced to the reporter, and the citations were added back to the file. At this time, we have no information that would lead us to believe that the files were removed in conjunction with, or as a result of the May 29 meeting.
In each instance, Nevada OSHA moved quickly to rectify the identified issue to ensure that the quality of the casefile was intact moving forward.
Allegations and perception of political interference
The Governor’s office frequently receives complaints and inquiries from constituents and licensees. It is standard practice for the Governor’s office to reach out to Department leadership to assist in resolving these complaints or informational inquiries. The majority of the complaints that are referred to the Department relate to specific cases or actions taken by our regulatory agencies or boards and commissions.
The outreach to the Governor’s office from The Boring Company is not an anomaly and only stands out due to the high-profile nature of the business because of its affiliation with Elon Musk. The Department has never been directed by the Governor’s office to come to a predetermined outcome in the review and resolution of these complaints. In this instance, Director Sanchez walked away from his interaction with the Governor’s office on May 28 with staff’s support for Nevada OSHA to keep the citations in place if the proposed citations were found to have merit and could be validated.
At no time did the Department of Business and Industry or Division of Industrial Relations leadership feel pressured or instructed to withdraw the citations by the Governor, his staff or any third party.
Legal analysis (attached and included in the online documents folder)
Due to the growing and misguided attempt to paint this as a process tainted by political interference as opposed to what it was, a failure of process that DIR leadership took immediate actions to address, we are providing a more specific legal analysis of the citations and the rationale relied upon to withdraw those citations. This legal review was the only factor that was considered when making the ultimate determination of the validity of these citations.
Statement from Director Sanchez
“While publicly acknowledging these mistakes is uncomfortable, it’s important for both employers and employees to know that this agency is committed to doing its job in a way that ensures Nevada’s employees have access to a safe, healthy workplace, and businesses have confidence that the agency will regulate them in a fair and impartial manner. As Nevada’s only workplace safety regulator, it’s critical that Nevada OSHA is getting it right 100% of the time.
At my direction, Nevada OSHA and the Division of Industrial Relations have operated on the principle of maximum transparency related to the production of documents and acknowledgement of the shortcomings identified during this process. Considering this transparency, it’s unfortunate that the narrative is focused on and driven by political posturing in what is an otherwise non-political process. My only instruction to DIR and Nevada OSHA staff regarding this investigation and moving forward is that companies should get what they earn. My expectation is that every one of our agencies follow the laws and facts of each case, not conjecture and politics.
When I was first appointed, I directed our divisions to conduct an ongoing assessment of the operations to make government more accessible and work for Nevadans. I applaud the Division of Industrial Relations for taking swift action in early June to act quickly to begin a review of their internal policies and procedures, address staff performance issues, and make the needed changes to ensure the integrity of the process moving forward.”
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NV.gov
