History and Authority

Lyon County was one of the nine original counties established by the Nevada Territorial Legislature in 1861. County government receives its authority from the Nevada Constitution and Nevada Revised Statutes

Nevada is a "Dillon's Rule" state.

Dillon’s Rule is the cornerstone of American municipal law. Under Dillon's Rule, a municipal government has authority to act only when :
(1) the power is granted in the express words of the statute, private act, or charter creating the municipal corporation;
(2) the power is necessarily or fairly implied in, or incident to the powers expressly granted; or
(3) the power is one that is neither expressly granted nor fairly implied from the express grants of power, but is otherwise implied as essential to the declared objects and purposes of the corporation.

The Dillon rule is used in interpreting state law when there is a question of whether or not a local government has a certain power. Judge Forest Dillon, the chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court expounded this famous rule, which was quickly adopted by state supreme courts around the nation.

Our Organizational Chart can be found here

Elected Officials

Board of County Commissioners - The Board of County Commissioners serves as the legislative branch of government by enacting ordinances to govern the county. The Board serves as the Executive branch by adopting policies and procedures, budgets and other duties and the Board serves in a quasi-judicial function in dealing with land use issues and county code violations.

The majority of the duties and responsibilities can be found in NRS243, NRS244, NRS244A
NRS245

Assessors Office
Clerk & Treasurer's Office
District Attorney's Office
District Court & Juvenile Probation
Justice of the Peace
Recorders Office
Sheriff & Coroner's Office

County Departments

Lyon County has five departments that are administered by the County Manager and Department Directors:

Department of Administration - The Department consists of the following divisions:
Animal Services
Comptroller
Human Resources
Information Technology
Risk Management

Department of Community Development - The Department consists of the following divisions
Building Division
Planning Division
Code Enforcement
Engineering and Survey

Department of Human Services - The Department consists of the following divisions:
Administrative Services
Child Services
Community Health Support
Public Guardian
Senior Services
Transportation Services

Department of Public Works - The Department consists of the following divisions:
Facilities Division (Facilities, Cemeteries, Parks and Open Space)
Road Division
Utilities Division

County Managers Office - The County Managers Office administers the following divisions:
Economic Development
Emergency Management
Public Administrator