Nor'Town: Politics in North Las Vegas, Nevada

Opening At The Trough

Are you ambitious? Narcissistic? Enjoy the company of lawyer-lobbyists who make hundreds of thousands of dollars more than you? Would you love to receive large checks from casino operators, developers, and newspaper publishers who are wannabe casino bosses?

Well, then, you'll want to sign up for the Nor'Townie ward 4 City Council seat!

Now, you'll have to be at least 18 years old and live in ward 4 for a whole 30 days prior to June 30. So, it's too late now to grab a rental from a developer on the planning commission and set up shop!

And you can't have a felony conviction--although it's okay to have an FBI investigation or two in your past, as long as they didn't prosecute!

Oh, yeah, and you'll have to pucker up and figuratively smooch the nether regions of current members of the City Council, who will decide who gets a 2 year hitch representing the interests of casino owners and developers in Ward 4.

But, once you have that foot in the door, why you'll gain that cherished incumbent status! You'll receive campaign checks from the monied interests in Nor'Town who want to make sure you're amenable to all those zoning variances and business tax cuts incentives!

So, don't wait! Get your snout in early!

What Goes Around, Comes Around

It just seems odd to me. So, Park Highlands is headed for bankruptcy and all the developers who signed on to that had to sign on to the bankruptcy. (Sun,RJ)

All good fun, except that the City of North Las Vegas, and hence its taxpayers, is second on the list of creditors. Olympia Group owes us over $200,000.

But, wait. Olympia, under the guise of one of Garry Goett's innumerable Limited Liability Companies, has dumped at least $30,000 of that into local campaigns this season. (Check out C&O gaming and Summerset Development).

Take this step by step. We pay the city taxes. The city uses that money to pay for stuff that it gives to Olympia. That frees up Olympia to pay into political campaigns of politicians who decided to give it stuff.

Doesn't that mean that the taxpayers essentially contributed involuntarily to those campaigns?

Granted, Olympia's supposed to pay back that money, or at least what's left after the bankruptcy lawyers get down getting some of it written off. But that makes it look like we just loaned them the money for the contributions.

This daisy chain seems to happen in other cases, too. The city takes taxes to build Apex infrastructure and then Apex gives campaign contributions to those who decided to pay for the infrastructure.

And we're all sweating an alleged bribe of two grand when all this legal bribery, using our money, is going on, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars?

Hey, just asking.

The Usual Suspects

The usual suspects show up in the campaign finance report of incumbent Nor'Towner city councilman William Robinson. Now, I'm working off the March report because the next report isn't due until May 29, well into early voting, of course, since our campaign finance laws could have easily been written by a raving lunatic, and probably were.

The most generous contributors to Mr. Robinson's campaign are the developers who often visit him and his colleagues during city council meetings. Well, at least their lawyers do. Of the $114,000 that Robinson has on hand, I calculate that at least $69,000 came from developers, builders, mortgage lenders, and title companies. 

Among these was $10,000 from Gerry Garry Goett, whose Park Highlands development was the subject of a sales pitch gush recently from none other than our mayor-shill. (IBL) In fact just a few weeks after receiving the March 8th contribution, Williams voted in favor of zoning changes beneficial to Goett's company.

Also among the developers is $10,000 from BORPAC, a shadowy political action committee for the board of realtors which apparently doesn't bother complying with Nevada law by filing reports with the Secretary of State's office. Williams also scored a grand from the Home Builders' PAC, which at least files its reports.

Another developer, John Ritter, contributed $15,000 through four LLC's: Southwest Desert Equities, J.V. Properties, FLF 98 LLC, and Beltway I-15 LLC. The latter two are run by an LLC cleverly called Holdings Manager, LLC, run by Ritter.

Four casinos all together contributed $12,000 to Robinson, $10,000 from two Fertitta Brothers' projects. The Fertitta's were more generous in the 2003 election cycle.

No doubt we're all shocked, shocked! to discover gamblers and land sharks running the show on the city council. Okay, maybe not.

More Olympia Group Downgrades

Garry Goett's Olympia Group, hiding behind an army of LLC's, went before the North Las Vegas Planning Council Commission Wednesday night try to convince the council to let him shove medium and high density development into neighborhoods that don't want them yet again. This time two companies, November 2005 Land Investors and DRHI, Inc. were seeking zoning changes to create high density communities. 2005 November Land Investors is owned by Summerset Development Services which is run by Goett. DRHI is an LLC representing D.R. Horton, the real estate developer.

The Planning Council supported the proposal with all members supporting accept ex-City Master Planner Ned Thomas abstaining and Jo Cato was absent from the meeting.

A few citizens attempted to dissuade the Council. One neighbor said:

"We would have stayed on the other side of the city and we're real opposed to these high densities. Across from Deer Springs was supposed to be single family homes and high-end homes at that which would have improved property values"

Ken Angel, who said he was representing the Traditions community, had the same concerns and said that building 25 units per acre was a "slap in the face." He felt that the planned density would not "enrich our investment let alone our community."

Now part of what's going on is the city's move to put in a high-density, supposedly pedestrian-friendly neighborhood in what it calls the north 5th street project. The idea is to build a Green Valley "District"-like area filled with condos and shops connected to, well, Fremont Street I guess, by a currently non-existent "light rail" transportation system. The planning for the project seems to be in complete disarray. One staffer at the planning meeting asked the Planning Council to request the City Council to fill seven empty positions needed to keep up with the project. Planning Council members also wrestled with a developer's lawyer over a proposal to fill in a mixed-use patch with condos. Commissioner Ned Thomas, ex-planning guru for the city, complained that the parcel should be filled with shops so that people could walk to a local grocery store instead of stoking up the SUV for a trip to Smith's. He was the sole member of the commission to vote against the condos.

But just remember, the North 5th street thing is partially Ned's idea.And it may not be a bad idea, but at the present time, the City is bungling it and riling up the neighbors nearby.

Wonder when we're gonna hear what the Ward 4 candidates think of the project?

Cherchio has a little something from his site:

I support any improvement to East/West traffic flow on our major thoroughfares, but because these roads are so retail and commerce intensive, we can't easily follow a Super Arterial plan like the 5th Street corridor.  We can however, improve signal timing and lane improvements to better move traffic at peak times.

[UPDATE: About the light-rail thing. The Sun says it's dead. Oops. It looks like North 5th street will have to take the bus.]

Progress?

The RJ thought that the most interesting item at the North Las Vegas City Council Meeting Wednesday night was the proposed ordinance that will require the City Council, not just the rubber stampers in the Planning Commission, to approve special issue permits for adult businesses, pawn shops, and the payday usury biz. And, oh yeah, gotta have the obligatory pic of the Palomino stripper. O, seductive Nor'town, hail the ever tasteful RJ!

The Council was no doubt trying to show that it was paying attention to the referendums last Fall in which voters expressed their disgust with such businesses despite the fact that only the payday loans and pawn shops seem to be growth industries--the nudie clubs and salacious book stores seeming to prefer locations in Oscar Town and hotels near the strip. And it won't hurt the campaigns of William Robinson and Shari Buck if the ordinance gets passed on March 7th. It will certainly be interesting to see who comes out with lawyer in tow to argue agin it.

More interesting was one of the very few items that passed but not with the customary unanimous vote. Olympia Group, the 10th largest taxpayer in the county and run by our corporate overlord Garry Geott Goett, has decided that filling up Aliante with pricey high-end homes just ain't Nor'town. Instead, Olympia is planning to stuff medium and high density housing into the area "south of Grand Teton and East of Clayton," which had been originally zoned for a low-density master-planned community. And the Council went along without as much as a whimper. You'd think they'd be screaming about the downgrading of the property. What of those dreams of a Northern Summerlin, a Northern Henderson? Gone: nothing left but high-density Nor'town.

Wait. There was one dissent. Without a peep or a comment, boy scout Robert Eliason didn't support the ordinance. And the citizens of North Las Vegas can only wonder why he did not approve of such a sweet deal for developers and a poor one for Nor'town. He owes Nor'town an explanation, and if he really didn't like the idea, why didn't he try to persuade the rest of the Council to vote against? Aren't boy scouts honest and trustworthy? Or was he simply being obedient to his--and our--Corporate Overlords?

[UPDATE: Mayor Montandon received $10,000 in campaign contributions from Olympia on May, 17, 2005 (p. 9 CC&E)

Stephanie Smith, $2,000, April 6, 2005 (p. 2 CC&E) from Olympia.

Robert Eliason, $2,000, April 7, 2005 (p. 3 CC&E) from Olympia.

Shari Buck, $10,000, Dec. 21, 2006, (p. 3 CC&E) from South Valley Investors, a Geott LLC.

Shari Buck, $10,000, Dec. 31, 2006, (p. 2 CC&E) from C&O Holdings, a Geott LLC.]