Nor'Town: Politics in North Las Vegas, Nevada

Inny or Outy?

So, are you an inny or an outy? That is, do you think North Las Vegas should look for a police chief to replace recently booted retired Mark Paresi from inside the city, or should it conduct a nationwide search?

The Las Vegas Sun asked that question, and found out that Councilguys Robert Eliason and William Robinson are Innies. Looking for someone from the inside would be cheaper, and it looks like the city would be more likely to find somebody that fits in.

A search outside of the city presumably might find a better qualified candidate. Although, this seems to make a mockery of  the training North Las Vegas police receive. As Robinson wonders: “You got guys on the force we’ve spent all kinds of money on for training,” he said. “To say they are unqualified, we might as well fire them."

Sounds like a good time for another unscientific Nor'Town survey!!

Inny or Outy?

Do you think that North Las Vegas should recruit a new police chief from within the city, or should it make a nationwide search?

Inny = search inside NLV
Outy = search outside

Choose One     Inny!     Outy!

View Results

Gun-Crazy Mayor Can't Wait to Dump Gun Laws

This appears on a blog for some gun, ahem, enthusiasts:

Tim, one of our loyal readers, has received a letter from Mayor Mike Montandon of North Las Vegas indicating that he is fully in favor of doing away with the unconstitutional and now illegal firearms related ordinances found in his fair city. Mayor Mike is a firearms enthusiast himself and has been trying to convince his city council that these ordinances found in 9.32.010 through 9.36.200 of the City of North Las Vegas city code should be scrapped. We have heard that a major reason former NLV Police Chief Mark Paresi became “former” was based on his lack of support for Mayor Mike’s initiative. We’re crossing our fingers that the mayor gets the council to side with him before someone sues his city for violating Nevada State statutes. (PotShots)

If true, it seems the height of irresponsibility in a town plagued by gun toting thugs to allow them to so tote. Let's hope none of the Mayoral candidates are as enthusiastic to hand the city over to the criminals.

City Officially Announces Firing, er, Retirement of Paresi

The city of North Las Vegas has officially announced the firing, downsizing, lay off, voluntary retirement of former police chief Mark Paresi. (NLV)

You can see Paresi's severance documents, where, now that the amounts have all been agreed upon, everyone tells us how so very voluntary everything was, here. Paresi's getting just over $49,000 in severance pay.

Who Defaced Paresi's Photo?

We read this disturbing notice in the Review Journal:

PHOTOGRAPHS OF PROMINENT LAWMEN ADORN A LOBBY WALL at the North Las Vegas Police Department headquarters. But one photograph was missing last week: that of police Chief Mark Paresi.

Mayor Michael Montandon said Tuesday that Paresi will no longer serve as the city's police chief. Some cited low morale for Paresi's exit.

A local television journalist announced when the story broke that Paresi's photo had been removed from the wall because of his dismissal.

Turns out the photo was taken down months ago, perhaps foreshadowing Paresi's troubles. A person working at the desk told the Review-Journal it was removed by employees after someone defaced it. (RJ)

Gee. Makes you wish your city had a chief of police to look into the matter, don't it?

And wasn't that View News article on the Paresi removal enlightening? Almost one hundred words on the subject! Almost. They and their Review Journal backers should be suing for access to all information on the subject. That is, if they were aiming ever to be grown up newspapers.

Paresi Purged for Pandering to Portland Pal?

Rumors are flying rapidly through the usually sleepy city hall of North Las Vegas about the unduly mysterious firing removal of former police chief Mark Paresi.

Police Union representatives, who crawled all over themselves to praise City Manager Gregory Rose at the meeting he rewrote his own contract, refuse to comment on the firing removal, but some tattle tails are blaming Paresi's bad relations with the union and are whispering that the "final straw" was his placing a Portland pal in one of the new plum positions created last year in the police department. (Sun)

So, that's what happened? A couple of sob sisters in the department get miffed because their boss figured he had a better candidate than them for a job, so they run whining to the Mayor, who gives Paresi the boot? Is that how Nor'Town decisions are made?

And, talk about class! Whoever did the firing removal--maybe Gregory Rose?--snatched away the keys to Paresi's city car, so he had to find a ride home. No doubt all this was meant to put Paresi in a good mood for those severance payment negotiations. Well, so much for new parks.

Say, now that Rose has that great new severance package for himself, do you think the Mayor will fire remove him?

Secrecy Reigns in "Firing" of North Las Vegas Police Chief

North Las Vegas Police Chief Mark Paresi got his pink slip Tuesday. Or maybe Monday. It's hard to tell because the city is being a bit secretive about the whole affair. (RJ)

Now, in a democracy, government is supposed to be transparent so that the ultimate rulers, that's us, the voters, can have enough information about what's going on so that we can make informed decisions about who to pick to run things.

In North Las Vegas, however, we get stonewalling and deflection from our elected officials when it comes to justifying their decisions.

Mayor Montandon gave us this:

"You can't portray this as a firing, but he is leaving," Montandon said.

"There are changes we need to make that both we and he feel can't be made with him at the helm," he said.

So, don't Nor'Towners get to know what those changes are and why they can't be made.

Councilgal Stephanie Smith rewarded us with the enlightening bit:

"Everybody has their strong points and weaknesses, and unless they've done something that's egregious or a violation of the public trust, you don't need every piece of your dirty linen aired."

She said Paresi had improved training at the Police Department and had been a proponent of community policing.

But "it's a good time for both him and the city" for him to leave, Smith said.

So, WHY is it a good time for him to leave?

Councilguy and Mayor Pro Temp Robinson just seemed out of the loop:

Councilman William Robinson said he did not know Paresi's current status with the city. He said the only complaint he had with Paresi's job performance was that the chief had not done enough to recruit more minority police officers.

"He didn't do some things I thought he should have done, but there are a lot of (city) employees I feel that way about," Robinson said.

Nor'Towners will have to pick their next mayor based on candidate's past decisions among other things. But, as usual, we have no idea how they made the decision to fire or layoff or whatever just happened to Paresi. I can't help wondering if that's part of the reason for their being so hush-hush about the whole thing.

Or could this be the beginning of all those political firings that we were warned about and were used as the excuse for giving the city manager such a nice new shiny contract? So much for that "stability" argument.

This is one of the few instances where I actually agree with the Las Vegas Review Journal's Editorial Bored. And, no, I didn't misspell that.