Nor'Town: Politics in North Las Vegas, Nevada

This Ain't Mikey's City Council Anymore

The ouster of City Manager Gregory Rose seems to have been a full-out rebellion against the so far short lived reign of mayor Shari Buck.

It was striking that the mayor was unable to cajole even one of her companions on the City Council to vote for Rose. It's been well known for a while that there was no love lost between Mr. Rose and council members William Robinson and Robert Eliason, both of whom voted against the lucrative enhancements to Mr. Rose's contract. (Sun) Richard Cherchio dissatisfaction with Mr. Rose was evident more recently apparently due to the wrangling over the "More Cops" fund. (KLAS)

Nonetheless, the mayor was not even able to convince Anita Wood or Mr. Cherchio to support Gregory Rose. This despite their votes to support his annual performance review in August, 2009. (Sun)

The shift raises the question of just how much political power will the mayor be able to wield. Will the rest of the council form it's own powerbase and leave the mayor to repeat her petulant phrase from just prior to the Rose vote: "do what you're going to do"?

So, this ain't mayor Mike Montandon's city council anymore. And it may not even be Shari Buck's.

On another note: The more I think about it, the idea that Mr. Rose should simply be let go so that the city can get the sorry affair "behind us" serves the interests of everyone involved--except those of voters. Voters will eventually face the difficult question, and responsibility, of deciding who will be the best mayor or councilperson for their ward, and it is extremely relevant to that question if a candidate aided and abetted Mr. Rose in some potentially illegal bookkeeping. Voters, therefore, need to resolve the very question council wishes to avoid: Did Mr. Rose engage in any illegal activities or not? And if he did, did anyone on council know about it?

Forgetting the affair may be good for council, but it's not so good for the rest of us.

Marathon Special Sessions of City Council Coming Up Friday and Saturday

Woah. Besides the Redevelopment Meeting Weds. Oct. 7th at 5:30pm and the Regular City Council Meeting, same day at 6pm, City Council will be holding a marathon special session over TWO DAYS this week.

Friday, Oct. 9th from 10am 11am to 6pm and Sat. from 9am to 3pm, Council will be taking up all sorts of topics such as

• Nevada Open Meeting Law and the Ethics in Government Law.
• Examination of Council's and the City Manager's Charter Role.
• City Council Protocols.
• Setting City Priorities.
• City's 2009-2010 Annual Work Plan.

That Council's taking up some of this stuff is kinda scary since some of those issues are pretty fundamental to how city government works. Might be a good idea to stop by.

Why not? Your house is probably foreclosed and you're out of work anyways.

You did say your were from Nor'Town didn't ya?

NOTE: Friday and Saturday meetings are at Aliante Library 2400 West Deer Springs Way, North Las Vegas, Nevada. (What? Alexander Library snubbed again?)

Meetings are at City Hall.

Kiel Ranch Meeting at 4:30pm Today

As the Review Journal reports, City Council will discuss funding for the "cheapest" plan for Kiel ranch today. (RJ)

However, the discussion will take place at a special meeting of the City Council at 4:30 pm at city hall. (Agenda) So, if you show up for the regular meeting at 6:00, you'll miss the fun. There'll also be talk of reducing health insurance benefits to city workers as part of the continuing budget crisis.

Gee, you think city workers are part of that so-called majority of Americans satisfied with their current health plan? I think they only ask members of Congress in those polls, don't you?

Anyways, stop by to find out why there's plenty of money for a seven-story, palatial new city hall, but not for the historic site of Nor'Town's first drive-by shooting--or health care for city workers.

The regular meeting won't have the fun part about setting up the casino for Credit Suisse's ghost-town at Park Highlands, either, as the Agenda claims. The lawyer-lobbyists have asked for a postponement, and Council never disappoints them. Too much campaign money at stake.

Budget Disconnect

We sure keep hearing about how clever and foresighted North Las Vegas is from the mayor:

However, Buck said, the overall economy's dire state has been tempered somewhat in North Las Vegas due to good planning and pent-up demand for services. For example, since 2005, the city has put aside about 18 percent of its revenues annually. That compares favorably with the 10 percent reserved by most cities, she said.

Today, North Las Vegas is still setting aside 14 percent of its revenue. (LVBinessPress)

Well, good thing, cuz apparently at the council meetings last Wednesday, which I was unable to attend due to factors having to do with a salary, Nor'Town's hired economic guns and the finance manager scared the bejeebers out of everybody else:

North Las Vegas may need to cut another $7 million from its budget before next summer because tax revenue and growth-related fees continue to come in below expectations.

The city’s financial director, Phil Stoeckinger, told City Council members Wednesday night that the recession and high unemployment likely will force the city to make corrections in the current fiscal year that ends June 30, 2010.

That could mean cutting programs and services, renegotiating concessions with unions and reviewing fees the city charges, Stoeckinger said. (Sun)

And

A steeper than expected decline in revenue at the end of the 2009 fiscal year left the city scrambling to make up a $14 million shortfall for 2010. The 2010 fiscal year began July 1.

Consolidated tax receipts for May were more than 28 percent lower than a year earlier, the worst decline since at least 1980. It was the ninth consecutive month of double-digit decline in such revenue for the city.

Unemployment in North Las Vegas is at 14.8 percent, compared to 13.1 percent in Las Vegas and 12.5 percent statewide. (RJ)

So, when was the mayor planning to tap into all that rainy day set-aside money, assuming the city really is still putting as much aside as she claims? Seems a little drizzly out there now, don't it?

But wait! The city's got a plan!

The city will also turn to its employees to brainstorm about ways to save money. This month, 10-percent of the staff will be randomly selected to offer their input on where they see waste. The goal is to save jobs. (LVNow)

Say, maybe one of you city employee's--I see you peeking back there!--ought to review a recent suggestion sent in to the R-J, according to which incumbents who are half-way through a term of office and choose to run for another, must pay for a special election to fill their old seat. (RJ) Why not charge 'em a little extra during hard times, to sweeten up the general fund, too? Why let the campaign war-chest go to waste? Shoot, it's just recycled Casino and Park Highlands/Credit Suisse money anyway.

Apparently the Mayor's also taking a page out of the playbook of Nevada governor and laughing-stock Jim Gibbons, who's been trying to woo California companies to Nevada. (Sun) Yep. Nor'Town will compete well with Californy, what with our highly-educated work force--we do have a Stanford or a UC Berkeley nearby, don't we?--high performance schools for the kiddies, extensive beaches and lush forest land for recreation, plus a vibrant cultural life filled with opera, and first-class museums, and libraries. We DO have all that, right?

Council Highlights

Jam some toothpicks in your eyeballs! It's time for some notes from the North Las Vegas City Council meeting!

The meeting began regally enough as everyone waited in silence for the mayor to take her chair. Sorta like school kids waiting for teacher to arrive.

Things started normally enough, and you could hardly tell that there was much change in composition as council members voted unanimously to allow a bar to open up despite the fact that it was, by law, too close to a church.

Still, I've sat through sermons where a stiff drink would have made time pass a lot smoother, so maybe Nor'Town should just stop pretending and abandon distance restrictions on bars. That way some entrepreneur could open up a combination school, church, and watering hole, thus fulfilling all mankind's basic needs in one, ahem, shot.

The next high point was a real wrangle over the City Manager's contract renewal. Now, what follows may be a bit incoherent, but that's all the better to convey the nature of the affair.

Anyways, first attendees were subjected to an advertisement for the manager listing all his accomplishments in the last year or so. This was the "performance review," which apparently was all council was really voting on as the contract only shows up as a consent item later on. A consent item is something council votes on en masse with a bunch of other stuff so that nobody has to pay too much attention to it. Hence, councilfolk who aren't too thrilled with the manager only get to vote on whether they approve of the review, which amounts to saying if they liked the fonts on his powerpoint presentation or not. Anyways, William Robinson and Robert Eliason voted against the fonts while everyone else voted in favor.

Just between you and me, I bet Mr. Rose, the city manager, doesn't even set his own fonts.

Anyways, there was much heat and little light as to whether the council's previous decision disallowing council from firing the manager within 90 days of an election should be rescinded. That issue, needlessly to say, was hastily postponed, and the manager refused to add a provision to his contract dispensing with the limit. Good thing, too. It's a policy matter that the council should determine and not be trying to hide by burying it in the manager's contract.

The mayor made the rather unsurprising remark that city workers are happy to be working for the city. That's unremarkable considering the 11% unemployment figure in the valley, and everyone's probably happy to be working, period.

Mr. Robinson made some inquiries into Mr. Rose's 401k and sick hours, and then council basically voted to punt the issue away for a few weeks. We all learned that Mr. Rose has something like 800 sick hours. I think I'd have to work at my job for about 200 years before accruing that much sick leave. Perhaps that's one reason why city workers are so happy. Frankly, I felt a bit ill afterwards.

Next up was a discussion over the merging of the Nor'town, Las Vegas, City County, and Henderson housing authorities into one great big melting pot. The mayor and other council members expressed some concerns about how much control Nor'Town would have over the new board that will be running the combined housing authorities. One concern is whether Nor'Town will become the dumping ground for all of the valley's public and section eight housing. Everyone seemed to suspect that Henderson couldn't wait to dump its poor on us, if it hadn't done so already. Still, one can hardly expect the new megaboard to do any worse than the old North Las Vegas Housing Authority, which I hear modeled it's housing plans on the Debtor's prison in Little Dorrit.

The council signed on to the go-ahead for the mega-authority but the mayor was unprepared to name two Nor'Townies to the board.

Say, I bet Don England's free.

Finally, Mr. Cherchio urged the city to continue a moratorium on the sale of mammals at open air markets. Earlier this summer there were reports of puppies sweltering over at the Broadacres swap meet. (KVBC) Mr. Cherchio urged that there be a permanent ban on the sales after viewing a video supplied by an animals rights group showing a bunch puppies stuffed in a hot cage. The animals were "cooled" by frozen bottles of water stuck under the cage, apparently so that they could experience freezer and sun burn all at the same time.

Here's some earlier video of animals at a swap meet. Be warned: It's pretty awful and don't view it if you're easily offended by such things, as you should be.

I'm now tweeting NorTown at http://twitter.com/NortownNV.

[UPDATE: RJ's report on the city manager dustup. Sun's post-game review.]

Exciting Upcoming Events!

Stuff to do this week:

• Weds, July 15th, at 4:30pm, City Council will announce the replacement for Shari Buck's seat in Ward 4. Gee, I hope Council doesn't violate the open meeting law like the RJ alleges Henderson did when it picked a replacement. None of those secret ballots, guys!
• One ward4wannabe is all a-gush over the possibility of being appointed. (Facebook) Moral: be careful what you post on Facebook, kids.
• There's always the regular meeting of the City Council at 6pm. You'll see: which council members get stuck on the notorious housing authority board which seemed to think mold is an insulating material, an increase in ambulance rates, the school board trying to worm out of upgrades for a new school, and the usual madcap fun.
• Also, Weds, July 15th: the final of three campaign finance reports is due, pointlessly and incredibly, a month and a half after the election. Say, to break up the office blues, why not start a betting pool as to how much new cash the mayor will be getting from casinos? Or what the latest name of the front-LLC for Gary Goett, an Ensign-enabler who still owes us money, will be? (LVG)
• Say, anybody ever find out what that $220,000 was for that Goett owes us? Aren't city services pay-as-you-go? My water bill certainly is. Try getting out of that!
• North Valley Dems are meeting Thurs, July 16th at 6pm 7pm over at the Aliante Library. Agenda: finding a mayoral candidate without a secret FBI file. Good luck, guys!

Budget Days At Nor'Townie Council

There are a couple of special council meetings on top of the regular one this week.

Tomorrow, Tues. the 19th at 4:30 pm, the council will decide if'n it supports next year's tentative budget.

Weds, May 20, at 4:30 pm, council takes up the kick-out-old-farts proposal, wherein city employees who have been around longer than Robinson may get offered buyouts. (Sun)

At the regular meeting at 6pm, among other items, council will decide whether to revise that sweet little contract the city manager currently has. His contract was extended through 2011 to protect him from being a punching bag during the mayoral contest. Council can't fire him before then without paying large penalties. In fact, within 90 days before or after an election, he can't be fired in any case.

Buy Out Night At City Council

At a special meeting of City Council at 4:30pm, Weds., May 6th, Council will ponder whether to start buying out employees with more that 5 years with the city. (NLV)

Gone forever, apparently, are the days of denial, when the city assured us that it had planned for the financial downturn. Now the plan is to boot out employees with the most experience, and the highest salaries, in order to fill in budget holes.

Too bad they're leaving at this point in time, too. They won't get to enjoy a nice office in the new City Hall. That'll be reserved for the mayor and council.

The regular meeting at 6pm has other budget plugging measures on hand, as well as petitions for licenses for several pawn shops. Ah, pawn shops! Nor'Town's growth industry!

And there's an open spot for a Nor'Towner on the Clark County Desert Conservation program up for appointment by Council, too. How about Jill Stefano from POTS, councilfolk? It'd show a little support for Nor'Town conservation.

POTS will be at Saturday's Culture and History Fair at the Spring's Preserve, by the way.

Try to Make Casa Rosa Go Away Day at City Council

According to the agenda for the City Council meeting tomorrow at 6pm, there's all sorts of fun to be had. You'll get to see:

• Council dip into the contingency fund for an unsecured, interest free loan to pay to move hapless citizens out of one of the city's several tenements at the Casa Rosa Apts. (16)
• Tons of new toys for the IT department to calm them down after being forced to work for the Buck for Mayor campaign.
• It looks like a done deal that Nor'Town will be sending its poop to Nellis at a new reclamation plant there cuz the fire department will be taking over the alternative site in the Frehner Building, which is conveniently located near the Cannery Casino. Now, why wouldn't you build a water reclamation plant there, I wonder? (15)
• Ooo. You'll get to see the folks from McCarran talking about the North las Vegas Airport. Perhaps they'll announce the next lucky homeowner to get their very own airplane--through the front window! (10)

Thursday, Nov. 20, at 6pm over at the Aliante Library, the Nor'Town Alliance of Home Owner Associations and Concerned Folk will have a presentation from the garbage kings about new recycling schemes and the Fire Chief will be reaching out to HOA's. More info here.

Time to Pay for APEX/KAPEX/WAZZITZNAME

The Nor'Town City Council meeting turned out to be a dud if you were looking for high-paid lawyer-lobbyist sparring over toxic goo. The guys running the industrial park decided to pull their protest of a biodesel plant full of toxic goo after a back room deal was worked out.

Still, the Mayor has some lovely decorating ideas. Something about painting tanks of toxic goo a friendly cool green color. You know, "green" for "environmental"?

Make the bits easier to find should there be an explosion, too, and the pieces get embedded in those detention hall kids.

Turned out that the high point of the evening was the council's approval to slip $350,000 out of the contingency fund to pay for a flood control plan for the Apex/Mountain View/Whatever future Superfund site and sports dump. Only councilman William Robinson voted against.

Hey, how's the city gonna pay back that taxpayer money from the contingency fund? City bonds, silly. So, it will borrow money using your tax money as collateral to pay you back. Oh, and should the city default, why that's what you pay taxes for, ain't it?

When will they pay it back? Um. Well, nobody knew.

Hey, guys! Watch out. Assemblygal Marylin Kirkpatrick (D-Nor'Town) is working on ways to keep cities from subsidizing businesses on the backs of taxpayers. (Sun) That could take the fun out of raiding the contingency fund.