Planners establish guidelines

Denise Cardinal

Tuesday, Dec. 2, 1997 | 10:49 a.m.

It was part kindergarten, part bureaucratic debate at Monday's Southern Nevada Strategic Planning Authority meeting.

The panel is made up of local government and association representatives to look at growth in the Las Vegas Valley. Monday night, they found themselves holding brightly-colored rubber-like, jelly balls in their hands.

"It's whole and complete," said Clark County Commissioner Lorraine Hunt of the green sphere she rubbed between her palms. "It's green, so it's fertile, meaning that we should produce something. And it's sticky."

It was an answer to her assignment: Describe how the jelly ball reminds you of the purpose of the authority.

Others responded with adjectives like flexible and resilient. Another member said that is was something his grandson would like to play with.

Pat Shalmy, president of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, said the green color of his ball symbolized that the authority's work has a price.

The short exercise proved to be one of the more productive minutes of the three-and-a-half hour meeting. It was the first time the authority was meeting with a facilitator to direct the members, and there was a lot of housecleaning to do.

For instance, a discussion of whether to allow public comment, and how long each citizen should have to comment, lasted longer than an hour.

It was agreed that the public comment would occur at the end of every meeting and two minutes for each speaker would be provided.

Other items discussed briefly, with no action taken, included: the structure of the authority's system, the deadlines to be met, the hiring of a project coordinator, and using the consensus, rather than voting, method for reaching decisions.

Representatives should take action on those items at the next meeting, scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on Dec. 15 at Cashman Field.