Editorial: Derail ploy to silence minorities

Friday, June 6, 1997 | 5:47 a.m.

WE suspect Las Vegas officials, to avoid more criticism for diluting minority rights, had a secret, but heavy hand in torpedoing the bill to expand the City Council.

The state Senate last week killed a measure to add two seats to the Las Vegas council on a party-line vote. City officials earlier had resisted the proposal, insisting the issue should be taken to the voters. That's what may emerge if a conference committee can reconcile the Senate and Assembly approaches to council expansion. After all, who can argue against taking an issue to the people?

Unfortunately, an election to expand the council will run into strong resistance from voters deceived into thinking this is an issue of government expansion. It isn't. Government won't be bigger. It'll just be more fair.

Another fear is a city vote will pit one neighborhood against another, worsening the divisions among residents. The city's ward system already does that too much, but at least most neighborhoods have a voice.

Voter rejection of an expanded council will be a mandate to continue an inequity city officials created a year ago.

Then, they redrew the boundaries of Wards 1 and 3 to dilute minority votes, virtually ensuring no more than one minority candidate would be elected to the council. In doing so, they were clever enough to conform with federal court guidelines, avoiding certain defeat in a legal challenge. The new lines affected 46,000 residents. About 17,000 blacks, who had strong Ward 1 representation, found themselves in Ward 3 competing with a large Hispanic community for clout on the council.

Ward 3 has become the low-income district, condemning minorities to a 1-to-6 political isolation on the council. Previously, the wards were better mixed with differing economic groups and minorities had a reasonable chance to elect up to two members. Only two blacks, Ken Brass and Frank Hawkins, have served on the council. Under the new boundaries, they may be the last.

The council gerrymandered this disenfranchisement without the courtesy of an election. Now they demand one to set things straight.

Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, rightly wonders why the love affair with an election, when city officials won't support one on a sales tax increase to expand the valley's water supply. The compelling conclusion must be the perception that the voters will reject both issues.

City officials are not just dodging their responsibilities to minorities. They're trying trying to mute political voices. That's why the death of the Senate bill was no accident. Someone in touch with City Hall killed it, knowing full well it would be the death knell of fair representation for minorities in Las Vegas.

We hope the conference committee sees through the ploy and defeats this mean-spirited maneuver. Everyone deserves decent representation on the City Council. And that will require two more seats.