Concerns on growth panel aired

Larry Henry

Tuesday, Sept. 9, 1997 | 9:28 a.m.

At a cost to taxpayers of $365,000, a new panel to study growth in booming Clark County could be a waste if it only produces another dust-gathering document, two officials say.

"It concerns me that we might become another bureaucratic panel that comes up with nice ideas," said Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones.

Jones is one of 21 members of the Southern Nevada Strategic Planning Authority, which met for the first time Monday.

The board is the result of legislation that state Sen. Jon Porter, R-Boulder City, spearheaded in the 1997 session.

The Legislature, which struggled to create laws addressing growth problems in Las Vegas, approved Porter's planning committee in lieu of a stricter bill that would have required local governments to coordinate development projects.

Skeptics such as Jones worry that growth problems will worsen while another planning committee is studying the issue. The panel will present recommendations to the 1999 Legislature.

"The only thing that will work is if we pass laws that everybody has to live with," she said in an interview. "If we're not willing to do that, let's don't go through with the process."

Sen. Mike Schneider, D-Las Vegas, said the panel knows what the problems are and is wasting time in meetings.

"They need to build roads and parks," said Schneider, who doesn't serve on the authority but watched the hearing from a doorway. "The county's generating a lot of tax money (to build roads). Instead of holding meetings, let's just do it."

Clark County Commissioner Lorraine Hunt, a panel member, said the authority is a good idea because it creates discussion among those who are shaping growth policy.

"We don't really know what needs to be done," she said. "It's making us all sit down together."

Commission Chairwoman Yvonne Atkinson Gates, also a member, agreed with Hunt that the authority will pull together warring factions, but Gates expressed concern about the cost.

"We probably could have done it without the money amount," she said in an interview. "That concerns me a lot."

Of the six governments financing the panel, Clark County is contributing the largest amount, at $150,000. County staffer Betsy Fretwell said private businesses also will be asked to pump money into the authority's operating account.

Porter said criticism is healthy in that it prompts an exchange of ideas.

"There is a lot of skepticism," he said. "I encourage skepticism."

Much of Monday's two-hour meeting was consumed with a procedural debate among panel members over who should name a facilitator to conduct meetings. Some members were concerned that the facilitator wouldn't be independent if impartial panel members were allowed to sway the choice.

A smaller committee will recommend candidates to the full panel at an Oct. 20 meeting. The facilitator's salary has not been set.

The authority also postponed a decision on naming environmental and minority representatives to fill the panel's 21 seats.

Seven panel members are elected officials and eight represent industries that benefit from growth, including casinos, real estate and labor.

Among the members are Richard Bunker of the Nevada Resort Association, Tito Tiberti of J.A. Tiberti Construction, and Robert Lewis of Lewis Homes.

Four members are public representatives.

The panel also agreed to begin meetings at 3:30 p.m. Monday's hearing, which began at 4 p.m., lasted past 6 p.m.

"Some of us have families," Gates said.

The next hearing is set for Oct. 6. Gates and Jones said they will be out of town.

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