Voters will decide if council expands

Erin Neff

Friday, Jan. 29, 1999 | 10:28 a.m.

The Council Review Committee's official duties ended when it recommended that the Las Vegas City Council should get a pay raise and expand its membership, provided voters agree.

Several committee members met Thursday, however, to add their comments to the proposed advisory question voters will see in June.

"Shall the number of council wards (seats) in the city of Las Vegas be increased from four to six?" reads the draft of the advisory question to be posed to voters.

But the important portion of that ballot initiative comes in the explanation of the question and arguments for and against.

"In terms of explaining to the people out there, the majority of people who go into the voting booth will still not know what the current population is and how many constituents each councilman has," Committee Chairman Ron Portaro said.

As a result, the committee members encouraged Deputy City Attorney Val Steed -- who is drafting the ballot question -- to add some statistics to the mix.

"It's good information for people to have," added committee member Kenny Young, a Mirage Resorts employee.

Voters will be told the City Council currently has a mayor, elected at-large, and four council members, elected by ward. The question asks whether the council should be expanded by two seats, and thus be divided into six wards, each with its own council member. The mayor would continue to represent the city and be elected at-large.

The explanation behind the vote will also tell voters that each council member represents an average of 110,000 constituents, a number that would drop to 77,333 were the measure approved.

The committee also hashed out arguments for and against the measure.

Arguments for passage say a yes vote would reduce the geographic area and the number of constituents per ward, and reduce the number of board and committee assignments for each member. Increasing the number of wards may also create more opportunity for diversity on the council.

Arguments against passage cite the $573,000 in estimated annual costs and the $170,000 in one-time expenses related to adding two seats. Adding two seats would also increase demands on city resources and could lead to each council member having a narrow focus on issues in his ward. It may also be more difficult to reach consensus.

The council convened the committee last October to examine the expansion issue and whether council members should be allowed to have full-time jobs and/or get a salary increase.

The committee decided to allow council members to continue to have outside employment. The committee also recommended that council members get a pay raise to 90 percent of what Clark County commissioners make -- or an increase from $36,900 to $48,600.

The ballot question will not ask voters for an opinion on the pay raise. The council has yet to vote on that recommendation. If the council approves a pay raise, it would not take effect for any of the council members until after the next election.

Thus, only the councilmen representing Wards 1 and 3 -- Michael McDonald and Gary Reese -- would be eligible for a raise, provided they win the election.