Candidates square off

Erin Neff

Sunday, June 6, 1999 | 9:41 a.m.

Las Vegas mayoral candidates Oscar Goodman and Arnie Adamsen say that during campaign stops at homes throughout the city, voters have told them that growth, crime, redevelopment efforts and consolidation of city and county services are the issues most important to them.

Both candidates vowed to stick to those issues as the campaign wore on toward Tuesday's general election.

But another issue has crept in -- largely at Adamsen's initiative -- and it's dominating many candidate forums and debates. It's the image the city will have internationally depending on who is elected.

Adamsen, a 12-year city councilman, claims that electing criminal defense attorney Goodman as mayor would create fear among Wall Street gaming backers and return Las Vegas to its Sin City image.

Adamsen projects himself as the candidate who presents the image Las Vegas has been working toward during the past decade.

"I have represented the interests of law-abiding citizens," Adamsen, 50, says during most of his public appearances. "The people who wave at the police when they drive by, not run from them."

Goodman, 59, finds himself the center of this image controversy because he gained a national reputation while defending reputed mobsters.

He pooh-poohs any inference that electing him will set the city back and points to financial support from the gaming and business community as evidence that the establishment does not fear a Goodman administration.

"I've lived here 35 years and for those 35 years I've represented the citizens in causes that sometimes were not as popular as I would have liked them to have been," Goodman said during a televised Las Vegas 1 debate. "However, I represented them to protect their constitutional rights."

While image has emerged as the most talked-about issue in the final days of the campaign, the candidates have spent considerable time since the May 4 primary discussing their stands on the more conventional issues.

Here are a few:

* Growth: Las Vegas remains the fastest-growing city in the fastest-growing region of the country.

Goodman's says to "let growth pay for itself" in talking about how to provide essential city services.

He has proposed charging developers $2,000 for every residential building they construct. He calculates this would generate an extra $15 million a year, based on the 7,500 building permits issued by the city in 1998. Goodman said that money could be used citywide for parks, recreation centers and infrastructure needs.

Goodman said he realizes his proposal would require a change in state law and said he would lobby for such an amendment before the Legislature. He also said his proposed $2,000 fee is modest compared to the $25,000 charged in neighboring California.

Adamsen calls Goodman's proposal "unrealistic" because the city already has a construction tax and he says it would be unlikely that the city could push through the Legislature a double whammy on developers.

"State law says you cannot have both an impact fee and construction tax," Adamsen said.

The city now receives $30 million a year from construction taxes and fees, according to Mark Vincent, the city's finance director.

Most of the money, however, is then sent to the Regional Transportation Commission and other regional boards because it is collected specifically for flood control, road construction and other regional projects. Vincent said the revenue that stays with the city amounts to about $1,000 for each residential building.

Goodman says the law could be changed to add another $2,000 per building, producing the extra $15 million above and beyond current revenue.

Adamsen, however, says it's more realistic to assume that the state will allow only one fee on developers and that if the city tries to add impact fees, it could endanger the revenue from construction fees.

* Redevelopment: One of the main problems growth has created, both candidates say, is a need to redevelop the older neighborhoods and center city core. Those areas, both say, haven't gotten the same attention from developers as the city's growing northwest and Summerlin regions.

But Adamsen denies the city has had any fault in what some consider stagnant redevelopment efforts. In fact, he points to the $1.1 billion in construction downtown that got started with $100 million in seed money from the city.

Included in the ongoing construction boom are the federal building, the Neonopolis entertainment and retail center, and the planned Regional Justice Center.

"Every real estate project is a risk and the city is a partner in that risk," Adamsen said. "We've leveraged $100 million into $1.1 billion and we're halfway there. It is not a process that's going to happen overnight."

Adamsen said he supports the work of a committee of private business leaders -- the Center City Development Corp. -- as the agent to negotiate on the city's behalf for redevelopment projects.

Goodman, however, says the city has dragged its feet on redevelopment.

"It's not just a question of money, it's a question of commitment," Goodman says.

He claims the city has ignored a major corridor downtown on Las Vegas Boulevard from Sahara Avenue to City Hall. Goodman said he wants to get citizens involved and spark private investment with tax incentives to create a cultural and arts district in that area.

"It's a matter of getting the citizens involved," Goodman said.

* Consolidation/tax equity: Both candidates say citizen involvement is crucial to accomplishing any type of major consolidation between the city and Clark County in an effort to save money and create tax parity.

City residents were paying $81 more on a $100,000 home -- before a recently approved 2 percent city property tax hike -- than residents in the unincorporated areas of the county. With the tax increase, the disparity goes up to about $86.

Goodman tells a story that elicits laughs during his public appearances before civic groups. He said when he first began his campaign he bumped into two county commissioners at a function and said, "I can't wait to sit down and work out this consolidation problem."

"They laughed at me and sent me on my way," Goodman recalls, laughing.

But as a serious note, Goodman said that if elected, he will support a referendum to push the issue into the hands of the voters because, "Politicians try to preserve their little fiefdoms."

Adamsen said he has supported consolidation since 1978 when he voted for a referendum on consolidation. That referendum failed.

"When the citizens of Clark County and the city of Las Vegas are tired of paying for duplicate services and they mandate through their voice at the ballot box that these two governments consolidate, it will happen," Adamsen said.

Studies estimate consolidation would save residents more than $35 million annually.

But in terms of achieving tax equity between the two governments, the candidates disagree.

"There's a structural problem," Adamsen said, referring to the disparity in room and sales tax revenue between the city and county.

The high-end resorts on the Strip help generate about $200 million a year for the county from room and sales taxes while the same taxes for the city -- largely generated from downtown and neighborhood casinos -- generate only about $150 million.

Goodman sais the current City Council made achieving tax equity more difficult when it unanimously approved a 2 percent property tax hike two weeks ago.

He also said the city failed three years ago when it was offered a chance to reach 90 percent parity with the county and turned down the offer because officials wanted to reach 100 percent parity.

"As a negotiator, I know you grab the 90 percent, put it in your pocket and worry about the 10 percent later," Goodman said.

* Crime: Both candidates contend they are tough on crime and want to focus on public safety if elected.

Adamsen has tried to use Goodman's profession to show the differences between the two candidates.

During a news conference at the Shade Tree women's shelter, Adamsen's supporters said he stood up for crime victims while Goodman stood up for criminals.

And during a recent Las Vegas 1 debate, Adamsen tried to paint Goodman as soft on crime for his views against the death penalty.

Goodman responded that as a "moral proposition" he is opposed to the death penalty because he once represented a client on death row who was later freed because a witness had misidentified him.

The two candidates differ most on their approach to a Metro Police Civilian Review Board.

The board was proposed as an independent body to investigate incidents involving Metro Police and citizens. The proposal came about in light of highly publicized shooting cases in which the officers involved were cleared of any wrongdoing by Metro's Internal Affairs Bureau or the coroner's inquest process.

A diverse group, including police, lawyers, representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union, and minority-issue organizations, worked for a year to craft an ordinance to create an independent board of citizens.

The ordinance is now awaiting final approval from the county commissioners.

Goodman disagrees with the ordinance as written, saying he wants to serve as chairman of the board.

"There has to be somebody in government who's responsible to answer to the public as far as whether or not the Civilian Review Board is doing its job," Goodman said.

But Adamsen, who introduced the ordinance when it came before the City Council, disagreed.

"There is a responsible party and that is Sheriff (Jerry) Keller who is elected by every citizen in Clark County," Adamsen said. "The Civilian Review Board is a bridge-building process so that the civilians can have input into the process of disciplinary action in the Metropolitan Police Department."

* Lasting image: Voters who have received last-minute mail from Goodman are asked to ponder such ideas as nighttime road construction as a way to alleviate traffic congestion and imposing impact fees on developers to pay for growth.

Adamsen's campaign material shows how the national press has portrayed Goodman. News clippings from Time magazine and the Los Angeles Times have both mentioned Goodman's mob clients.

So when voters go to the polls Tuesday the image issue could be as big a factor as growth, consolidation and crime combined.

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