Size of council likely put to voters

Erin Neff

Tuesday, March 23, 1999 | 11:03 a.m.

Las Vegas voters will likely have the power to increase the size of the City Council with the approval of a ballot question this June.

The council, which originally requested voters advise them on whether to increase their board, now is considering a bill to make the people's decision binding.

The bill, introduced Monday, is in direct response to a move in the state Legislature to mandate that the council expand from four to six seats in an effort to increase the likelihood that minorities could be elected to the all-white board.

But even in adopting the language for the ballot question, the council warned against that perception.

Councilman Larry Brown asked that language on the ballot question stating, "Increasing the number of wards may also create more opportunity for diversity on the council" be stricken.

"It may be putting an idea out there that increasing by two seats may not be able to do," Brown said.

Mayor Jan Laverty Jones agreed, saying she didn't want the question to misrepresent the issue.

During the 1997 Legislature, state Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, proposed a bill that would have mandated the Las Vegas City Council expand by two seats. However, the version of the bill that passed only advised the council to expand.

Late in 1998, the council convened a citizens committee to examine whether to expand the council, increase its member's salaries and change council positions to full-time.

That committee spent months examining demographic data and recommended the council be expanded by two seats, provided a vote by residents agreed.

However, the council still had the ultimate decision on whether to expand, and Neal and other legislators felt the city hadn't taken the spirit of the 1997 bill to heart.

As a result of Neal's 1999 bill proposal -- announced just two weeks ago -- the council decided to introduce a bill locally to make the people's vote binding.

That bill will be heard in a Recommending Committee on Monday at 4 p.m. in the 8th-floor conference room in City Hall.

The question itself -- approved Monday for appearance on the June 8 general election ballot -- will ask voters to balance the cost of adding two seats vs. the benefits of having fewer constituents represented by each councilman.

Currently each councilman represents 112,000 residents. That number would decrease to 74,700 if the council was increased to six seats. The mayor would continue to be elected at large and represent the entire city.

Increasing the seats will cost an estimated $170,000 in initial expenses and about $550,240 annually for staff salaries, facilities and equipment.