Candidates talk about blend, but few offer plans

Erin Neff

Monday, May 3, 1999 | 11:04 a.m.

The top candidates for Las Vegas mayor all claim they are willing to consolidate city and county services, but few have offered any concrete examples on how the decades-old idea can be achieved.

Las Vegas remains one of the largest -- and the fastest-growing -- metropolitan areas nationwide with such a dichotomy of governments, elected officials and services.

Developer Mark Fine has proposed merging the city's Municipal Court with the county's Justice Court and linking the city attorney's office with the district attorney's office.

"I think we're a long way from full consolidation," Fine said. "But I'm ready to examine any departments where it makes sense now."

Only radio talk show host Frank LaSpina is making consolidation a key plank in his eight-point platform.

"Does it make any sense that the famed Las Vegas Strip is not within the city limits?" LaSpina said. "The southern boundary of Las Vegas should not be Sahara Avenue, but rather Sunset Road."

Although many large cities nationwide have both city and county services, it is usually the city government that wields the political power and the county that provides sewer lines, paves roads and administers the courts.

San Francisco, Los Angeles and Philadelphia are examples of same-named and bordered city and county governments in which the thrust of the political power lies with the municipality.

However, a measure to rename Clark County to Las Vegas County failed in the state Legislature before and will not likely be reintroduced.

City Councilman Arnie Adamsen has proclaimed he is "definitely in favor of consolidation," but said the issue is "very, very complex."

Adamsen, who is battling Fine for a spot in a potential run-off election according to some polls, said he would work as a "consensus builder" to urge consolidation of the city and county governments.

"It's not that I want to be the mayor of the city and county of Las Vegas," Adamsen said. "I think that would have to wait until after this next (four-year) term."

Attorney Oscar Goodman said he favors mirroring the successful 1973 consolidation of the city and county police departments and applying it to other departments.

"I'm in favor of consolidation, but not at the expense of employees who already have jobs losing those jobs," Goodman said. "The kind of consolidation I favor will affect those in management positions."

Goodman said he can envision consolidation of the city and county fire and parks departments.

Consolidation has long been championed on the campaign trail as a way to help equalize the disparate amount of property taxes city and county residents pay.

Owners of a $100,000 home in the city pay about $150 more a year in property taxes than owners of equally valued homes on county land.

In 1997 an effort to lower city property taxes by $95 a year for the average homeowner hit a snag when county officials decided to wait until after the elections that year to come up with a more workable proposal.

Those efforts were shelved after the election.

At the time the Las Vegas City Council -- including Mayor Jan Laverty Jones -- favored breaking the city away from the Metropolitan Police Department if tax equity failed.

Although a Metro split seems unlikely today, some have questioned whether the elected sheriff's position could become an appointed position if other consolidation efforts succeed. That way, proponents say, the sheriff would answer to one elected body and thus could streamline services.

However, the National Sheriffs' Association said only 11 of the 3,000-plus sheriffs nationwide are appointed. Five are in Rhode Island, where the governor has the power to appoint the sheriffs in some areas.

The two largest police departments nationwide headed by an appointed sheriff are Miami Metro-Dade and Denver.

None of the leading mayoral candidates favors making the sheriff an appointed position.

"I'm more concerned about the mayor's position," Goodman said.

Fine said he sees no problem with the current system of an elected sheriff, because he said, "it holds that person accountable to the voters."

Adamsen said he thinks Sheriff Jerry Keller is "doing a tremendous job" and that the system should not be changed.

"The voters decided (at the time of the 1973 consolidation) that they wanted to vote for sheriff," Adamsen said. "I don't see any reason to change that."

In addition to Adamsen, Fine, Goodman and LaSpina, others running for mayor are former Henderson Mayor Cruz Olague, City Hall watcher Tom McGowan, investment banker Hillary Michael Milko, middle-class rights advocate Douglas Opolka and West Las Vegas activist Anthony Snowden.

If no one candidate in the field of nine receives 50 percent plus one vote, the top two vote-getters will meet in the June 8 general election.