Bill creating NLV wards passes Senate committee

Monday, May 17, 1999 | 1:34 a.m.

SUN CAPITAL BUREAU

CARSON CITY -- After criticizing the North Las Vegas City Council, a Senate committee approved a bill ordering the council divide the seats into four wards.

Currently all four city council members are elected at large.

Three of the council members live within three blocks of each other in El Dorado, a master-planned community, Sen. Joe Neal, a 31-year resident of North Las Vegas, pointed out. That neighborhood has the good streets and the "great infrastructure," he said.

"We're trying to spread this out so the older community gets some benefit," Neal said. "This is good government."

Assembly Bill 590, approved by the Senate Government Affairs Committee on Friday and sent to the floor for a vote this week, requires the council seats be divided into four wards by Jan. 1. Beginning in the 2001 city election candidates must live in a ward for 30 days before the close of filing in order to run in the ward.

All voters in the city will continue to cast ballots in all the races.

The bill would not affect the right of any current council members to complete their terms.

Warren Hardy, lobbyist for North Las Vegas, urged the committee to reject the bill. He said four of the five council members agree the issue should go to voters first.

The council wants to take the action, rather than have action forced upon it by the Legislature, Hardy said. "They recognize this is an issue the council must give attention to. We would like to do it on our own initiative."

Sen. Bill O'Donnell, R-Las Vegas, chided the city's lobbying effort, noting that "The mayor (Mike Montandon) voted for it and then comes up here and lobbies against it."

Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas said the Legislature trusted the Las Vegas City Council two years ago to increase its membership. "They didn't do it," she said and the Legislature had to come back this session to force the council to take action.