City Council delays OK of review board ordinance

Erin Neff

Tuesday, May 25, 1999 | 11:16 a.m.

Creation of a Citizens Review Board to investigate claims of Metro Police abuses seemed a done deal before Monday's Las Vegas City Council meeting.

Approval of an ordinance -- already passed by the Clark County Commission -- was to be the last step of an 11-month process that included 25 public hearings.

The ordinance would allow for the creation of an independent review board with subpoena powers to investigate officers accused of wrongdoing.

But council members, concerned over the city's lack of input in hiring the review board's director, amended the ordinance instead and shipped it back to the County Commission for approval of the amendment.

Clark County spokesman Doug Bradford called the flap a miscommunication and said commissioners will probably consider the amendment June 15.

"The county manager has always stated he would solicit some kind of input from the City Council and the city manager as to who the selection would be," Bradford said.

The amendment came near the end of an impromptu, 90-minute public hearing on the issue that began with threats of arrests and an unhappy din among residents who were initially told they would not be able to comment.

A simple procedural question led Mayor Jan Laverty Jones to discover that the ordinance left the city without a voice in the hiring process, putting that job in the hands of the county manager with the choice be ratified by the County Commission.

"Composition of the review board is critical to its success and the executive director is the first part of that process," Jones said. "I have a real problem with this board not having any say in the selection of the director."

The council amended the ordinance to say the county manager would hire the director after a consultation with the city manager. Both the commission and the council would then have to ratify the choice.

Mitch Cohen, a deputy district attorney who advises the county, told the council somebody has to have responsibility for the hiring and urged council members to work out the issue when they voted on an interlocal agreement on the hiring of the director and funding of the board.

But Jones argued that the city's sharing in the funding gives it the right to have a say in who is hired.

"We really have to have language (in the ordinance)," Jones said. "This (council) is going to be held just as accountable as the Citizens Review Board."

The county also has a slight edge in appointees to the review board with 13 compared with the city's 12.

City-county agreements often favor the county because of its size, and in the case of the review board, the higher funding level it gives Metro.

Although the public hearing on the issue was held May 17, Jones initially said she would allow six people who had signed in with the city clerk to speak.

All six speakers were against formation of the board, leading advocates to cry foul over a perceived lack of representation.

Then Gary Peck, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Nevada, and representatives of the NAACP rushed to City Manager Virginia Valentine to demand equal time for other people to speak.

City Attorney Brad Jerbic crouched with Peck and then jogged back to the dais to ask Jones for additional public speaking time.

Meanwhile, West Las Vegas community activist Anthony Snowden yelled his request to speak even as some of the review board opponents stood to speak.

Mayor Pro Tem Michael McDonald told a marshal guarding the meeting to remove Snowden if he stood or spoke out of turn again. Within minutes, two additional marshals entered the council chambers, taking seats in the back row.

Jones then begrudgingly opened a public hearing, allowing additional comments to flow.

Among them were opponents charging that the board would "become a platform for political vendettas" and hesitant supporters arguing the board's lack of ultimate decision-making powers left it a "toothless tiger."

Charles A. Delzotti told the council about his nephew Thomas Schementi, a New York City police officer who was shot and killed in 1979.

"He died because of a Civilian Review Board," Delzotti said, showing newspaper clippings of his nephew's funeral. "He was told not to pull his weapon unless he was directly threatened because they feared the Civilian Review Board."

But Lisa Funkhowser took the exact opposite stance.

"If the police were policing themselves accurately, we wouldn't be here," said Funkhowser, whose cousin, John Perrin, was shot and killed by Metro police April 12 after he was stopped when walking away from a convenience store at Tropicana Avenue and Rainbow Boulevard with a basketball in his hands.

A coroner's inquest two weeks ago ruled Perrin's death justifiable homicide. Since 1976, 84 of 85 such cases have ruled officer-involved shootings were justifiable, and the one decision against an officer was overturned by a grand jury.

Funkhowser argued the inquest, which she attended, is not an independent review.

"It's a one-sided affair," Funkhowser said. "It is not a fair and impartial board. It's a circus act."

Sun reporterAdrienne Packer contributed to this story.