Tuesday, Oct. 26, 1999 | 11 a.m.
Many residents in North Las Vegas believe the city's rapid growth may leave the older parts of the city behind.
More than 20 residents attended a forum Monday night to discuss a proposed map on council wards, many speaking heatedly that the way lines were drawn, resources will not be spread evenly.
The forum came on the heels of a new bill approved by the 1999 Legislature that mandates for the first time in North Las Vegas history that the city divide into four equal wards for the 2001 election.
As in Henderson, residents in North Las Vegas will still vote for candidates at-large, and candidates will have to live in the ward from which they run.
Retired Wisconsin Judge Frederick Kessler was hired as the city's consultant on the project in June at a fee of $15,000. He also created the new six-ward redistricting map for Las Vegas.
At the meeting in North Las Vegas the recurring theme among residents was growth: How would the different wards be affected and who would get the short end of the stick?
To Frank and Mary Alice Esparza, whose home would fall in Ward 2, the lines on the map were drawn so older neighborhoods would suffer.
Mary Alice pointed out that Wards 3 and 4 have a higher economic base and a greater potential for growth than the two other wards.
"As a parent, a mother and a grandmother, I am accustomed when coming to the table that everyone shares equally. I don't like how this pie is cut at all," she said.
Very angrily she told Kessler that the way the wards are divided, it will give more resources to newer parts of town while older parts will be forgotten.
Former City Council candidate Marcia Blake, who would live in Ward 4, pointed out that Ward 2 has little room for growth. The lines should give everyone an equal chance at growth and representation, she said.
"Wards 3 and 4 have all the growth potential," said Blake, who finished third in last November's general election.
"And you need a representation for everyone in the city as a whole. Why not draw lines to account for growth so Ward 2 gets a share of the pie?"
The 1999 Legislature, with the support of North Las Vegas City Councilman John Rhodes, wanted to see representation from throughout the city on the council.
At the time the law was passed, two North Las Vegas council members and the mayor lived within a mile radius of each other. That is no longer the case.
The proposed plan, based on population estimates as of July 1, would have each council member responsible for an average of 28,572 constituents. Ward 3 will have the most residents with 28,765, and Ward 4 will have the fewest with 28,426. The Supreme Court has held that population cannot differ by more than 10 percent.
Kessler said the first thing he considered when dividing the city was population. When a municipality is divided into wards, he said, a key consideration is the "one man, one vote" rule. A vote in one district should be equal to a vote in any other, he said.
The second thing to consider is Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act, which establishes certain criteria for dividing a district by wards, he said.
Two criteria to examine are whether a minority group is sufficiently large and geographically compact to create a district and whether the minority group is politically cohesive, he said.
Another criterion asks whether the white majority tends to vote against a candidate for the minority population. In North Las Vegas, he said, the answer is probably not. Both black and white candidates have won elections under the current system.
The last thing to consider is whether the districts are proportionate, he said.
Kessler said he also looked at the location of the current City Council members' homes to make sure the boundaries do not prevent a member from running for re-election in 2001. He emphasized he "did not have an axe to grind regarding any of the public officials."
Under the proposed map, Rhodes would represent Ward 1, Councilman William Robinson Ward 2, Councilman Stephanie Smith Ward 3 and Councilwoman Shari Buck Ward 4.
Last week from Wisconsin, Kessler anticipated that the forum would not be as chaotic as during the recent redrawing of Las Vegas voting districts. That map included two new wards.
Las Vegas Hispanic leaders criticized that proposed ward map in September, saying it split the city's Hispanics into two different wards. The complaint was that there was no district in which minorities were a majority.
Kessler said in the North Las Vegas map he was able to create two wards that have a large number of minorities: Ward 2 has a 49.9 percent black population and Ward 1 has a 57.3 percent minority with 27.1 percent Hispanic and 26.6 percent black.
"There just wasn't that kind of concentration (of minorities) in Las Vegas," he said. "The issue is the expectation of the minority community to be able to share in the political power ... but there has to be a population to support it. And in North Las Vegas, there is."
Theron Goynes, who served on the North Las Vegas City Council for 18 years, said dividing the city into wards was inevitable.
"My principle has always been 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.' But the city is growing rapidly, and evidence shows we are going to have to break (the city up).
"We saw this coming for many years. With the population growth, it just has to be," he said. "You can't stand still."
Kessler will make a final recommendation to the City Council after considering the input from Monday's meeting. The ordinance will go before the Council Nov. 1 and adopted by Dec. 31.
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