Goodman vows quick action on remapping

Erin Neff

Thursday, Sept. 2, 1999 | 11:13 a.m.

In as little as six weeks, the city of Las Vegas will likely have two new wards and council members to fill them.

Just hours after residents gave input at a community forum on redistricting, Mayor Oscar Goodman said Wednesday morning that he intends to introduce on Sept. 15 an ordinance that will redraw the city's wards based on the final map he gets from retired Wisconsin Judge Fred Kessler.

That map could arrive in Goodman's hands as soon as today or tomorrow and is expected to look almost, if not identically, the same as the map Kessler originally unveiled in early August.

After the ordinance is introduced Sept. 15 it will be sent to the Recommending Committee for a Sept. 27 public hearing. The full council is expected to adopt the final map on Oct. 6.

Although that date may seem surprisingly early, the appointments could follow quickly behind it.

"They could come as soon as Oct. 6," Goodman said.

The suddenness of the timing didn't sit easily with several minority leaders who attended Tuesday night's redistricting forum.

Another sore point, specifically for Hispanics, is that Kessler cannot recall any names of Hispanic leaders with whom he met to determine his map's boundaries. Under his proposal, the nearly 30 percent Hispanic population in what is currently Ward 3 would be dispersed between Wards 3 and 5.

"If you look beneath the surface, what this really does is alienate minority communities," said Liz Carrasco of the Southern Nevada Hispanic Leadership Committee. "Obviously, if (Kessler) doesn't remember the names (of Hispanic leaders he spoke with), then it was simply a token meeting."

Kessler said Tuesday that he was introduced to Hispanic leaders by council staff members. However, he was quick to name three black leaders with whom he met, including state Sen. Joe Neal. Kessler said he spoke with Neal in Indianapolis during a national convention of state legislators.

"We have an old friendship," Kessler said.

Carrasco said her biggest concern is not necessarily the impact this redistricting will have on Hispanics, but rather the lower standard it will set for future redistricting efforts.

The 2000 census is expected to force yet another redrawing of the ward boundaries. If the percentage of Hispanics in any given ward increases even slightly it will be seen as a gain, even though it is actually less than the 30 percent population number currently reached in Ward 3, Carrasco said.

But Goodman defends Kessler's efforts and said if people don't like it they should have drawn their own suggested boundary maps and given it to him for consideration Tuesday night.

"If the bottom line really is to have minority representation, then the minority groups should coalesce," Goodman said, referring to blacks and Hispanics.

Kessler said he purposefully split the two out of Ward 3 because he believed neither blacks nor Hispanics wanted to be seen as a "second minority" in a given ward and would have a "sense of rivalry" for appropriations of city funding and services.