LV mayor goes live with new city map

Erin Neff

Wednesday, Sept. 8, 1999 | 11:08 a.m.

Las Vegas residents will get a chance to see the final proposed map of the new city wards tonight as Mayor Oscar Goodman holds his first live Town Hall forum on cable television.

Residents can call in with comments, but it's likely the version of the ward map Goodman will unveil will be the final version adopted by the council.

A public forum Aug. 31 was essentially the first and last opportunity for residents to have input in the shaping of the wards.

After the final version of the map is put into bill-form, it will face a second public hearing before the Recommending Committee. However, it is uncommon for public comment at those committee meetings to result in immediate changes to the proposed ordinance.

The Recommending Committee meeting is Sept. 27 at 2 p.m. and the final map is scheduled to be adopted Oct. 6.

Residents complained at the Aug. 31 hearing that they had not had a chance to give proper input to reapportionment consultant Fred Kessler, a retired Wisconsin judge.

Kessler said he was willing to change his proposed map of city wards 1 through 6 if he heard a persuasive argument at that meeting. When he left the meeting, many in the audience had the impression Kessler wasn't about to change the map much, if at all.

"We'll get the map and put it right on television so people can ask questions about it," Goodman said.

The Town Hall forum, televised live on cable Channel 4, will be held every other week on Wednesdays when the City Council is not in session.

Goodman will host the forum at UNLV's television studio until the city constructs its own internal studio.

Viewers will be able to call 895-1195 during the 7 to 7:30 p.m. show with questions about the proposed city wards or about any issue they deem important.

"He'll sit at a table basically with a speaker phone and the public just calls in," said Dawn Christensen, the city's acting communication director. "It's live and they can ask him anything and everything."

Former Mayor Jan Laverty Jones took part in a similar program with comments from viewers ranging from "I have a pothole on my street" to "What do you think of agenda item 67?" Christensen said.

However, Jones' show was hosted by Steve Schorr. Goodman will serve as host, mayor and emcee all at once.

"His is different because it's just him," Christensen said. "It's just very one-on-one geared to his personality and his overall philosophy."

The city will air the Town Hall show on Channel 4 until next year when Clark County takes over sole programming of that channel. The city will get its own channel -- expected to be somewhere under 10 on the dial -- next year.