Kincaid goes on political offensive

Adrienne Packer

Friday, July 7, 2000 | 10:48 a.m.

Still rankled by a political mailer that doubted her commitment to children's health, Clark County Commissioner Mary Kincaid kicked into full politician mode Thursday, snagging a line from an old pro.

It was Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy's booming "Where was George?" speech during the 1988 Democratic National Convention that rallied his party against George Bush.

This time, however, it was a comparatively meeker voice that asked, "Where was Stephanie?"

"If she really cared about a children's hospital, where was she at the public hearing?" Kincaid asked, referring to Stephanie Smith, her opponent in the Democratic primary for District B.

Kincaid called a press conference Thursday to respond to a flier, which showed photos of seriously wounded and ill children, that was created by Smith's union supporters.

The flier stemmed from Kincaid's vote in May not to place a question on November's ballot. The question would have sought voters' approval to raise $80 million through bond sales to build a children's hospital. The final words on the flier read: "Stephanie Smith will build the children's hospital. Mary Kincaid won't."

Kincaid said of Smith, "As a sitting North Las Vegas councilwoman, she did not step forward (during a County Commission meeting) and offer financial support from the city of North Las Vegas to help offset taxpayers' contributions. After all, the proposed facility will affect the community as a whole."

Smith had a simple answer to Kincaid's question: She is under contract by the Clark County School District and can't attend the county's daytime meetings.

"I am a public schoolteacher," said Smith, who would have to leave her job if elected. "I can't just leave my classroom to talk about any issue I feel strongly about."

Smith also said she had as much to do with the flier as Kincaid. She said that although her picture and name appeared on the brochure she never saw it before it was mailed to residents in the northeast valley.

And she does not believe the photographs were distasteful.

"It's interesting if you have happy children on a brochure, which you see all the time, nobody says they're being exploited," Smith said.

"The point of this is Mary has the luxury of having a press conference to address this issue. The people who are most affected by the issue, the residents, will not have any further say because it won't be on the ballot."

During her press conference Thursday, Kincaid explained her vote.

She said she simply went along with Commissioner Dario Herrera's recommendation to assemble a task force to study whether there is a need for a children's hospital and whether the county could afford to staff and support it.

"I'm not talking about my money, I'm talking about taxpayers' money," Kincaid said. "My vote was to do the responsible, due-diligence that should be required before approving the expenditure of anywhere from $80 million to $90 million."

Kincaid said the county is moving forward with the task force, despite a movement by local pediatricians to force the commission to reconsider the authorization for a bond issue.

The pediatricians, most of whom have ties to University Medical Center, which would oversee the children's hospital, must collect 33,641 signatures by July 31 to force the board to revisit the proposal.

Kincaid issued a list of the number of pediatric beds in area hospitals and how many are empty. As of Thursday, seven hospitals with a total of 266 pediatric beds had 102 empty pediatric beds, she said.

She said studies showed that Clark County won't need a free-standing children's hospital until 2005. And when asked how long it would take to find the funding and build a facility, Kincaid replied: "I've seen quite a lot of things built in this county in six months."

Also accompanying Kincaid on Thursday was Dr. Jim Swift, medical director of the Sunrise Children's Hospital.

Swift said he supports a free-standing hospital, but believes that it should be the brainchild of a variety of physicians in the community, not just UMC representatives.

He questioned whether the county could afford to operate another independent hospital and whether it could find enough physicians to staff it. He said if the quality of care is spread too thin, it will dilute the expertise in the community.