Council to hear citizens at new town hall meetings

Diana Sahagun

Monday, June 26, 2000 | 10:49 a.m.

North Las Vegas Councilwoman Shari Buck will hold the city's first town hall meeting, an inevitable result of the recent formation of council wards.

The city was broken into four equal wards in December following a law passed in the 1999 Legislature that required the city to be divided by the 2001 election.

For the 2001 election, residents in North Las Vegas will continue to vote for candidates at large, but candidates will now have to live in the ward from which they run.

Buck, who represents Ward 4, the area bounded by Moccasin and Losee roads, Cheyenne Avenue and Revere Street, will discuss a variety of issues, including the city's new recreation center, community policing and the Las Vegas Beltway.

The meeting will be 6:30-8 p.m. Thursday at Raul Elizondo Elementary School, 4865 Goldfield St.

Buck's district of approximately 28,426 residents includes a portion of the Las Vegas Beltway and about one-quarter of the 7,500 acres the Bureau of Land Management and city have mapped out for new development.

Although her ward boundaries do not include the older parts of town, Buck has campaigned heavily on downtown revitalization and will include that topic at the meeting.

"I think people will be interested to know that we're not going to let the downtown deteriorate," she said.

City spokeswoman Kimberly McDonald said she researched the benefits of town hall meetings in other jurisdictions and found that people feel more comfortable going directly to a council member in an informal environment than a structured council meeting.

The meetings will be available to the council members twice a year, but are not mandatory, she said.

"This is merely an informal public forum for them to reach out to talk to their constituents," she said.

Just ask resident George Johnson, who has never attended a council meeting in the seven years he has lived in the city. He considers council meetings tedious and full of "mumbo-jumbo" but said he would consider attending a town hall meeting.

"Sure, I would consider taking an hour to really meet face-to-face with the council member in my ward," Johnson said. "But I just won't sit through a council meeting for two hours only to get five minutes to speak at the end."

Buck said she hears similar remarks from her constituents but hopes the meeting will bring more residents out with their concerns.

"I wanted it to be very informal ... where people feel like they can come and get answers to questions, not feel afraid to talk," she said. "The goal (for them) is to meet their council so they can call me at home and know who they're talking to, and to know that their local government cares about what their needs are."