Columnist Jon Ralston: Mayor takes walk on Yucca’s wild side

Wednesday, May 31, 2000 | 9:09 a.m.

Jon Ralston, who publishes the Ralston Report, writes a column for the Sun on Sundays and Wednesdays. Ralston can be reached at 870-7997 or by e-mail at ralston@vegas.com.

Give Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman one thing: He ain't shy.

But of all the politically incorrect effusions His Honor has uncorked during his first year in office, he saved the most incendiary for last week's meeting of the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition, that amalgam of locally elected government officials created by the Legislature that sits around and discusses issues and gets little attention.

No one from the media picked up on Goodman's comments, which were crazy or courageous, depending on your point of view. But the man who has flouted convention, who often says whatever comes into his head, who long ago lost his self-editing mechanism, is about to become a target.

Why? During an agenda item on nuclear waste, according to a tape of the meeting, Goodman let loose with a soliloquy that will make everyone forget his indecorous suggestion that the stuff should be shipped to a Third World country.

After bragging that he planned to enforce his meaningless municipal anti-nuclear waste transportation ordinance by arresting the first truck driver himself -- Goodman must have thought the media were present -- he launched into what he said was the real problem. He asked the question that has brought obloquy down on others who dared raise it, most of them relatively minor pols.

This, though, is the mayor of Las Vegas: "If we say to ourselves that Yucca Mountain is going to be the repository, and that it is a done deal, do we say to ourselves, do we start talking about how we take advantage of that economically? Or do we continue to take the position that I've taken, do we not want this to be used as a repository? That's a decision we have to make."

Succinct. Logical. And, some will ask, insane?

Goodman is raising an issue -- indeed he is imploring his colleagues to discuss it -- that has caused minor Republican state senators, union leaders and others to be politically knee-capped by the anti-dump movement.

And he didn't back off, either, as his colleagues from other governments sat in what, I suppose, was stunned and perhaps craven silence.

Goodman continued by declaring that there is "a lot of money to be made if we concede that we are going to be the ultimate destination for this." Although he said he has never conceded much and that he doesn't "want to start now," the mayor said, "I think that we really have to be practical. We have to stop this or we have to take advantage of it."

He then repeated his fears about the dump being a "done deal," and for a third time, made his overriding point: "I'm not sure what we can do about it. We really have to consider if we can't do anything about it, if in fact it is going to be there, we can get a lot of dollars from the federal government."

My guess is Goodman -- I couldn't reach him late Tuesday -- had no clue as to the impact his comments might have. He was doing what he so often does, what started in the campaign and has carried over to the mayoralty: shooting from the lip, using his common sense and intellect, and worrying later about the consequences.

Well, your honor, here's what happens next: A deluge of phone calls from the likes of U.S. senators, county commissioners and others who don't want to talk about the issue. And the possibility of the likes of Alaska Sen. Frank Murkowski and other dump advocates reading your comments on the Senate floor.

Once the firestorm commences, we'll see just how shy Goodman really is: Will he withstand the heat and stand his ground? Or will he douse the flames by watering down his remarks?

Trust me: It won't take long to find out.