Legality of county’s recently passed billboard rules challenged

Thursday, Dec. 13, 2001 | 10:08 a.m.

After nearly a year of sometimes rancorous debate, an ordinance governing billboard placement in unincorporated Clark County was supposed to be settled earlier this month.

But the Clark County Commission may have to reopen the contentious can of worms that the billboard rules have become. County staff members believe the commission, in a rush to approve an advertising-industry backed set of rules, may have violated laws that require proper public notification of commission actions.

Dissenting commissioners are also asking that the ordinance return for a thorough review.

"There are some questions that we are trying to resolve through the district attorney's office," said Barbara Ginoulias, assistant planning director for the county. "We don't have a resolution yet."

Commissioners on Dec. 5 approved the new billboard rules by a 4-3 vote. Community activists, including members of town boards that advise the commission on land use issues, bitterly complained at the meeting that they had not had time to review the adopted ordinance.

A "compromise ordinance" written with participation of county staff, the billboard industry and community activists wasn't considered.

Three commissioners -- Bruce Woodbury, Chip Maxfield and Myrna Williams -- cited the last-minute presentation of the ordinance in their votes against the rules package.

Woodbury said Wednesday that the trio protested the adoption and asked to bring the package back to the commission.

"Chip Maxfield, Myrna Williams and I are challenging the validity of the ordinance," Woodbury said.

Woodbury also said he opposes some of the rules within the ordinance. He said the rules would allow more billboards than commissioners knew at the time.

He sent a memo to county staff Wednesday formally asking that the ordinance be reconsidered. In the memo, Woodbury said staff members advised some commissioners -- but none of those who voted against it -- that legal issues may bar the regulations' immediate adoption.

The billboard rules would create new or expanded zones for the outdoor signs outside the cities, especially along state highways. The zones would include stretches of Blue Diamond Highway, Las Vegas Boulevard North from town to the racetrack and south of town to Sloan, much of Interstate 215 south of town, and the entire central gaming district anchored by the Strip.

The industry offered two concessions borrowed from the compromise ordinance. One amendment to their original ordinance -- which was rejected earlier this year -- absolutely bars billboards outside of the zones.

The second amendment requires all billboards, anywhere, to come before the commissioners for a special use permit. The provision, argued industry representative Mark Fiorentino, would allow the commissioners to individually review the size, location and other issues involved with each billboard.

Fiorentino said the Dec. 5 commission vote was legal, but he will not oppose seeing the ordinance come back.

"There's no question in my mind that it was legally adopted," he said. "It's the right thing to do if the commissioners have a concern about seeing it before they send it to the clerk to become law.

"Commissioner Woodbury always expressed concerns with the billboard ordinance, and I respect that," Fiorentino said. "State highways, those areas are primarily in Commissioner Woodbury's district. He's going to get the bulk of those signs."

Fiorentino said he hopes commissioners will not make any substantive changes to the ordinance that was, at least in theory, adopted Dec. 5.

At least one of the four who voted for the ordinance said she doesn't mind the issue coming back. Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson-Gates, early in the Dec. 5 discussion on the issue, expressed reservations over the last-minute amendments to the industry proposal.

But in the end, she voted for it. Gates said Wednesday that the ordinance approval was not an intentional effort to skirt the law, but supports bringing it back.

She said any issues that Woodbury or other commissioners have could be fine-tuned during another discussion on the proposal.

"I just want to make sure we follow the law and don't have a problem with it," Gates said. "I think it's better for us to be safe than sorry. I don't want the entire thing to be thrown out.

"Based upon the analysis that the staff gave me, there isn't that much of a difference between what we approved and what was negotiated in the compromise," she said.

Commission Chairman Dario Herrera, who also supported the industry-backed ordinance, did not return phone calls Wednesday. Herrera voted on the issue after staff members said the fact that his wife worked for a billboard company did not represent a conflict of interest.

County deputy district attorney Rob Warhola said at the Dec. 5 meeting that because the ordinance would affect the entire county, and not benefit a specific billboard company, Herrera's vote did not represent a conflict of interest. Herrera had abstained on votes on alternative billboard industry ordinances earlier this year because of his wife's job.

Commissioner Erin Kenny, who helped write the original and modified versions of the industry-backed ordinances, also did not return phone calls.

One of the resident activists who had worked to develop the compromise ordinance -- and was angry when the compromise was dropped -- said he is happy the issue will likely come back for another round of debate.

John Hiatt, chairman of the Enterprise Town Board, said the ordinance shouldn't have been acted upon.

"We were dealing with some amendments to an ordinance we hadn't even seen in months," Hiatt said. "The process got short-circuited there."

Without studying the ordinance beforehand, residents and commissioners couldn't objectively discuss problems with the proposed laws.

"There was no way to have a meaningful debate when we had only half the information on hand," he said.

Woodbury and Gates said the ordinance will come back up for debate and a possible vote in January.

Staff writer Adrienne Packer contributed to this story.