Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Homeowners may flex polling-place muscle

Key dates

Homeowners associations dissatisfied with local leadership could recruit challengers to run against Mayor James B. Gibson and Councilman Jack Clark in municipal elections this spring.

In the days before official filing opens Jan. 23, four homeowners associations representing about 1,300 residents in southwest Henderson plan to form a campaign strategy and to pick potential candidates. Their first meeting is today.

"We're just a little dismayed," said Karen Sexton, president of Sandy Ridge Estates Community Association. "We've been fighting the commercialization of Horizon Ridge Parkway for 2 1/2 years now. Many of the recommended denials by the Planning Commission have been approved by the City Council."

Jesse Horne, 30, a computer systems analyst, said Tuesday he plans to run against Clark for Ward 3. In Henderson, the four council members must live in the wards they represent but are elected at large.

Horne and any candidates recruited by the homeowners associations could well provide the only challenge to Gibson and Clark. Both said late last week they have started re-election campaigns.

State organizers for the Republican and Democratic parties said Friday they have yet to hear of any additional candidates for the nonpartisan races.

Challengers will need to secure a strong support base. Gibson raised $226,000 in 1997 to finance his first run for political office. Clark, running for his second four-year term, raised $173,000 in 1997.

Gibson, 52, ran in 1997 on the strength of his late father's name. James Gibson, known through the late 1960s, 1970s and into the 1980s as one of the state's most powerful politicians, served five times as majority leader in the state Senate during 22 years as a legislator.

The younger Gibson, then general counsel for American Pacific Corp., a chemical company, ran on a promise to heal a City Council he saw as plagued by infighting. Then-Mayor Bob Groesbeck declined to run for re-election.

In an interview last week, Gibson, now a partner in the law firm Rooker and Gibson, mentioned as first among his accomplishments in four years the improved relations on the City Council.

"I am proud of all of us that we have put that (contentiousness) aside," he said.

Judie Brailsford, who worked on campaigns for Gibson's father in the 1980s, also credits the mayor with working with members of the Regional Transportation Commission and other government agencies to ensure that Henderson receives its share of available funding. His key success, she said, is bringing Interstate 215 to the city.

Brailsford will be working on Gibson's campaign again this spring, as will Paladin Advertising. The Las Vegas consulting agency has run successful campaigns for Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, State Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman.

Gibson, however, will still have questions to answer for some voters. In 1997 he told the Sun he planned to be more faithful to the city's comprehensive zoning plans. The City Council was meeting too many of developers' requests at the expense of residents, he said.

"There's no predictability," Gibson said in May 1997. "The resident who buys a house cannot predict what will be built next to him."

Those words might well have been spoken today by Sexton or any number of residents of southwest Henderson.

On a 1.2-mile stretch of Horizon Ridge Parkway off Eastern Avenue, residents have watched the City Council approve since July 1998 three apartment complexes, two convenience stores, a 30,000-square-foot medical office, a self-storage facility, and, most recently, an 88,000-square-foot office park.

The City Council approved each of the commercial projects on land zoned residential, Sexton said. The council approved the projects in defiance of the Southwest Henderson Special Study Area ordinance, Sexton said, and despite protest by affected neighbors that they did not want more redundant services.

Clark defended the actions of the City Council.

"If there is no need, they (the commercial projects) won't be built," Clark said. "Developers won't be able to get the money. They won't be able to finance the projects. But the reality is, there's not that much commercial out there."

Clark said that while he understands the perspective of the homeowners associations, the council has to balance the needs of all of Henderson.

Clark declined to mention individual accomplishments during his eight years as city councilman, crediting instead the "integrated approach" of the council. Most important among his goals, he said, would be his continued support for education and public safety.

Clark, 42, a detective for the Metro Police Department and father of two children, said he will continue to push to deconsolidate the Clark County School District to allow Henderson to form an independent district. He also continues to support building a state college in Henderson.

"We have to do better than educating the next generation of blackjack dealers," Clark said. "We have to get kids to look beyond the immediate opportunities and look to their long-term future."

The Henderson Police force has doubled since 1993 to about 200 officers, Clark said. But just as important as putting more officers on the street to react to crime, Clark said, is supporting measures to prevent crime.

"Environmental design is the single most important element in preventing crime," Clark said. To that end, Clark said he would continue to support construction of more public parks.

Horne, who worked on state Sen. Jon Porter's failed bid for Shelley Berkley's seat in the House of Representatives last year, will be running for political office for the first time. A Henderson native, Horne is married with one child and is a graduate of UNLV.

"The residents of Ward 3 deserve a little more," Horne said. "The incumbent has been in office eight years and there are a lot of things he hasn't attended to."

Horne's first priority would be to improve public safety. He said he would work to get the Henderson Police Department nationally accredited in order to win federal funding.

Like Clark, Horne supports the deconsolidation of the Clark County School District as a long-term solution to improving education for Henderson children.

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