Where I Stand—Mike O’Callaghan: SB329 makes them vote

Tuesday, June 5, 2001 | 8:58 a.m.

Mike O'Callaghan is the Las Vegas Sun executive editor.

AT FIRST BLUSH the passage of SB329 had me thinking that it was just one more attempt for legislators to poke their fingers into eyes of local governing bodies. Not much love is lost between many legislators and local officials. It had a 42-0 margin in the Assembly and a 19-1-1 margin in the Senate. The guts of the bill reads:

"A public body that is required to be composed of elected officials only may not take action by vote unless at least a majority of all members of the public body vote in favor of the action. For purposes of this section, a public body may not count an abstention as a vote in favor of an action."

Upon seeing the name of Sen. Terry Care as the bill's author I had to take a second look at it. Care is a serious and competent legislator who doesn't play games when making laws. That's more than can be said for a few of his fellow legislators. So why wouldn't just the majority of a quorum be sufficient? Why should it be a true majority of all members voting aye before the matter is passed by a county commission or city council? These are questions that still remained on my mind until being reminded that both houses of the Nevada Legislature must have a majority of ayes cast by the entire body before a bill becomes law. So the legislators didn't create a law that they already don't have to abide by in their own work.

Sun reporter Adrienne Packer has written several times about local boards and commissions approving important projects with far less than a majority approval vote. A good example was the Las Vegas City Council in 1998 having four members abstain and the rezoning of downtown property being accomplished with a 1-0 vote. The abstentions came for various reasons with indirect ethical conflicts being the biggest excuse for not voting.

Under the new law, Clark County Commission actions will require at least 4 yes votes for the approval of any action. Packer, in a recent article, wrote: "Four board members abstained from a vote concerning 155 acres along the Las Vegas Strip in 1998. A project proposed by developer Billy Walters-now Bali Hai golf course-won over two other bids.

"Two commissioners, citing conflicts of interest, ducked out of the vote on a union-written, controversial ordinance that prohibited Wal-Mart from building Supercenters in the county. The measure passed 3-2.

"And last year the board voted 3-1 to approve a Spring Valley neighborhood casino strongly opposed by residents."

It's obvious that Care's SB329 is a badly needed piece of legislation. It may be a bit clumsy at first and the 2003 Legislature may have to make some adjustment to ethics laws. In the meantime it can only help local government become more responsive to constituents. No longer can board and commission members duck out of a meeting or miss important votes. If they do, it's the responsibility of the press to continually bring such actions to the attention of the voters and future candidates who have their eyes on dumping an elected official.

I asked County Commissioner Myrna Williams for her feelings about the passage of SB 329. "I find nothing wrong or threatening about it. It's a reasonable law," she told me. The experience Williams had as a state legislator gives her a broad view of laws and it doesn't take her long to sort out the wheat from the chaff.

So congratulations to Sen. Terry Care and his colleagues for giving Nevadans a law that will make local elected bodies more responsive to citizens.