11th-hour district redrawing policy criticized

Jeffrey Libby

Friday, July 26, 2002 | 11:10 a.m.

In Henderson, City Clerk Monica Simmons is waiting, counting the days.

She says she'll wait until at least September, possibly until October, to redraw ward districts for the spring City Council elections. Incumbents Steve Kirk, Amanda Cyphers and Andy Hafen are expected to run for re-election then, for second, third and fifth terms respectively.

In North Las Vegas, there was no such wait. New ward districts to account for population shifts were drawn in March. In Las Vegas, they were drawn in June.

"It's just always been our policy to wait until the last minute because of the population growth. We want to make sure we're using the most current data," Simmons said. "We've never been challenged on that before."

Critics, however, say North Las Vegas and Las Vegas are growing at a similar pace and face the same challenge of ensuring ward populations are within 5 percent of each another by the general election. They say the wait in Henderson is more about ensuring that potential challengers don't get an early start campaigning, and if they do, that incumbents will have the opportunity to draw them out of their wards, forcing them to move or to drop out of the race.

"They're famous for not redrawing until the last minute in Henderson. This year is par for the course," said Ann Adam, past president of Sunridge MacDonald homeowners association. "It keeps the powers-that-be in control, which may or may not be good. And it doesn't give voters a chance to speak.

"It's a 'closed club' type of feeling. They (council members) want to know what they're working with. They don't want to upset the apple cart."

Hafen, who has served since 1987, said the council's close working relationship has led to some of the most orderly growth and best sense of community in the Las Vegas Valley.

"Why would someone say it was wrong for a council to be too cozy?" Hafen said. "We all individually want to do what is best for the city."

The deadline for filing a candidacy is Feb. 7, 2003. And candidates must live in their district for at least 30 days prior to the deadline. So if the city drew new wards by the end of October as planned, even a marooned challenger would have more than two months to find a home in the new ward.

That move, though on short notice, is a minor hurdle to a campaign, said Jim Ferrence, a political consultant who has run campaigns for Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman. He pointed to the campaign earlier this year of Esther Quisenberry.

Before district lines were redrawn, Quisenberry launched a campaign against incumbent Erin Kenny for the County Commission District F seat. When Quisenberry was drawn into another district, she moved.

"Whether you've picked out an opponent or representation of a specific area, if you want the area and you're drawn out you wait, or if it's a person, you move," Ferrence said. "It's perfectly fair."

At the same time, Ferrence said, challengers need a year and at least $100,000 to run a viable campaign. At minimum, he said, they'll need to "hit the ground running" by November for the 2003 election.

In 2001, Mayor Jim Gibson began campaigning just six months before the general election for his second four-year term. Hafen said he also plans to wait until January before holding fund-raisers.

Kirk, however, has already raised more than $25,000 for his campaign, Ferrence said. Ferrence is his campaign manager.

Cyphers didn't return a call for comment.

City clerks in Las Vegas and North Las Vegas also say they may make minor adjustments to ward lines before spring elections, suggesting that in the end, Henderson may have saved itself some work by waiting for October to come around.

Municipalities are still waiting for 2000 Census information that will allow demographers to more accurately predict per-household population densities, which could shift some ward lines. "But if we are going to do that, it would have to be very soon, to let people know," said Eileen Sevigny, North Las Vegas City Clerk. "Otherwise it wouldn't be fair."