Council debate becomes biblical

Erin Neff

Thursday, June 6, 2002 | 11:05 a.m.

The spats between two Las Vegas City Council members boiled over with Old Testament fire and brimstone Wednesday during a discussion of the city's special events policy.

Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald said she was stunned by recent criticism over the inclusion of her name in a flier for a city-sponsored event, because she said she did nothing wrong and viewed the matter as a politically motivated attack from Councilman Larry Brown.

"Unfortunately, I believe the fact that I have filed for another office -- because I'm running for Congress -- puts a bigger bull's-eye on my back," the Republican challenging U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley said.

Brown began the discussion with a soliloquy aimed at clarifying his beliefs based on recent media coverage of the flap.

He said he was not trying to judge Boggs McDonald when he said that "common sense" should prevail when council members are involved with special events.

"It's ridiculous sometimes how fact becomes fiction and fiction becomes fact and at the end of the line we end up with something very different than we intended," Brown said.

But Boggs McDonald didn't see it so innocently and lashed out at what she called a "crawfish society" whose members -- like crawfish trapped in a barrel -- will crawl over each other to get ahead.

"We are Christian people and God will be my rock, my sword, my shield," she said.

"I will not be intimidated or deterred," she added, before discussing a passage of Scripture in which the apostle Paul is bitten by a snake that emerges when he lights a fire.

"No weapon formed against me shall prosper," Boggs McDonald said. "I send you right back into the fire in the name of Jesus Christ."

A group of schoolchildren visiting from Cornerstone Christian Academy listened intently and erupted in applause when she finished her remarks.

The discussion item was aimed at gathering the council's ideas for a city special events policy governing, among other things, event attendance and citywide versus ward-specific events.

But the topic really came to light recently with the mailing of a flier inviting Ward 2 residents to a food-tasting event at Bruce Trent Park. The fliers, which prominently featured Boggs McDonald's name, were mailed before the councilwoman filed May 20 for Congress. The event took place five days after she filed.

Brown said his comments about the city's need for a policy were not aimed specifically at the food festival flier. Boggs McDonald said she didn't believe Brown.

"It's always easy to backtrack after you've been exposed," she said in an interview after the meeting.

"I think people need to know who they're dealing with," she added. "I'm a woman who trusts in the Lord. Whether it's human nature or simply politics, there's jealousy that I'm trying to advance myself and am getting national exposure."

Then Boggs McDonald offered her own solution to the special events flap -- each council member should have his or her own budget to cover everything from staff salaries to event costs.

The rift between her and Brown widened later in the meeting, when the council approved some conceptual plans for a 156-acre city park and tennis facility once in Boggs McDonald's ward but in Brown's ward after a Wednesday redistricting vote.

Boggs McDonald said she worked to secure a partnership between the Nevada Tennis Association and the Darling Memorial Foundation, which has proposed a $1 million donation toward construction and operations.

"Larry Brown's going to cherry pick the best precincts," she said, just before the redistricting vote.

But Boggs McDonald said she did not protest the vote, because she is in a minority voting bloc with Michael McDonald and Lawrence Weekly. Brown, she said, votes with Mayor Oscar Goodman and Councilmen Gary Reese and Michael Mack.

"When you're in the minority there's nothing you can do," she said.

Brown rejected Boggs McDonald's "cherry picking" allegation, saying his ward had to move to the south because mountains prevented its move west and Mack's residence prevented its move north. The four or five precincts at the southern edge between his ward and Boggs McDonald's ward then became part of a negotiation.

"This was a compromise," he said. "I had given her the choice for the first two precincts."

Brown said Boggs McDonald chose the precincts covering TPC Summerlin and Tournament Hills and that he took the next two precincts. He said the two of them were accompanied by Goodman and redistricting consultant Fred Kessler when the negotiations took place.

"She had the first option, so I don't know that this was cherry picking," Brown said.

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