Council’s benefits cut but lease issue loses

Jeffrey Libby

Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2002 | 9:28 a.m.

Voters on Tuesday cut Boulder City elected officials' pay in half, but allowed officials to lease city-owned land without first taking it to a ballot vote.

Voters had seen similar versions of both ballot questions before, and they will probably see similar versions at the ballot box as early as next spring, backers on the losing end of the initiatives said.

"I'm just a working guy with a wife and two kids," said Councilman Mike Pacini, a grocery store clerk. "I feel just disenchanted with my office."

"It's depressing," Councilman Bryan Nix said.

Mayor Bob Ferraro was more philosophical. "Any time you bring up salaries, people say, 'That's way too much money.' "

Boulder City officials were already paid less than Las Vegas Valley elected officials. But with the loss of monthly auto and health benefits of $950, they will make just $11,000 a year, about a third of the pay of Henderson elected officials.

Voters passed a similar initiative in June 2001, but a competing City Council-backed measure won by a larger percentage. That measure prevented officials from voting themselves raises without first standing for re-election, but didn't address the pay issue.

So former Councilman Bill Smith brought the issue back to voters. He was out of town today and couldn't be reached for comment.

Ferraro predicted that the City Council will ask voters for a raise in the spring municipal elections.

If voters were tough on pay, they opted not to demand control of the lease of city-owned land, even though the city owns 180 square miles of undeveloped desert.

City Manager John Sullard, who had warned that the city wouldn't be able to attract new business if leases required political campaigns, said the "No" vote allowed him to put off any immediate budget cuts.

"In the short-term we would have been OK, but you look out 10 years and we would have been hurting," Sullard said.

Long-term leases of large tracts of city land bring in close to $3 million each year for the city.

Backers of the question, which failed by just 54 votes, or 1 percent of votes cast, said long-term leases of city-owned land were side-stepping the principles of controlled growth.

"I would not be surprised if we saw it again," said Vaughn Reuther, who led the initiative petition.