Wednesday, April 9, 2003 | 9:13 a.m.
Boulder City's mayor and incumbent city councilman seeking re-election were outdone by challengers in Tuesday's primary election -- but both received enough votes to carry them to the general election.
Mayor Bob Ferraro and Councilman Bryan Nix claimed strong showings by their opponents were due to a campaign of "misinformation" waged by former Councilman Bill Smith, who received the most votes in the mayoral primary.
At the heart of Smith's campaign were his claims that the city is headed for a financial doomsday.
Ferraro and Nix say the city is on sound financial footing.
"I think this is kind of a wake-up call for Boulder City," Nix said. "Somehow he has been able to convince voters Boulder City is in financial trouble, and we're not."
Ferraro, who has been mayor or a councilman since 1976, said the election results show that while voters are concerned about the city's finances, "they've been misled" by Smith.
Smith said he has not lied to or misled voters, but rather based his claims on the information available to him. Smith said he has been having trouble obtaining some financial information from the city.
"They've been hiding problems until now, but I doubt they can hide them until the general election," Smith said.
Smith, 77, has pointed to financial projections included in a July report done for the city to back up his contention that the city will run out of money within the next seven years. Smith, a councilman from 1997 to 2001, said voters should make him mayor because he's the only candidate willing to share the bad news with the public -- even though he hasn't said exactly how he would fix the problem.
Ferraro, 67, and Nix have said the report's predictions can be easily turned around if any one of several cost-cutting or revenue-enhancing prospects come through, such as leases of city-owned land to power companies.
In the Tuesday mayoral primary, Smith received 38.9 percent of the vote, or 1,784 votes, while Ferraro received 36 percent of the vote, or 1,650 votes, according to unofficial totals released by the Clark County Election Department.
Councilman Mike Pacini, who still has two years left on his current council term, ran third in the mayoral primary with 1,148 votes, or about 25 percent of the vote.
Ferraro said he hopes to pick up many of Pacini's votes in the general election; on Tuesday the councilman told Ferraro he would support Ferraro in a race against Smith. Pacini, a 35-year-old supermarket clerk, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Nix ran third in the council primary, from which the top four vote-getters move on to the June 3 general election. Early voting is from May 17 to May 30.
The three other council candidates who will appear on the general election ballot are Karla Burton, Roger Tobler, and Kevin Polk.
Burton, 46, is an attorney with a private mediation and arbitration practice and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel. She led all council candidates with 21.9 percent of the vote, or 1,861 votes.
Tobler, 37, and co-owner of Home Hardware and Variety in Boulder City, ran second with 1,822 votes, 21.5 percent.
Nix, 49, received 1,752 votes, 20.6 percent of the vote. Nix is a senior appeals officer for the Nevada Department of Administration, Hearings Division, director of the state Victim of Crime Program, and a two-term councilman.
Polk, 42, executive director of the Boulder City Senior Center and executive director of the Southern Nevada Transit Coalition, took the fourth spot on the general ballot with 15.2 percent of the vote.
The 1,289 votes for Polk were just barely enough for him to beat out candidate Dick Bravo, 74, a part-time Colorado River whitewater tour guide who received 1,275 votes, about 15 percent.
Council candidate Susan Higley ran sixth with 4.5 percent.
Anthony Pakula, 74, a retired Detroit police officer and a Hoover Dam maintenance worker, received 1.3 percent of the vote.
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