Library bond sent to county panel

Eric Leake

Friday, Feb. 14, 2003 | 9:13 a.m.

A library bond initiative moved a step closer to the June ballot Thursday despite a protest over a pending sexual harassment lawsuit.

The Las Vegas-Clark County Library District unanimously voted to forward the initiative to the county's Debt Management Commission, which meets March 7.

The initiative asks for $50.6 million to build four new libraries and about $9 million a year in operating costs. Voters approved the most recent library bond proposal 12 years ago.

It would add an average annual $8.82 tax per $100,000 of property.

Library Executive Director Daniel Walters said he is hopeful about the initiative's chances. A similar initiative was sidelined two years ago. That initiative was competing for attention with a proposal for a new children's hospital that ultimately failed.

"The last time around our issue was not heard because of lack of a forum," Walters said. "It was pretty clear that there was concern about other competing issues, and (now) we don't have competing issues."

The only threat to the bond issue Thursday came from about 15 people who were protesting in connection with a sexual harassment and discrimination suit against the district.

"We're going to down that bond if you don't do the right thing by these women," said Marzette Lewis, president of a group called Westside Action Alliance Korps-Uplifting People.

The 5-year-old lawsuit alleges that the women were sexually harassed by a fellow library employee and that their complaints were dismissed because they are heavyset and black.

"I am appalled for anyone to say that for an obese woman, just because of her size, cannot be sexually harassed, that nobody wants a big woman," Lewis said. "That's got to be the biggest lie ever told."

The lengthy public comment prompted Trustee Everett Louis Overstreet to call for a review of district sexual harassment policies and Chair Ricki Barlow to ask for a future closed session on the matter.

The lawsuit is awaiting a court date.

Walters said he could not comment on pending litigation.