Thursday, June 12, 2003 | 11:10 a.m.
Critical care nurse Janet Moncrief says she has had to reach into a hole in a man's chest, grab his heart and massage life back into the patient's body. So how difficult can taking care of a city be?
She'll start finding out Wednesday after she is sworn in as the new Las Vegas Councilwoman for Ward 1. This week she was trying to prepare, making the rounds, meeting with Mayor Oscar Goodman and other officials and trying to learn her way around City Hall.
Goodman has enjoyed a block of support on the seven-member council on many issues, and Michael McDonald, the two-term councilman that Moncrief ousted, was often one of Goodman's backers. The first new council member since 1999 is planning to change the dynamics of Las Vegas' government.
"I am a little apprehensive because I have a lot to learn," Moncrief said. "But I believe one person can change the dynamics, though not drastically. And, yes, it will take a while to bring about change as I learn my way around."
Longtime political analyst Steve Forsythe said Moncrief's right.
"A political newcomer on the City Council level can bring about a change in dynamics with the energy and personality they bring to the table," said Forsythe, political consultant of FFE Associates, a public relations firm.
"Nowhere is that more evident than with Mayor Oscar Goodman. Except for being an attorney, he had no prior government experience. But certainly he brought a high-profile role to the council with his personality."
The council, however, is split over whether Moncrief's arrival heralds change at City Hall.
Councilmen Gary Reese and Lawrence Weekly said they do not believe the dynamics of city leadership will be altered by the addition of one rookie councilwoman.
"Not much is going to change because government goes on," Weekly said. "It is very important that you do work with other council members because while many votes end up 7-0, there are contentious issues and you need to be able to bounce your ideas off your colleagues."
Councilmen Larry Brown and Michael Mack say the dynamics of the council can change with a single person.
"While one person can make a change, along the way you learn that it's not just about your ward and its needs, but whether all of the city will benefit from projects you approve," said Brown, also a former planning commissioner.
"For example, the new Senior Center (in Ward 3) and the Durango Community Center (in Ward 4) are regional projects used by people all over the valley, not just those who live in the wards. This job is all about addressing what is best for the entire community."
Weekly, who has been friends with Michael McDonald, the incumbent Moncrief defeated, since the two attended Western High School together, said he nevertheless feels he can work well with Moncrief because their urban wards have similar issues.
"But she should be a little nervous," Weekly said. "I was so nervous on my first vote I pushed the wrong button. The first time I spoke at a council meeting, I rambled, and halfway through I felt like vomiting."
Intensive orientation
To try to keep Moncrief from having a Weekly-like first meeting, she's getting an informal but intensive orientation, City Manager Doug Selby said.
"We have such a short time before next Wednesday and so much to prepare her for," Selby said. "We are trying to provide her with the orientation by introducing her to department heads and having her meet with the city clerk and the city attorney to familiarize herself with procedures and laws."
Selby said, however, the amount of time and effort that will be given depends on how much assistance Moncrief wants. Some elected officials want more help than others, he said.
The procedure also includes setting Moncrief up for health insurance and her $38,000-a-year salary, which will go up 3 percent on July 1. She also will be allowed to hire an executive assistant and two liaisons.
There's also the logistical aspect of moving into the 10th floor of City Hall. It's affected by the pecking order. Moncrief won't get the office of the man she is replacing, Michael McDonald. Elected in 1995 and reelected in 1999, he was the most senior member on the council and that had entitled him to the biggest office on the 10th floor of City Hall.
With McDonald moving out, all the other council members have the option of moving up in seniority to the bigger offices, and Moncrief will get the one that is not claimed, Selby said.
Staying independent
Being the rookie may affect her office space, but it won't affect her votes, Moncrief said. Moncrief said she is not afraid to oppose Las Vegas' popular and forceful mayor, and she disagrees with some positions he has staked out.
"If I had been on the council when he (Goodman) said he wanted to allow 18-year-old girls to dance in city strip clubs I would have spoken against that," Moncrief said. "As a mother (of a 22-year-old daughter, Kara), I can say that young girls need guidance and dancing in strip clubs is not it."
Moncrief said she also opposes Goodman's efforts to try to convince the Cleveland Clinic to set up shop on a portion of the city-owned 61 acres of former Union Pacific Railroad property west of downtown.
"I'm against it because there is no real cap on malpractice lawsuits," Moncrief said. "A couple of their doctors get hit with multimillion-dollar judgments, the Cleveland Clinic will be out of here."
Moncrief does, however, support Goodman's efforts to "revitalize the core of downtown" with an urban village with shops and high-rise apartments for the old railroad property "to bring people to a vibrant downtown area to work and live."
Goodman says he believes Moncrief has to bring herself up to speed on projects, including the Cleveland Clinic.
"Once she understands what we are trying to do I believe she will be an ardent supporter of the Cleveland Clinic," Goodman said, noting that the clinic is self-insured so the malpractice insurance issue should not come into play.
Goodman admits his support during the campaign was for McDonald and he disagrees with those who opine that it waned.
Goodman said he did not go forward with a planned telephone call-out recording supporting McDonald in the last week of the race because the script dealt with "old issues, nothing new." He said he met Moncrief during the campaign and declined her request to have a photograph taken with him.
"She will learn that you have to work with your colleagues," Goodman said. "On my first vote of significance I was on the losing end of a 4-to-1 decision. I vowed after that meeting that would never happen again."
Forsythe and former Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones, the first woman elected to that post in Las Vegas, said people should not read too much into the fact that for the first time ever there are two women on the City Council -- Moncrief and Ward 2 Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald.
They say it does not necessarily mean Moncrief and Boggs McDonald will become political allies.
"People expressed concern about four women on the Clark County Commission at one time (Lorraine Hunt, Myrna Williams, Erin Kenny and Yvonne Atkinson Gates)," Forsythe said. "But that commission did well addressing one of the most explosive periods of growth. The sex makes no difference."
Jones, who today is an executive with Harrah's Entertainment, said she always expected that in time there would be more women on the Las Vegas City Council.
"It's really not a big issue whether they are men or women -- what we are looking for are thoughtful, responsible people to do the job," said Jones, who like Moncrief came to the post with no practical political experience.
On-the-job training
"The day after I was elected I asked myself 'What have I got myself into?"' Jones said. "I knew the administration end of the job from being a businesswoman, but you need to learn politics and learn how to build coalitions. You can't get things done alone."
Jones, who does not know Moncrief, said she believes Moncrief will quickly learn what she needs to know "and will do just fine."
Boggs McDonald said unlike Jones and Moncrief, she came to the council with substantially more experience in politics.
"I came in having been a former assistant city manager," Boggs McDonald said. " In that role, I had worked with practicallyall members of the City Council. More importantly, I knew the organization inside and out. I knew every department head and every division manager."
"My advice to the councilwoman-elect would be that she truly work hard to understand the organization and responsibilities of city government. This will be important so that she can establish realistic and achievable goals."
Forsythe said Moncrief needs to make alliances, which are especially important on the Las Vegas City Council because four votes are usually needed to prevail on any issue. But he warned, "such alliances are fleeting and are related to issues as they change."
"At one point Goodman and McDonald appeared to be political enemies (over ethics matters), but a few months later, after supporting similar issues, they appeared to be buddies on the same side," Forsythe said. "Alliances change."
Moncrief already got off on the wrong foot with the most senior member of the council, Councilman Gary Reese, the mayor pro tem. Reese said he has never met Moncrief and was not happy with her comment during the campaign indicating that he is just a barber.
"I also served two years on the old board of zoning adjustment and four years on the planning commission and never missed a meeting," Reese said.
But Reese said that despite feeling slighted by Moncrief, he'll do what he can to help her.
"I'll take her around the wards and show her the projects we have going," he said.
Moncrief said her statement was not meant to insult Reese, but rather to note that the council is comprised of ordinary people -- she is a nurse, Reese is a barber, Goodman is an attorney.
Moncrief says she met none of her fellow council members during the campaign, other than Goodman, who was at an event she attended. They said hello, but little else, she said.
Goodman says Moncrief is more than just a new colleague. He has an interest in her doing well because she also is the councilwoman who represents the ward in which he resides.
"She has a difficult road ahead of her and I want to help her do a good job," Goodman said. "You have to be very attentive to Ward 1 on a daily basis because it is a difficult and mature ward that can go down fast."
None of the council members tried to cozy up to Moncrief via phone calls or in other way either, she said.
Who she represents
Making council alliances and overcoming a stigma that somehow she is under the strong influence of ex-casino owner and one-time mayoral candidate Bob Stupak are two obstacles Moncrief will have to overcome, Forsythe and other political observers say.
"I have told people over and over that he (Stupak) is just a friend and a former patient," Moncrief said of the professional poker player and "Polish Maverick" who has brought wild projects before the City Council, including the roller coaster atop his ex-property the Stratosphere.
"I was on duty at UMC the night he came in with his face nearly torn off."
Moncrief was referring to Stupak's March 1995 motorcycle accident that left him in a coma for five weeks and required plastic surgery to reconstruct his face.
And all politicians have friends -- and many of those friends are influential people -- but that doesn't keep elected officials from carrying out their duties, Moncrief said.
"If you are on the City Council for four years or eight years, you are going to make friends," Moncrief said.
"I'll disclose my friendships then vote on something if my heart tells me it is the right thing to do."
None of the council members interviewed for this story expressed concern about Moncrief's close relationship to Stupak.
Reese, who ran against Stupak's son Nevada Stupak in 1999, said he got support from Nevada Stupak for this year's campaign that Reese won outright in the primary.
Ward 4 Councilman Larry Brown said it is simply a matter of disclosing a relationship then voting with your conscience.
Moncrief said she believes she knows what her constituents want her to do.
"As I walked the ward, we left a written survey and got 600 responses," Moncrief said.
"The issues that were among the most important to my constituents were eliminating blight in some of the older neighborhoods, addressing a lack of police protection, adding parks and installing speed bumps on some streets that motorists speed through, endangering children."
She said working closer with Metro Police officials will be a step toward addressing some of those issues. Moncrief said in areas where speed bumps cannot be approved, perhaps more enforcement of traffic laws by police will slow down motorists.
Reese's advice to Moncrief is not to make promises to her constituents unless she knows she can meet them.
Brown said after reading news accounts of Moncrief walking the ward every day for months to learn the needs of her constituents, he believes she has "a very solid foundation" to do the job.
Mack says the voters' decision to oust an experienced council member for a newcomer probably will not result in other council members changing their voting patterns or how they conduct business at City Hall.
"You vote on hundreds of issues and you can't worry about whether some people will be upset by how you vote, because some people will be upset," Mack said. "You can only vote your conscience and use due diligence.
"We're going to miss Michael. I never thought he would lose," Mack said. "But now we will help Ms. Moncrief through the process. Regardless of how the dynamics of the council may change, we definitely want to maintain the cohesiveness we have developed in recent years."
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