Acting city manager impresses mayor with proposed projects

Dan Kulin

Thursday, Sept. 4, 2003 | 9:33 a.m.

The acting city manager of North Las Vegas on Wednesday presented the City Council with a broad program that included plans to map safe routes for children who walk to school, survey city residents and developers and automate many city billing services so residents could pay bills over the Internet.

Mayor Michael Montandon said he's very excited about the plans Gregory Rose laid out for city staff. Montandon said Rose's plans "bode well" for the acting city manager's chances of landing the job permanently.

Rose was appointed to the temporary position about five weeks ago.

The mayor said he sees Rose's time as acting city manager as a try-out period for the permanent appointment.

"When I talked about maybe a lack of vision under the previous city manager, I think Gregory's taken that to heart," Montandon said, adding that he is "very impressed" with Rose.

Montandon said that around the end of this month the City Council will either decide how to go about searching for a new city manager or will appoint a new city manager.

Rose has said he wants the job, but said he doesn't see his time as acting city manager as a try-out for the job. Also, he said, the plan he set forth on Wednesday was not an effort to sway the council to giving him the job.

"This is just my style and my approach to management," Rose said. "These challenges just could not wait for the council to make a permanent decision" about a new city manager.

Rose's plan, which won the unanimous backing of the council, involves projects for most city departments.

The plan includes paying for an independent survey of city residents, surveying developers to find ways to speed up the development project approval process, reviewing city services to find additional processes that could be automated, establishing safe-school walking routes, creating and implementing a rental housing inspection program, working with Henderson and the Community College of Southern Nevada to establish a regional police academy, and a review of the Municipal Court schedule that could result in the court being open on Mondays.

Rose, an assistant city manager, became acting city manager on July 25. The temporary assignment arose when the council fired former City Manager Kurt Fritsch on July 16.