Rally planned in attempt to recall Moncrief

Sito Negron

Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2004 | 9:37 a.m.

The man trying to force a recall election for Las Vegas Councilwoman Janet Moncrief plans a Thursday rally, to which the councilwoman has been invited.

Moncrief said Monday she'd decline the invitation.

"I really feel the Ward 1 constituents are happy with my staff and I," Moncrief said. "I'm not going to quit, and I'm going to keep working hard on this job."

She said Lee Haynes, who is behind the effort and the group that calls itself the "Ward One Clean Up Team," is trying to recall her because she refused to promote an ordinance to allow a sexually oriented business to expand on Las Vegas Boulevard.

To recall Moncrief, organizers must find three people to sign the intent to recall. As of Monday afternoon, they had two signatures.

If they get a third signature for the intent to recall, they would then have to collect signatures from registered voters totaling 25 percent of the number of people who voted in Ward 1 in the last election.

That means those pursuing a recall of Moncrief would have to gather 2,057 signatures, one-quarter of the 8,228 votes cast in Ward 1 on June 3, 2003, when Moncrief defeated former Councilman Michael McDonald, 4,773 to 3,455.

After an intent to seek a recall is filed, organizers have 90 days to collect the signatures. Once the signatures are verified, an election must be organized within 30 days.

Moncrief was indicted Aug. 5 on charges of falsifying campaign reports, but Haynes said that wasn't the reason he was undertaking the recall.

"I want to make it very clear. I don't care what she did to get elected. That's not my concern. My concern is what she has and has not done after she got elected," Haynes said.

Haynes said that he was at odds with Moncrief over a sexually oriented ordinance not because it loosened any standards but because it represented an endemic problem, her lack of ability to get things done.

He said she didn't help when the Charleston Neighborhood Preservation Association -- which he emphasized was not involved in his recall effort -- was trying to fight an adult business on Charleston Boulevard.

He said she also refused to work with him when he tried to make sure that shops that already existed in certain areas along Las Vegas Boulevard would be allowed to expand.

When the issue of a state psychiatric hospital came up in the district, he said, she also failed to provide leadership.

"Her antics have marginalized her so much with her colleagues that Ward 1 for all practical purposes is unrepresented," Haynes said.

Despite such broad statements, however, Haynes had been unable to find a third person to sign the intent to recall Monday afternoon.

"It's been difficult to get three. I feel that's because people are very frightened and no one takes a stand and does anything any more," he said. "That's what allows people like the council lady to stay in positions of power once they get in."