Editorial: Teamwork is key for appointees

Thursday, Feb. 19, 2004 | 9:31 a.m.

It's difficult to find qualified people willing to invest significant amounts of time volunteering on community boards. This is why we were as surprised as the Clark County Commission to learn that 180 people have so far expressed interest in serving on a new growth panel. Formation of the panel was announced earlier this month by the County Commission. Its task will be to study growth in the Las Vegas Valley and recommend ways for it to be planned and managed from a regional perspective. The panel's deadline for making recommendations is the end of this year, which means there will be many long meetings over the next several months.

So many people willing to serve is a big plus as the panel enters its formative stage. The County Commission, too, helped matters this week by tentatively agreeing to limit the panel to 17 members. A final decision on the panel's size will be determined March 2, but we hope it stays at 17. The commission also considered 10 and 30 members. Ten seems too small to be representative of the valley's population but 30 would likely be unwieldy -- particularly when there's deadline pressure.

The County Commission also discussed the makeup of the board in terms of which interests should be represented. It decided that representatives of the general public, environmental groups, unions, academia, social services and businesses should be appointed. We agree the panel must be diverse and that these broad interests must be represented if its recommendations are to have any chance of acceptance.

In choosing the members, however, the County Commission must look for people who will not view themselves as lobbyists for their own interests. Individual members must be public spirited enough so that compromise can be achieved as concepts for the regional plan take shape. We see this growth panel as the best chance since the valley's growth boom began for a unified plan. Let's have a panel whose members can work together and understand that their respective interests will be served best, in the long run, by a plan that serves the whole Las Vegas Valley.