Lean turnout hears candidates for commission

Friday, July 9, 2004 | 9 a.m.

Fewer than 20 people attended a forum for Clark County Commission candidates in District F, but the forum allowed incumbent Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald to get her message out.

Boggs McDonald's likely opponent in the Nov. 2 general election, Assemblyman David Goldwater, did not attend the forum sponsored by the Charleston Neighborhood Preservation Group. In a statement read at the forum, Goldwater said he was in Chicago for business and could not attend.

Two political unknowns, John "Rob" Bishop, like Boggs McDonald a Republican, and Bob Taylor, a Democrat who will run against Goldwater in the September primary, attended the forum.

Boggs McDonald told the group that she was running on her record as a former Las Vegas assistant city manager and councilwoman.

"The best way to tell what somebody will do for you in the future is to look at what they've done in the past," she said. She cited her work to trade land formerly owned by the Howard Hughes Corp. near the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area to keep about 1,000 acres from being developed, among other issues.

Taylor, a University Medical Center employee, focused on health care issues. He said he wants free health care "for every man, woman and child in Clark County."

Bishop, also a UMC employee, cited the stresses of rapid growth.

"We need to look at how we're destroying our natural resources with this growth," he said.

Goldwater has called for slower growth in Clark County because, he has argued, the pace of growth has affected the region's quality of life.

"Quality of life is spending an extra half hour with your family, not stuck in traffic on (U.S.) 95," he said in his statement. "It's looking up and seeing blue skies, not a bunch of junk in the air. It's knowing that when you turn on the faucet that water is going to come out. It's slowing down the growth in this valley and planning better."

Boggs McDonald said that she would deal with issues arising from growth by holding to long-term master plans and getting more input from the community on land-use decisions.

"The integrity of the master plan is the key to plan for growth in the future," she said.