Council kicks psychiatric hospital back to governor

Sito Negron

Thursday, March 18, 2004 | 8:50 a.m.

The Las Vegas City Council threw the hot potato decision about where to build a new psychiatric hospital right back to Gov. Kenny Guinn.

The council voted to take no action on the site development plan for a block of land at Jones and Oakey boulevards, where the state plans to build the hospital.

The site development plan outlines the design of the hospital, which the state has the right to build whereever it wants without city approval.

"This meeting is ceremonial," said Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald in making the motion to strike the item. Turning to Mayor Oscar Goodman, she said any council action "would have as much weight" as if he went for a martini with the governor and the pair shook hands on a deal.

She was mostly correct, although City Attorney Brad Jerbic noted that if the state negotiated and agreed to details about the building design, "I think they'd be bound."

Her motion passed 5-2, with Councilwoman Janet Moncrief and Councilman Lawrence Weekly opposing.

"This kind of saddens me," said Weekly. "There's people out there right now who really need help."

Reached after the meeting, Guinn spokesman Greg Bortolin said: "We're going to reserve judgment indefinitely until we have a chance to review the testimony and what happened at the City Council meeting.

"We, of course, were looking for some direction from the City Council, and that obviously didn't happen."

Bortolin said the hospital is a top priority of the governor, and while there is a need to begin the process of sending out bids to meet a hoped-for early 2006 completion date.

"We're also not going to react without understanding the feelings and sentiments of community are," Bortolin said. "This is a community-driven need, and we're certainly going to respect that."

Goodman lambasted the state -- particularly some Assembly members he did not name -- for voting to approve the hospital in the Legislature, then sending letters to him and other council members opposing the project.

Goodman read from one letter in which he said the writer stated that the prospect of escaped patients is disconcerting.

"Here's a guy who voted for this, and then he sends it to us, for nothing!" Goodman said, his voice rising to almost a yell at the end of the sentence.

While he spoke, Sen. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, stood at the podium. She had opposed the hospital site from the beginning, wanting to find other locations. Goodman, who called her to the podium as a target for his wrath, apologized after his outburst.

"I needed someone to yell at," he told her.

She replied that she was glad to be there for him.

Assemblywoman Peggy Pierce, D-Las Vegas, voted in favor of the project, and sent a letter to the city asking it to reject the site development plan.

She said after the meeting that Goodman did not read from her letter, but she "fit the bill" of an Assembly member who voted for the project but now opposes the site.

Pierce explained that at the time, the project was wrapped inside a bigger spending bill. She also said that the site could be moved without having to wait for the next Legislature, by bringing the matter to the Interim Finance Committee.

While there was disagreement over the politics involved -- how the site was selected and who would take responsibility for it -- everyone agreed that the valley has a tremendous need for the hospital.

After the decision to strike the item, dozens of people lined up to speak on the issue during the public comment period. Virtually all supported a hospital, if not the location.

The current facility has 103 beds, and the new one would start with 150 beds, increasing to 190 eventually.

Dr. Jonna Triggs, director of the Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services, said her research indicated that about 40 people at any given time are in emergency rooms in need of psychiatric help.

Bortolin said the politics are "not something the governor will consider."

"He's going to consider doing the right thing."

When 40 to 50 people are waiting for help in Las Vegas emergency rooms, Bortolin said, "that's a serious health issue."