Wednesday, March 31, 2004 | 11:32 a.m.
Gov. Kenny Guinn appointed Las Vegas City Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald today to the Clark County Commission to replace Mark James, who resigned earlier this month.
"I feel confident the governor made the right choice, " Boggs McDonald said shortly after receiving official word of the appointment. "I understand the issues and I'm ready to hit the ground running."
In selecting Boggs McDonald, Guinn said Boggs McDonald was already in elected office and understood government. He also noted that she pledged to run for the seat in November.
James' replacement is required by law to be a Republican, which Guinn, James and Boggs McDonald are.
"This commission is far too important to appoint a caretaker," Guinn said. "Having an experienced person who intends to run for the post in the fall election was also very important in my decision. Lynette gives us the best chance to retain District F as a Republican seat."
Boggs McDonald said that the commission interested her because it deals with "broader regional issues ... that as a city councilwoman I wasn't able to delve into." She specifically mentioned health care and juvenile justice issues.
Boggs McDonald said she resigned immediately from the board of directors of Station Casinos Inc. Boggs McDonald, who took the position on the board last year, said she stepped down "because the governor and I didn't want any appearance of impropriety or conflict of interest." Station has properties in the county and was subject of a contentious planning hearing in front of the commission last year over the height of the proposed Red Rock Station Casino.
Boggs McDonald said there was no pressure from the governor about quitting Stations board, and for her, "it was an easy decision."
She said the magnitude of Clark County's dealings with casino issues, as opposed to that of the city, compelled her to make a clean break. She said her lawyer is negotiating the resolution of the issue of her Station stock options, "so there will be no financial relationship."
James, who said he is quitting for family reasons, will leave office Friday. Boggs McDonald will leave the Las Vegas City Council on April 20 and will take her seat on the county commission the same day.
County commissioners said they expect the good working relationship the board has developed over the last 15 months to continue.
"There has been a cohesiveness and hopefully it will continue the same way," Commissioner Myrna Williams said. "I believe we will have a collegial attitude. We certainly don't need any more divisiveness. And while we won't agree on everything, we can certainly respect each other."
Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates, a member of the same sorority Boggs McDonald joined, Alpha Kappa Alpha, echoed that sentiment.
"There has been a lot of cohesiveness on issues like growth, but growth has been a concern long before Commissioners James and (Rory) Reid have been on the board," Gates said. "I believe Ms. McDonald will be a great addition to the commission and that with her the cohesiveness will continue."
Boggs McDonald currently serves with both Williams and Gates on the Clark County Debt Management Board, which sets how much property tax goes to local governments and agencies.
Boggs McDonald said she served on boards with both James, Reid and other commissioners.
"We already have established a rapport," she said. For example, she said, she serves on Metro's Fiscal Affairs Committee with James and Reid, and Reid met with her prior to a recent County Growth Task Force Meeting.
County Manager Thom Reilly and Commissioner Bruce Woodbury said Boggs McDonald comes into the county position with one major advantage: She is familiar with the mechanisms of local government.
"She'll be able to hit the ground running because she's well-versed in issues of local government," Reilly said. "It's such a learning curve. Even Mark James, who was in politics for a long time, commented on the difference in local government."
Woodbury, a Republican, that although Boggs McDonald does not now live in the commission district, her existing council district overlaps commission District F.
"I think she needs to move into the district as soon as possible," he said. "She lives fairly close to the district. The constituents she represents now share of lot of the same demographics, the same issues, so I don't think it will be a major problem."
Reid, a Democrat, said that he is happy that Boggs McDonald has experience in local government. On the subject of her residence in the district, Reid took a pass.
"This is the governor's choice to make, and I'm not going to second-guess him," he said. "I'm going to do everything I can to continue the collegial atmosphere we now have on the commission."
He said Boggs McDonald's party affiliation should not be a problem on the board, which will continue with a 4-3 Democratic majority.
"Potholes aren't partisan," Reid said. "Most of the issues we deal with aren't partisan. We work together well, and I'm sure that will continue."
Some Democrats are already lining up to run against Boggs McDonald in a potential bruising election in November, but Reid said the election shouldn't disrupt the work of the commission. Assuming she files for the November race, Boggs McDonald will be in just one of four commission races.
"The majority of commissioners will be running," said Reid, who is one of the exceptions. "That will create an environment where races are the norm. It is something we will all have to deal with.
"They are not running against each other," he said. "It shouldn't affect what we're doing."
Republican political consultant Sig Rogich said he thinks Boggs McDonald has a good chance to win reelection in the mostly Democratic district because he said she appeals to people in both parties. She also already has money in the bank that she was raising for her reelection to the City Council.
"She's a hard worker," Rogich said. "She'll walk the district. I know numbers in that district skew to the Democratic side, but I think she appeals to Democrats because she's moderate and she has a good track record."
Rogich called Boggs McDonald "intelligent and forthright."
Boggs McDonald said she has about $200,000 in the bank plus fund-raisers that previously had been scheduled for her city council race.
Democrats vowed that Boggs McDonald won't have a free ride to reelection in November.
Party spokesman Jon Summers said that Democrats have a strong registration advantage in the district and that the party is eyeing two potential candidates to challenge Boggs McDonald -- Assemblyman David Goldwater and state Sen. Mike Schneider.
"Either one would make a great candidate," he said.
Boggs McDonald also might face criticism for her position as a member of the Station Casinos Inc. board of directors.
"Certainly that's been a concern in the past and I think it's a concern that some people still have," Summers said. "I think she's got tough decisions to make."
Gates would not speculate on her party's chances of recapturing the seat, saying instead that Boggs McDonald may have a "slight advantage" because some of her old city ward is in her new county district and "she has dealt with those constituents on a day-to-day basis."
Local Culinary Union Secretary-Treasurer D. Taylor said his union will make any decision on whom to back in the November race "after all the filings are done in mid-May."
"We're not making any commitments until the filings are done," he said. Taylor noted, however, that many of the commissioners, including Mark James, have had a pro-union bent.
That might not be true for Boggs McDonald, who accepted a seat on the Station Casinos board of directors last year. The company is not a union shop, and Culinary and the company scrapped as recently as last fall over the issue of the planned Red Rock Station casino in Summerlin.
"We've always thought that it was unprecedented for an elected official to take a seat on the board of a gaming company," Taylor said. "Her inability to speak out against the initial proposals for Red Rock Station on her own board showed that she had a conflict of interest."
Even though she has stepped down from the board, reports that Boggs McDonald continues to have stock options with the company present a potential conflict, Taylor said.
Unlike the city council, the county commission, acting as the county liquor and gaming board, votes every month on issues affecting gaming companies, including Station and the company's competitors.
"There are votes all the time on gaming companies," he said. "I think it has to pass the smell test."
Boggs McDonald, 40, has been on the council since she was appointed in 1999. She has been seen as having a strong political future. She was the first woman to represent a Las Vegas City Council ward and won her first election with 70 percent of the vote in the primary.
She was the Republican candidate for Congress in 2002, losing to incumbent Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Las Vegas. The race raised Boggs McDonald's profile, as she met with state and national Republican leadership.
Boggs McDonald is immediate past president of the Nevada League of Cities and Municipalities. She is currently on the National League of Cities Homelessness Task Force.
She is a member of the state Commission on Aging and a trustee of Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada.
Boggs McDonald is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, attended the University of Oregon Graduate School of Journalism and received a Master's of Public Administration degree from UNLV.
Sun reporters Sito Negron and Kirsten Searer contributed to this story.
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