Collins raises strip club issue as he files for office

Friday, May 7, 2004 | 9:04 a.m.

The pledge to keep an incumbent Clark County commissioner's indictment on corruption charges out of the coming campaign is looking a little ragged.

On Thursday, after Assemblyman Tom Collins filed to run against Clark County Commissioner Mary Kincaid-Chauncey, he indirectly highlighted the federal bribery case pending against her.

"I will not accept any contributions from strip clubs," Collins, 53, said in a press release. "It's obvious that some have become too chummy and too dependent on strip club money."

He also said he planned to bring "more integrity" to the commission.

Kincaid-Chauncey, who has said emphatically she is innocent of the federal charges that she took money from a local strip-club owner in exchange for political favors, filed for re-election Tuesday.

Assemblywoman Vonne Chowning, like Collins and Kincaid-Chauncey a Democrat in the campaign for the seat, has not directly referenced the indictment, but said she is running to restore integrity to the County Commission.

Collins also said if he becomes county commissioner he would take a look at water rates charged to residential customers in Las Vegas and unincorporated Clark County. The commission is the governing board of the Las Vegas Valley Water District, which has close to a million customers in the urban area.

County commissioners occupy three of the seven seats on the board of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, the water wholesaler to distributors including the water district and the cities in the region.

Collins, an electrical contractor, spoke against the Water Authority's proposal to buy out Nevada Power, Southern Nevada's electricity provider. Although that stand put him at odds with Water District and Water Authority General Manager Pat Mulroy, Collins said he could work well with Mulroy and the water agencies.

Collins said he might want to overhaul the four-tiered rate structure for residential water customers that charges the heaviest users a surcharge for larger amounts of water, one of a number of steps the water agencies backed to encourage conservation during the region's worst drought on record.

Echoing some critics of the water agencies, Collins suggested that the water problems are related not just to the drought, but to the growing demand for water throughout Southern Nevada.

"The water rate system down here needs to be fixed," he said. "If we're going to grow, if we're going to ask our existing residents to allow our growth to continue, it cannot be at the suffering of our existing residents."

Collins explained that he is not in favor of restricting growth but believes the costs should not be borne by the existing residents.

"I am saying that we should stick with the plans we make for growth, stick with the master plans so we know what's coming," he said. "I have never supported managed or controlled growth and never will. I'm never going to want to put up a gate."

On the other hand, Collins said he is concerned that those who are already here often pay the price for growth in environmental degradation and higher costs for utilities and services.

"I support growth that does not harm the existing resident."

Water District and authority spokesman Vince Alberta declined to comment on Collins' remarks.

Clark County Commissioner Myrna Williams, one of the commission's representatives to the Water Authority board who helped create the existing rate structure, said, "Tom doesn't have all the facts."

Collins is the third Democrat to challenge Kincaid-Chauncey. John Bonaventura, a one-term assemblyman from the early 1990s who lost a bid for Clark County treasurer in 1998, filed for the seat earlier.

North Las Vegas Councilwoman Stephanie Smith, who lost her bid to unseat Kincaid-Chauncey in 2000, said she has not decided if she will try again.

North Las Vegas Councilwoman Shari Buck is so far the only Republican to file for the County Commission seat in District B. If no other Republican files, the winner of the Sept. 7 primary election will face Buck in the Nov. 2 general election.