Incumbent Maxfield challenged by Tao

Thursday, Oct. 7, 2004 | 11:18 a.m.

Clark County Commission's District C has had a tumultuous history in recent elections.

In the last two elections deciding who would represent the west side commission district, voters tossed out the incumbents. Now Clark County Deputy District Attorney Jerry Tao hopes to continue that streak by taking on Chip Maxfield, who not only represents the district but is chairman of the county commission.

Tao hopes to parlay his record as a prosecutor for the county into political support, but he knows it will not be easy to unseat Maxfield. Tao, the Democrat, raised about $66,500 this year for his effort.

Maxfield, the Republican, has raised more than $582,000 since January, and his district had 8,600 more Republicans than Democrats among its active voters as of the end of September, according to the Clark County Elections Department. The registration difference is significant considering that a few thousand votes often determines the winner of a county commission race.

Tao says, however, that people in the district are concerned with issues affecting their neighborhood and they aren't seeing the kind of response they would like from the county commission.

"People are concerned about what's going on in the neighborhoods, about crime, water, property taxes," he says. "People are concerned that local politicians aren't doing enough about it. I have some ideas and I'd like to put some of them into action."

Tao came out swinging earlier this year, tying Maxfield to the ongoing criminal prosecution and investigation that has embroiled three former and one current county commissioner in a votes-for-sale scandal involving a Las Vegas strip club operator.

Maxfield says it was never fair to be tied to a man he unseated from his office and an issue that has never touched him or his district.

Federal officials named Lance Malone, a former Metropolitan Police officer, as the man who arranged bribes and favors between club owner Michael Galardi and the then-commissioners.

Maxfield tossed Malone, a fellow Republican, out of office in 2000 after Malone took a beating for supporting a controversial casino near a residential area of the district.

Tao has also highlighted Maxfield's dozens of abstentions over the last four years. Until two months ago Maxfield was the co-owner of Southwest Engineering, a civil engineering firm that worked for some of the region's biggest developers.

Tao says the abstentions show that Maxfield is too close to developers generally, and uses the example of a controversial tower to be part of the Red Rock Station project on West Charleston as a specific example.

"People are concerned about how responsible the commission in general has been," Tao says. "They want to know their homes are being protected."

The commission last spring considered Station Casinos Inc.'s request for a 300-foot tower, ultimately granting 200 feet -- 100 feet above the county's standard.

"That was an example where the commission allowed the casino to be doubled over the master plan and the objections of the neighbors," Tao says. Maxfield's ties to developers create the appearance, if not the reality, that Maxfield is biased.

"It helps fuel the impression that he's much more heavily" in favor of developers instead of the neighbors that he should be representing, Tao said.

Maxfield says that's an unfair criticism. Maxfield notes that for his first two years on the county commission, he often sided with fellow Commissioner Bruce Woodbury in efforts to oppose contentious land-use decisions that contravened existing zoning or master plans for neighborhoods.

Often, Maxfield and Woodbury lost those battles in 5-2 or 4-3 votes. But in 2002, Rory Reid, a Democrat, and Mark James, a Republican, came onto the board, replacing Dario Herrera and Erin Kenny. Herrera and Kenny were subsequently indicted in the strip club scandal.

Reid and James joined Maxfield and Woodbury and successfully pushed for changes in the land-use process that made it more difficult for developers to abandon existing master plans. Maxfield says the changes in the commission go deeper than the hot-button land-use issues.

"The county commission was in a state of turmoil," he says. "There were a lot of issues that were not being addressed fully... Rory and Mark added to the more sensible side of the commission."

The commission today is "dramatically different," and "works together, works for the benefit of the community."

As for the abstentions and frequent disclosures of potential conflicts of interests, Maxfield said he does that whenever there is even a slight connection to avoid the appearance of impropriety. Maxfield notes that he also supported the overhaul of county ethics rules

"Anybody who is in business... will always have a conflict," he says. "I will disclose and abstain when necessary."

Maxfield says he will have conflicts because he is in business, but his business experience is an asset on the board. Tao's full-time job has been in government, Maxfield notes.

Carolyn Edwards, a district constituent whose own losing battle with the county commission three years ago sparked her regular involvement in land-use issues, gives Maxfield relatively high marks.

"I think he's done quite a good job," Edwards says -- although she adds that Maxfield has not been perfect. "He's been honest and forthright, and I think that's good."

Edwards was one of the people who lobbied for strengthening the existing master land-use plans and for increasing notification when changes to neighborhoods were coming. Maxfield, Woodbury, Reid and James, who resigned earlier this year, were key to getting those changes approved, Edwards says.

"It was commendable, and it means that now they will at least listen," she says. "It doesn't mean they always do what we want, but we at least get a say."