Council spars over redistricting

Sito Negron

Thursday, Oct. 21, 2004 | 9:26 a.m.

As expected, and despite some sharp comments from Councilman Gary Reese, the Las Vegas City Council unanimously decided Wednesday to postpone redrawing its ward map until 2006.

"We paid this gentleman (retired judge and redistricting consultant Frederick Kessler) $35,000 to draw these boundaries. Let's look at it," Reese said.

The remark appeared to halt Mayor Oscar Goodman in his tracks. Goodman opened discussion of the item by indicating support for postponing redistricting, but said he had to leave for a meeting. He stood up and was walking out when Reese made his comment.

Goodman first said that if there was to be a vote, to call him from his meeting. But he then sat down to hear the discussion, which ended up resulting in the unanimous vote -- including Reese's -- to postpone the issue until 2006.

In addition to commenting on the cost of the proposal, Reese also appeared to take a swipe at Councilman Steve Wolfson. Reese said although his ward has been gutted by redistricting in his nine years on council, "I never said a word."

Reese then made a reference to someone being on the council for only three months and followed that by referring to the cost of the proposal and asking to look at the maps.

Wolfson, who was elected in June in a special election, said he gets either the credit or the blame as the new guy.

Then he asked Kessler whether the proposed maps were a result of Kessler's own work. In his opening remarks, Kessler had said that one redistricting proposal would have taken about 40 percent of Wolfson's Ward 2.

Kessler replied: "This was not a product you put together ... I think you expressed some concern about 'Why am I losing some of these areas I campaigned so hard in.' "

Kessler said the redistricting was difficult because the three fastest-growing wards are all even-numbered and to the west, which means that they would have to give up residents to the odd-numbered, eastern wards.

Because the even-numbered wards last had regular elections in 2001 and are next scheduled to vote in 2005, the City Council does not want to move residents east in the odd-numbered wards where they would have to wait until 2007 to vote -- a six-year gap.

There is one exception, Ward 2, which had a special election this year. That allows those residents to be moved into Ward 1, which has elections in 2007, without interrupting their ability to vote every four years. It also forced Kessler to move some Ward 1 residents to Ward 5.

That caused an outcry among the residents who live between U.S. 95 and Charleston Boulevard and between Rancho Drive and Valley View Boulevard.

Councilman Michael Mack, who initiated the proposal in the fall of 2003 because of the rapid growth in his ward, said he supported postponing the item to allow for the chance to draw "clean lines."

Among those residents was Marilyn Moran, who said Wednesday she agreed with Mack's assessment about getting clean lines and thought the council made the right decision.

Redistricting is allowed, but not required, whenever the population among wards varies by more than 5 percent. It is required following every U.S. Census if the population discrepancy between wards is more than 5 percent. And it cannot take place during election years, which in Las Vegas are odd years.

The three odd-numbered wards -- 1, 3, and 5 -- are relatively stable in population at about 80,000 each. The faster-growing wards -- 2, 4, and 6 -- have populations ranging from 96,000 in Ward 4 to 116,000 in Ward 6.

Mack said that he already had talked to the city manager about getting staff help to deal with the crush of land-use issues in his ward, easily the fastest-growing.

He estimated he could have 140,000 residents by 2006.