Suit threatened over rejected petition

Thursday, March 3, 2005 | 9:07 a.m.

A group of North Las Vegas residents are threatening to go to court after the City Council on Wednesday rejected their bid to give voters a say on city union employees' wages.

The residents appealed to the North Las Vegas City Council after City Clerk Karen Storms said their petition drive was invalid. One of the five people behind the ballot measure wasn't a registered voter in North Las Vegas as the city charter requires, officials said. He lived in Las Vegas.

The group wants a law to require new contracts with employee bargaining groups be approved by voters during city elections.

Joel Hansen, the petition drive committee's lawyer, said he plans on filing a lawsuit, likely in District Court, to get the measure before voters on June 7.

"What they are doing is unconstitutional," Hansen said. "It is ridiculous. What they have done is come up with an extra requirement that is not in the (state) Constitution. We will go to court to seek remedies if they don't wake up and see what they are doing."

North Las Vegas Mayor Mike Montandon said he has no choice but to accept the recommendation of Storms.

"The petition is not sufficient," Montandon said. "Why would I disagree with her? They went out and got someone who was not legally able to circulate the petition. It sounds pretty simple to me."

Hansen, an attorney and board member for Nevadans for Sound Government, said the Nevada Constitution doesn't require five registered voters from a city. He said the city clerk took the initial filing on Jan. 13 without telling the group that any of the five signatures were invalid.

"We are hopeful they will see the light," Hansen said. "We plan to get this done if we have to do it over again. We want to bring fiscal sanity back to our state. They (politicians) want to make sure taxpayers support them and their bureaucratic functions."

Jan. 28 was the deadline to gather more signatures and put the measure before voters on June 7.