Wednesday, May 4, 2005 | 9:36 a.m.
The Clark County Commission on Tuesday sharply criticized a number of legislative bills board members said were not written with the state's largest county in mind.
In its most severe action, the board voted 6-1 to formally oppose Senate Bill 327, a measure making its way to the Assembly Transportation Committee that would have transferred authority for Southern Nevada's bus shelters and benches from local governments to the Regional Transportation Commission, a move RTC Deputy General Manager Curtis Myles told commissioners would create added cost for the county agency that could jeopardize existing transit service.
"The reality is that the maintenance of those shelters would come out of funds" for public transit service, Myles said.
The county now controls the right-of-way and is legally responsible for the bus shelters, authority commissioners object to giving up, according to the resolution passed Tuesday.
Two private companies -- New York-based Viacom Outdoor, a subsidiary of the cable television conglomerate, and Fort Collins, Colo.-based Outdoor Promotions Inc. -- currently provide shelters and benches at the bus stops at no charge to the local governments.
In exchange, the firms sell advertising space on the shelters, according to the commission. Analysts estimate the change would likely cost about $10 million a year to add new shelters to keep pace with valleywide growth and another $1 million to maintain them, half of which would include portions of unincorporated Clark County.
Sen. John Lee, D-North Las Vegas, who put forward the bill, has said the measure would provide shelters to bus stops throughout the jurisdictions.
The private companies have told the county that increased competition for advertising sales have made it difficult to generate the revenues needed to build shelters at all bus stops.
Bus Stop Shelters of Nevada, which was sold in 2000 to Viacom, was first awarded its 10-year contract in 1991. The commission in 2001 extended that contract to February 2006 with the option of a renewal until July 2010.
Outdoor Promotion, which purchased its bus shelter operation from Lamar Advertising, was awarded a five-year contract in 2004, county franchise coordinator Roma Haynes said.
Commissioner Tom Collins, who was previously a member of the Assembly, said he opposed the bill but that it should continue unfettered through the legislative bodies. Collins voted against the resolution opposing the bill.
"Local government should make a stronger effort to provide the bus shelters," he said. "But these are the times the Legislature should do its work."
The bill was part of a larger pattern of targeting Clark County, home to the lion's share of Nevada's population, for an added financial burden, Commissioner Myrna Williams said.
Commissioners spoke on a number of the 75 bills outlined in a lengthy presentation by Jim Spinello, assistant director of administrative services for Clark County.
Williams, also a former legislator who voted to oppose the bill, took aim at a move by legislators to stifle SB 501, which sets aside $15 million in federal funds for new voting machines that print results at each station. The Legislature has not voted on the bill and commissioners did not take any formal action opposing it Tuesday.
Williams also criticized the move to require Clark County to pay for the new machines from its own revenues.
"If they have those voting machines and they're passing money to counties they should pass them to us too," Commissioner Chip Maxfield said.
Also drawing heat was Assembly Bill 425, a bill that recently passed the Assembly setting statewide requirements for urban design and development and encouraged governments to provide incentives for mixed-use development. It also calls for more input on buildings 30 feet tall or higher.
Williams said the bill was a way for legislators from rural portions of the state to "micromanage" decisions normally left to commissioners.
"Southern Nevada gets the short end of the stick all the time," Williams said. "I don't want places with populations of 300 telling us what to do. They have no idea the challenges we face."
Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald said she "adamantly opposed the bill," saying it was out of touch with Clark County and that distance requirements between casinos, churches and schools failed to address facilities built after a casino has already been approved on a site before the school or church was planned nearby.
Boggs McDonald, who had proposed a committee to study what have been dubbed "neighborhood casinos," criticized a survey late last month asking homeowners near the Rhodes Ranch if they agreed with the commission's decision allowing a hotel to be built there.
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