NLV voters to decide how they vote

Friday, April 7, 2006 | 7:26 a.m.

North Las Vegas residents will decide in November whether they believe the quality of service they receive from City Hall is shaped by how they elect the City Council members who serve there.

Because of a 2005 law enacted by the Legislature, the North Las Vegas City Council has been forced to place a measure on the Nov. 7 ballot that asks voters whether they want to continue electing council members in citywide balloting or solely within the wards where they reside.

The ballot question pits existing council members against Assembly Democrats who represent North Las Vegas. The vote also resurrects the debate over whether newer parts of the city are benefiting at the expense of older neighborhoods - the issue that assemblymen say prompted their push for the change in how the council is elected.

Council critics contend that the existing electoral system that allows residents in all four wards to vote on all council members gives undue influence to people living in newer areas such as Aliante and Eldorado, where voter turnout tends to be far higher than in lower-income areas.

Council members deny that mature areas are neglected and fear that switching to a ward election system will foster parochialism and infighting, with members focused more on their wards than on citywide issues.

That's the view of Eric Herzik, a political science professor at UNR, who pointed out that the existing hybrid ward system now used in North Las Vegas - in which candidates must live within specific wards but are elected by citywide voters - is gaining favor with other cities nationwide.

Minority groups, however, like the straight-ward system because it enhances minority candidates' chances of being elected, Herzik said. Ward-only campaigns typically cost less than citywide races, and allow minority candidates to run in areas with high concentrations of minority residents - a factor often diluted in a citywide contest.

The five-member North Las Vegas City Council currently has one minority member - Councilman William Robinson, who is black.

In at-large elections, candidates have to appeal to the entire community, Herzik said.

"The ward system by itself can lead to fractionalized politics because you don't campaign on a citywide basis," Herzik said, citing Las Vegas, where council members are elected in wards, as an example. "You are campaigning for local interests.

"There are arguments for it. One is that 'we want our voice heard' that might be lost in the broader interests. But if you think parochial interests trump broader interests, that's a dangerous trade-off. Be careful what you ask for."

Critics, however, contend the existing system is broken and can be fixed only with a ward-only system.

Among them is Assemblyman Bob McCleary, D-North Las Vegas, whose district includes poorer neighborhoods in Ward 1, where the voter turnout is below that of wealthier parts of the city. Seventy percent of the votes cast in North Las Vegas are north of Craig Road, he said.

In last year's city election, the two wards that include the most developed areas of the city, Ward 3 and Ward 4, produced 63 percent of the votes.

"When you have to campaign citywide - and since 70 percent of the votes are north of Craig Road - you are going to spend most of your time over there," McCleary said.

"It is a matter of fairness. Wards 3 and 4 are getting all of the attention and all the new parks and amenities, libraries and see more police protection. If you look at the parks in my neighborhood, they are horrible. When you go on the weekend, there are beer bottles all over."

North Las Vegas officials dispute suggestions that older areas are neglected in favor of newer developments. Despite having only 34 percent of the city's population, the area south of Cheyenne Avenue, which has nearly 52 percent of the crime, receives 54 percent of the police patrols, city figures show. City officials also said they are spending millions for park, street and housing improvements in older parts of the city.

Ward 1 Councilman Robert Eliason believes the push for a straight-ward system is more about politics than concerns over the city's operation. He argues that state lawmakers contemplating a future run for City Council see ward-only elections as an easier path to City Hall.

The result, he warns, will be a divided city.

"I think you will have the games played in politics of one part of town versus the other and whoever plays that game the best wins the game," Eliason said.

"We have been playing fair and worked well together. If they think this is such an important issue, they ought to make it a state law and have it apply to everybody, including Henderson. They are a prime example. They have done well without it and so can we."

McCleary and other lawmakers laughed off suggestions that they plan to run for City Council seats in the future and dismissed criticisms of a straight-ward system.

"The argument they use is that they work more closely as a city than trying to get pork for their district," McCleary said. "But because you have two wards that dominate the political landscape, all the pork is going there."

Although McCleary said he and other lawmakers will campaign door to door for the measure's passage, supporters do not plan to raise money on its behalf - unless opponents start spending money to try to defeat it.

State lawmakers, motivated by concerns that council members' homes were too closely clustered together, created North Las Vegas' ward system in 1999.

Lawmakers also have considered expanding the City Council from five to seven members to broaden representation.

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