Making City Council full-time has many supporters but no champion

Mark Hansel, Las Vegas Sun

Tuesday, Dec. 26, 2006 | 7:08 a.m.

On most afternoons, Las Vegans can easily find Las Vegas Councilman Gary Reese to talk city business.

They'll usually have to do it, though, at Reese's barbershop, not City Hall.

While there's a certain charm to that, it's a charm perhaps more suited to Mayberry than to one of the nation's fastest growing cities.

Of the many changes needed for Las Vegas to shake off the dust of its small-town roots - broader cultural offerings, a more diverse economy, improvements in education - one idea gaining currency inside and outside City Hall is that of making City Council a full-time job.

Council members are still considered part-time employees whose $54,410 annual salary makes it necessary for most of them to have another job. In addition, the salary, though higher than the region's median income of about $45,000, makes it difficult to attract top-notch candidates - unless they are willing to make a financial sacrifice to deal with the city's complex issues.

Even Mayor Oscar Goodman is paid only $59,657 per year. After decades in a financially lucrative law practice, however, Goodman's pockets are deep enough - and his civic commitment strong enough - to permit him to be a full-time mayor on that relatively modest salary.

Although he favors a full-time council, Goodman is less enthusiastic about being the force to pursue legislation to make it possible. No one at City Hall, in fact, has taken the lead in pursuing such a change - at least in part because the notion of growing government historically has been an unpopular concept in Nevada.

"I'm in favor of talking about it because I think it's the right thing to do," Goodman said.

Any substantive change to the six-member council, on which the mayor casts a seventh vote, would require an amendment of the City Charter, which can be made only by the state Legislature or by voters, with legislative consent.

In addition to barber Reese, current council members include an electrician, a lawyer, a radio-show host and an employee of a minor-league baseball team.

Reese, who can talk about city issues while trimming sideburns, is among those who think it's time for a change.

A champion of a full-time council since before its last expansion in 1999, Reese is concerned that residents who want a change will choose that route - a bigger council - again.

"People need to look at something other than expanding the council," Reese said. "As fast as the city is growing, it needs to be a full-time job."

Councilman Larry Brown, a former minor-league baseball player who now works for the Las Vegas 51s, also supports the move to a full-time council.

"We are a very proactive council as far as our interaction with the public," he said. "It's a very time-consuming commitment."

If the issue could be decided by a council vote, the outcome would be uncertain.

Councilman Lawrence Weekly said he sees advantages to a full-time council, but Councilmen Steve Ross and Lois Tarkanian are skeptical.

When asked about the subject, Ross pointed to a schedule filled with appointments to indicate that his council job already is full-time. Nonetheless, he said he had reservations about increasing the budget to make the job officially full-time.

Tarkanian, also citing budgetary concerns, said she did not see the need for the change now. But she added that with the demands on council members continuing to increase, she might consider doing so in the future.

Councilman Steve Wolfson is on the fence about the idea. While acknowledging that the city's rapid growth likely will make a full-time City Council desirable - even necessary - someday, he said he does not believe that day is here yet.

Christopher Stream, a professor in UNLV's public administration department, said council support for the full-time concept actually could diminish the chances for a change.

"It would take someone in city government getting behind this issue to make it happen and it would be hard for a council member to do this without appearing to be self-serving," he said.

Brown has suggested that if a change were made, it should not take effect until all current members have left office, thereby avoiding the appearance that personal financial gain was a motive.

Stream said while such a clause could make a difference in how the public perceives the issue, the idea would still be a tough sell.

"Traditionally people out West usually prefer a citizen government," Stream said. "They tend to be a little fearful of centralization."

Even if the issue were to gain support locally, Stream said, Nevada's limits on home rule would probably require legislative approval.

Because Las Vegas City Council members are elected by ward, they typically spend as much time - and often more - addressing problems in their political back yard as they do on major citywide issues.

How and where council members spend their time, with the exception of attending council and committee meetings, is largely at their own discretion.

Brown points to Reese as an example of how to balance the council position and a private job. Reese relies on his staff for administrative duties that do not require his personal attention, giving him more time to maintain a constant presence in his ward.

Weekly, who cut his political teeth as a ward liaison for Reese, regards the council job as his primary focus, but also hosts a talk show at KCEP 88.1-FM and headed the troubled Economic Opportunity Board, the valley's largest nonprofit organization.

With so many different approaches to the job that all seem workable to varying degrees, there is no standard for what the term "part-time council member" means in Las Vegas.

With the charter defining the job requirements in only general terms, the only real measuring stick for whether a council member spends enough time on the job seems to be the ballot box.

Council members say the job makes it more difficult to get work in the private sector because prospective employers recognize the demands of the public position.

Still, council members know what they are getting into when they run for office, Brown said.

"It's not like we came in and then things changed," he said. "It's the same job and salary we were elected to."

Although comparisons to other cities are problematic, given how the demands of the job vary greatly, they nonetheless offer some perspective - without providing one clear model.

In Seattle, a city comparable in size to Las Vegas, a City Council seat has been a full-time job for 60 years and members are paid about $100,000 per year.

At the other end of the spectrum is San Antonio , a city of more than 1 million people. Its council is considered a citizen legislature, with members receiving only $20 per meeting and total compensation not to exceed $1,040 per year.

The role and compensation of city councils often depend on the type of city government in place, Stream said.

In a city with a strong mayor, such as Chicago, the mayor is the city's chief executive and the council is the legislative body that provides checks and balances to the mayor's authority.

Cities with a city manager-council form of government, such as Las Vegas, have a council that is the legislative body, with the mayor being a voting member.

With the appointed city manager overseeing the delivery of public services, a part-time council is not uncommon in this form of government.

But when the manager-council system was introduced here in 1944, Las Vegas was a dusty desert town with only about 10,000 residents - and had only two fewer council members than it has today. In 1999 two seats were added.

Today, council members each represent more than 80,000 constituents in their respective wards and the city has more than 550,000 residents.

A major advantage to a manager-council form of government, Stream said, is that a professional city administrator who need not worry about being re-elected runs the city.

While Goodman is often seen as a powerful mayor, his ability to influence policy is based more on his popularity and strong personality than any statutory power, Stream said.

The potential dangers to making the council a full-time job or increasing the position's authority in other ways are that doing so could weaken the city manager.

"A strong city council could totally dominate policy and almost inevitably increase spending," he said.

Council members who support the move to full-time employment say they simply want to provide their constituents the representation they deserve. When residents have a problem, council members point out, they call their elected representative, not the city manager.

Brown says ultimately the people of Las Vegas will decide what kind of council they want - and that's as it should be.

"Whatever happens, it should be what the people want," Brown said. "It's their government."

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