LOOKING IN ON: SUBURBS

By Mike Trask (contact)

Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2006 | 7:09 a.m.

When not making new laws, Henderson City Council members often are getting rid of old ones.

The city attorney's office has been working on cleaning up the law books by eliminating local ordinances duplicated in state or federal laws.

So now in Henderson there's no local law against impersonating a police officer. Ditto for counterfeiting coins. And the council recently removed from the books a local measure that made it illegal to escape from jail.

But that doesn't mean you can dig your way out of jail, run a mint in your garage or wear a badge. Local police can arrest counterfeiters, imposters and escapees under state and federal laws.

Other laws taken off the local books include vagrancy and fraudulently obtaining food or lodging. In total, the office has slimmed the Henderson law books by about a dozen chapters.

"I think the objective is to have a good municipal code," said Ron Sailon, assistant city attorney. "It doesn't serve any purpose to have codes that do little more than duplicate state law. It's nice to be able to clear that all up."

Campaign signs from the Nov. 7 election still are lining local roads, and it won't be long until new ones for next year's suburban municipal elections pop up in prime spots.

Primaries in Henderson, North Las Vegas and Boulder City will be April 3, followed by the general election on June 5.

Only one mayoral seat will be up for grabs. Boulder City Mayor Bob Ferraro does not plan on running for a third term in the city of 15,000.

Three council seats will be contested in Henderson, while North Las Vegas and Boulder City each have two council races. Candidates can begin registering to run at the end of January.

The North Las Vegas council campaign will be the first under a new electoral method voters approved last week.

Nearly 70 percent of voters last Tuesday supported Question 1, under which council members will be elected by ward, as opposed to at-large. Supporters of the change contend it will allow candidates to run campaigns on smaller budgets, while critics - mainly a group led by North Las Vegas Mayor Mike Montandon - warn it will divide the council and the city.

The tan stucco house blends in with its surroundings, as it would in most other neighborhoods in the Las Vegas Valley. But Tom Pennington and his neighbors complain it's ruining their North Las Vegas subdivision.

The four-bedroom house is used as a women's shelter run by the nonprofit United Family Transitional Homes.

"Along with homelessness comes drugs, alcohol and domestic violence. This brings that kind of thing," said Pennington, who has lived in the house next door for six years.

Residents worry that the shelter will lower their property values, now assessed between $250,000 and $500,000.

But Marvie Hill, operator of the home on Camino Mirada Street, says he's more concerned about providing a safe haven for women who need one.

"I don't know what his problem is," Hill said. "They are beaten and abused women. We are trying to give them a place to stay."

At most, eight women live in the 2,000-square-foot home for 30 to 90 days, Hill said. Staff members help the women find housing and jobs, he said.

Earlier this month the North Las Vegas Planning Commission recommended changing the definition of Group Care Homes and requiring special permits for certain businesses. But the changes will not help Pennington and his neighbors.

"It's not that we are not sympathetic to the homeless," he said. "This just isn't the place for them. There's not the resources here to help them."