In Ward 5, seat warming or judgment call

Wednesday, April 25, 2007 | 7:06 a.m.

When Brenda Williams took over the Las Vegas City Council Ward 5 seat this month as a fill-in until the June general election, she vowed she was not going to simply keep the seat warm for her replacement.

"I'm not one to sit by the door," she said .

But last week, on what many in Ward 5 consider the most critical issue facing the neighborhood - attracting a grocery store - she appeared to do just that.

An agenda item to allow the city to enter into an exclusive negotiating agreement with local developer Laurich Properties to attract a grocer was up for consideration at last Wednesday's meeting.

The issue, however, never got to a vote.

Williams first requested that the item be postponed until she could hold a town meeting to get residents' input. Later, she asked that the item be held until after the general election so that the newly elected council member could make a recommendation to the council.

That is not the only high-profile issue on which Williams has taken a pass. Last week Williams also did not vote on the controversial licensing decision for the Crazy Horse Too strip club.

Williams was absent from the council chambers at the time of the Crazy Horse vote, but returned shortly after . She later said through a spokesperson that she had a personal emergency .

Williams took over the Ward 5 seat April 4 after former Councilman Lawrence Weekly was appointed to the Clark County Commission. Weekly's former liaison, Ricki Williams, and attorney Staci Truesdell, who finished atop a 10-candidate field in this month's primary, will face off June 5 to determine who will represent the ward for the next four years.

Williams' push to put off the grocery decision suggests that she is content to tread water during her two months at City Hall . But she said it reflects a desire to see that the right decision is made - by someone elected to make that decision.

Williams did not return calls on the matter but issued a statement explaining her inaction.

"As the interim representative for Ward 5, I want to ensure that the constituents are heard on the issue of a new grocery store in West Las Vegas," she said. "I believe my biggest contribution at this point is to ensure that everyone is being heard and that the new council representative from Ward 5 will have the best information to make an informed decision."

At this point, however, there seems to be little need for additional discussion on an issue that has received extensive debate over 2 1/2 years.

The neighborhood has been without a grocery store since the Vons on Owens Avenue closed in August 2004. A site - on the southwest corner of Martin Luther King and Lake Mead boulevards - has been identified, and the city has agreed to kick in $5 million in capital incentives for a grocer willing to develop at either that site or at Edmond Town Center, also in West Las Vegas.

The local developer who has a major grocery retailer ready to come to the table says Williams' decision to put off action could prove costly, noting there is no guarantee a grocer will be interested in several months.

"We have someone interested now," Hank Gordon of Laurich Properties said. "This weakens our bargaining position."

Ward 5 activist Beatrice Turner, though, supports Williams' decision.

"She's doing what Weekly should have did a year ago in seeing what the community has to say," Turner said.

At Weekly's urging, the council in December 2005 entered into a one-year agreement with DLC UrbanCore of New York. That company ultimately failed to attract a grocer.

Turner also supported the decision to allow the new council member to make the call.

"They'll be there for four years and the new councilperson needs to be accountable," she said. "We ... waited this long, we can wait two more months."

Gordon, whose company has been in retail development locally for almost 20 years, said he has lived through enough ups and downs to know that it is important to nail down a retailer as soon as possible.

"I have to convince them that this is going to be profitable for the next 50 years," he said. "Once we've got momentum, we don't want to stop."

Williams' position, however, left Gordon no choice but to put on the brakes for at least the next two months.

Then, the question will be whether there still is a deal for the new council member to consider.