Homeless but civic minded

Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2007 | 7:14 a.m.

Most would call Gary Kallam homeless. Kallam calls himself an outdoorsman. And later this year, Kallam hopes people in Boulder City will call him something else: Mr. Mayor.

Kallam, who spends his nights sleeping on the ground, with his scraggly beard, three shirts and a jacket to keep him warm, announced his long-shot run for mayor in a two-page letter sent to a dozen city departments and the media. Last week he registered for the ballot, joining Councilmen Mike Pacini and Roger Tobler in the mayoral race.

Kallam wrote that he doesn't consider himself homeless: "I favor myself as an outdoorsman whose love for the wild critters has made me exuberantly happy with life for the past 10 years while living with no roof over my head while loving to be serenaded by the howls of the coyotes and the hoots of the owls to get me through the night."

He claims he chose this lifestyle, walking away from careers in accounting and professional poker after suffering from depression. He said he lived around Lake Mead for about five years before gradually drifting to Boulder City.

City Clerk Pam Malmstrom, though, said it is unclear if Kallam can legally run for the position.

"I am going to be doing some further research," she said.

Boulder City law requires council members and mayoral candidates to be city residents for at least two years, but does not explicitly state how residency is determined.

Kallam has been a registered Republican voter in Boulder City since 2004. He lists his address as simply Route 93, the stretch of U.S. 93 running through Boulder City on the way to Hoover Dam.

On paperwork for the mayoral campaign, he lists his address as Colorado Street and Nevada Way, an intersection in the city.

Despite the lack of a roof or a bank account, Kallam - who applied for the city manager's job three years ago - believes he has a legitimate shot at its top elected position.

For that to be the case, though, voters would have to conclude that someone who sleeps on the ground has the answers to the city's problems.

"I thought long and hard about this whole business," said the 64-year-old Kallam, who spends much of his time hanging out at the Boulder City library, writing letters on an old typewriter. "There was nobody stepping forward to challenge the incumbents."

His announcement has created a buzz on an Internet forum dealing with Boulder City politics. Many consider his candidacy a joke. Others want to hear Kallam's ideas.

Kallam worries about the city's lack of foresight in planning to handle traffic after the opening of the Hoover Dam Bypass, scheduled to open in 2010. The former accountant, who says he gets by financially now by hitting up old friends for money, also figures he can get a firm grip on the city's finances. And he vows to fight to keep development out of town.

"People turn the lights out when the chickens go to bed," he said. "They like the small-town atmosphere."

Strange as Kallam's candidacy is, it comes in a town that is no stranger to publicity over the odd and offbeat. Last year Boulder City made national headlines when a group pitched a plan to sell thousands of acres of desert land and give the profits to residents.

Kallam said he favored that plan and decided to run after the city successfully fought to keep the measure off the ballot.

Despite the attention and some big-city issues, Boulder City remains a sleepy place, with its most notable feature arguably being its status as the only place in Nevada where gambling is illegal.

Anticipating some more unwanted attention for quirkiness, some worry that Kallam's run could overshadow the major issues in the city of about 15,000.

"I think it will divert people from the real issues," said Sherman Rattner, the activist who devised last year's plan to sell 107,421 acres of Eldorado Valley, an admittedly unorthodox idea that backers claimed could have made every Boulder City resident a millionaire.

Tops on the list of major issues is the future of Eldorado Valley, a section of land on the outskirts of town. Many in town want to preserve the open land and limit development.

The City Council placed a question on the June ballot asking residents about the land's future. The measure will propose a three-way deal involving the city, Clark County and developer Larry Canarelli.

Tobler, whose father Heber served as mayor in the late 1970s, said the ballot question will likely get more attention from residents than the mayor's race.

"The issue can redefine Boulder City," he said. "These ballot questions should be a big draw. We hope the community will debate these things."

Yet nobody has anything bad to say about Kallam, who carries plastic bags filled with his belongings wherever he goes. He claims that, if elected, he would rent a motel room to clean up before council meetings.

And he believes he will get some funding from old poker buddies. Kallam finished 18th in the 1995 World Series of Poker and tells stories about his days playing some of the game's biggest stars, such as Phil Hellmuth. "I used to bust him, and sent him back to Wisconsin," Kallam said.

These days, however, Kallam dreams of busting conventional political odds to become presumably the first homeless mayor in the country. But win or lose, he's added to Boulder City lore.

As city spokeswoman Rose Ann Miele put it: "He's just part of the ambience."