Boulder City council members in eye of storm

By Mike Trask

Monday, March 10, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Directly in front of the Boulder Dam Credit Union, small-town politics were at work Friday.

On one side: a group aiming to recall a pair of Boulder City council members. On the other side: supporters of the targeted council members.

This is how political activism plays out in Boulder City.

The recall proponents arrived at 9:30 a.m. to collect signatures on a petition calling for a special election to throw Travis Chandler and Linda Strickland off the City Council.

By 11 a.m. on the first day of their effort they had 22 signatures.

They need to collect 1,085 within three months to force the election on Strickland, and 1,268 to force it on Chandler. (Reason for the difference: Strickland was elected in a primary election so he can be removed more easily. Chandler was elected in a more competitive general election.)

The council members’ supporters, meanwhile, collected 50 signatures on white notebook sheets. If the battle were to end there, the council members win. But that would be too easy.

If the special election does happen, the council members’ supporters plan to use the names of the people who signed their sheets as a contact list to campaign against a recall.

Why the effort to throw the pair out?

“They aren’t offering any solutions,” said Christine Milburn, one of three residents organizing the recall effort. “They aren’t moving forward.”

Instead, Milburn, who served on the council in the mid-1990s and ran unsuccessfully for Clark County public administrator in 2006, thinks the two rookie council members have been stuck arguing about past decisions related to the city-owned Boulder Creek Golf Course.

The council members’ supporters happen to like the fact that Chandler and Strickland question city officials.

“If they have done something immoral, unethical or illegal, that’s one thing,” said Nancy Nolette. “But they haven’t.”

Even as they eyeballed pedestrians to ask them to sign their respective petitions, the political opponents made nice with one another, chatting amicably while killing time in front of the credit union.

Until, that is, someone walked their way. Then it was time to solicit signatures.

Strickland and Chandler, both lawyers, had heard talk of a recall almost from the day they took office.

But the timing surprised Chandler.

“The one issue a lot of folks seemed to be upset about was the golf course, and that has been resolved in their favor,” he said.

Chandler and Strickland said their opposition to the use of city redevelopment agency funds for private business improvements also probably angered some people in the city of roughly 15,000.

“Rich people shouldn’t be getting money that we need for the city,” Strickland said.

Milburn said the redevelopment funding had nothing to do with recall efforts.

•••

Henderson officials like what they see in The District at Green Valley Ranch, a mixed-use development, and they want more of it.

The Henderson City Council will vote March 18 on a proposed zoning change that would allow the project to expand onto 20 acres at the southeast corner of Green Valley Parkway and Interstate 215.

The expansion would include a pair of nongaming hotels, an office building, two restaurants and a parking garage. The new area would be connected by a walking trail to the existing retail section anchored by Whole Foods.

Previously, developers sought space for 360 town houses designed to look like the brownstone homes found in East Coast cities. Those plans have been set aside because of the housing market slump.

The Planning Commission recommended the approval and representatives of a neighborhood group said they support the project.

A construction date has not been set.

The District opened in 2004. It is being developed by the American Nevada Co., which is owned by the Greenspun family, which also owns the Las Vegas Sun.