Mike Montandon’s missed chance for governor’s office?

By Erin Dostal

Monday, May 31, 2010 | 2 a.m.

Had Mike Montandon run for governor after his second term as North Las Vegas mayor, he would have had an undisputable success story to tell voters.

At that point, in the mid-2000s, North Las Vegas was the nation’s fastest-growing city, its population having quadrupled during Montandon’s first eight years in office. The city, long considered an also-ran among valley municipalities, couldn’t find new developers fast enough. Flush with new tax revenue, officials were planning a new city hall and other facilities.

But by the end of Montandon’s 12 years as mayor, in 2009, it had become a prime example of the region’s economic woes — standing out even among Southern Nevada’s hard-hit municipalities.

When he left office, one in 15 homes in North Las Vegas was in foreclosure. The accompanying financial slide has led to the layoff of more than 200 city employees and cuts in services.

Montandon has rarely cracked double digits in polling in the race for governor, running a distant third to fellow Republicans ex-Judge Brian Sandoval and Gov. Jim Gibbons. But if Montandon’s candidacy had gained more momentum, it might have become a referendum of sorts on the rapid growth that helped fuel economic expansion in Southern Nevada, leaving in its wake underwater homeowners, foreclosures and vacant storefronts.

Montandon — a conservative Republican who embraces free market economics and still lists North Las Vegas as the “fastest-growing city in America” on his campaign website — is unapologetic about the city’s approach to growth over the past decade, writing off the steep downturn to business cycles.

Had he been permitted to seek a fourth term as mayor, Montandon said he would have continued to push the same growth policies that characterized his first three terms.

“I’ve lived long enough to know that economies cycle,” he said. “They can’t climb indefinitely. It will come back ...

“The city is positioned very, very well to recover when the economy starts to turn around.”

•••

The stigma of “Nor’town” — the old nickname some residents consider a slur toward their city — influenced the way Montandon and his colleagues governed once the boom arrived.

The mayor and the council wanted North Las Vegas to catch up to other Southern Nevada cities and become the first choice for families, according to Ned Thomas, a former city planning commissioner and current planner for Henderson. There was a sense, Thomas said, that if the city didn’t lower restrictions on development, it would lose projects to Las Vegas, Henderson or unincorporated Clark County.

With Wall Street fueling a building frenzy, North Las Vegas’ time had arrived — ready or not.

“When you’ve been a sleepy community and then suddenly there’s a real big interest in your area, there’s a tendency, first, to be underprepared,” said David Goldberg, communications director of Smart Growth America, a national coalition of community groups advocating for better urban planning.

In its rush to attract developers, the city’s 25-year master plan was often ignored.

“Some would argue that not all of the planning was done as well as it could have been,” Thomas said. “No one ever stopped to say ... ‘We should take this a little more slowly and fill in as we go.’”

The result is “greenfield” development, which ignores older areas that could be redeveloped in favor of empty or “green” land, said Robert Lang, a UNLV sociology professor and co-director of Brookings Mountain West.

Aliante, a master-planned community, is one example from the city’s boom, Lang said.

Montandon disagrees with critics who say downtown North Las Vegas was ignored during his tenure. While Aliante was being built with private funding, “virtually every dollar of city money was spent downtown,” he said.

Goldberg said North Las Vegas’ experience was typical of Sun Belt cities, which have been among the hardest hit by the recession.

In North Las Vegas, however, the pace of development and the greenfield approach have left the city in worse shape than its neighbors. Some question why the city didn’t slow down when it became obvious, in 2007, that the real estate bubble was about to pop.

The decision by Montandon and the City Council to continue growing even after the recession had arrived is understandable, Lang said.

“It’s hard to turn the spigot off,” he said. “When you have a region based on the idea of capturing growth, it’s hard to slow it down.”

•••

Lang said North Las Vegas’ problems can’t all be blamed on Montandon. Southern Nevada mayors have limited powers, and all projects would have been approved by several commissions.

Thomas said Montandon did what he thought was best for the city. With so much opportunity available, why shouldn’t he have worked to develop quickly?

Montandon is a good leader, Thomas added. He brought consensus to a divided council, had an encyclopedic knowledge of city business and was respectful of the public, even when he disagreed with its members.

Given that he gets high marks from colleagues and performs well in media appearances, Eric Herzik, a UNR political scientist, said he does not know why Montandon hasn’t gained more traction in the polls.

“Montandon is described as being knowledgeable, a nice guy, well prepared to walk in and be governor,” Herzik said. “I thought he would do better as a conservative alternative to Jim Gibbons.”

“Maybe he just got lost in the crowd,” he said.

Still, even some supporters acknowledge Montandon’s tenure may not have prepared him to be governor in the current economy.

“I don’t think he is as well tested in troubled economic times,” Thomas said. “He would have to make a pretty good case” that he could handle it.

For his part, Montandon said his time as mayor prepared him to lead the state.

Nevada today is like the North Las Vegas he took over in 1997 — a place primed for growth and change, he said. He said he hopes the state will emerge first from the recession, which economists have said is unlikely because of the region’s reliance on construction and the discretionary spending that fuels gaming.

Lisa Mayo-DeRiso, founder of Northwest Residents for Responsible Growth, said she liked Montandon as mayor. But she disagrees with his comparisons between his city’s direction and the direction the state should take.

“I would never say we should go back to how we approached things back in 1999,” she said. “I would hope that by 2011, we’re in a whole different mind-set ... We need to make some changes.”