Lack of signatures dooms effort to recall North Las Vegas mayor

By Aida Ahmed

Saturday, Dec. 3, 2011 | 11:56 a.m.

The group attempting to remove North Las Vegas Mayor Shari Buck says its recall effort has come to an end.

As the Dec. 5 deadline approaches, members of the recall movement say they won't meet the 2,466-signature requirement for their petition.

“There aren’t very many (names),” said Bob Borgersen, one of the driving forces behind the effort. “The bottom line is we didn’t have the help we had anticipated we would have.”

Borgersen, who is accepting petition signatures until Monday, said he would be lucky to put together 400 of them by then.

The attempt to recall Buck began Sept. 6 when James Olive, vice chairman of the city’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, as well as North Las Vegas residents Scott Sauer and Cherlynn Thomas, filed a notice of intent to recall.

The group cited the mayor’s decision to close city recreation centers and accused her of wasteful spending and favoring the interests of police and fire unions over “the city’s most vulnerable populations.”

But it was later discovered that Sauer did not vote in the 2009 general election, automatically making one of the three signatures needed on the notice of intent invalid.

Borgersen and two other North Las Vegas residents refiled and shortly after held a small rally outside of the North Las Vegas City Hall during a council meeting to garner support and signatures.

Olive, who parted ways with the new recall group, said he discontinued his support of the movement when the council was able to keep recreation centers open through union concessions.

“My agenda was to save the rec centers because they were on the chopping block at that point and since then we were able to save them, for now,” said Olive.

The mayor did not immediately return the Sun’s request for an interview this week but commented on the recall effort in August when she learned it was under way.

“Citizens have the right to go through this process and I look forward to having the discussion about my record and my goals as we move forward,” said Buck. “I’m proud of what I’ve done.”

Even though the possibility of the recall is behind Buck, in less than two weeks the Nevada Commission on Ethics will hold a hearing on an ethics complaint brought against her by Sauer.

Sauer's complaint against the mayor, filed July 31, alleges conflict-of-interest violations in regards to a council meeting where Buck allegedly attempted to influence and direct the discussion on a special election in Ward 4.

The Ward 4 election between then incumbent councilman Richard Cherchio and Wade Wagner dragged on for months in court until last week when District Court Judge Susan Scann declared Wagner the winner. He currently sits on the council.

The commission will hold a hearing on the complaint Dec. 14.

Borgersen said although his attempts to recall the mayor will most likely not succeed, he believes it may bring change.

“In all honesty, between the recall and the ethics charges, that’s got to say something,” said Borgersen. “If she straightens the city out there would be no reason.”