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North Las Vegas Mayor Shari Buck, left, speaks with Steve Schorr, vice president of public and government affairs for Cox Communications after the North Las Vegas State of the City address at Texas Station on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2012.
By Aida Ahmed 
Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012 | 7:32 p.m.
In an effort to make an initiative and keep up with a promise she made in her State of the City address, North Las Vegas Mayor Sheri Buck called a meeting of the new mayor’s economic advisory committee Tuesday night.
The 15-member committee — made of up of local professionals like Cox Communications Vice President of Public Affairs Steve Schorr, John Restrepo of RCG Economics and Suzette LaGrange, senior vice president of industrial and office properties at Colliers International — came together for the first time to discuss North Las Vegas and its future.
“It’s our first meeting to bring experts in to get feedback and advice to have us move forward,” Buck said.
The city has laid off hundreds of employees, battled with a budget shortfall for the past couple years and was even at risk for a state takeover of its finances. Last year the council voted to close the city’s recreation centers and pools to close the budget. Concessions from police and fire unions later halted the closures.
The city now faces a $15 million budget shortfall in the next fiscal year.
City Manager Tim Hacker said the city is now “bottom-line oriented” and that despite hard economic times city officials are working to weather the storm.
The focus of the meeting, a presentation given by newly appointed Finance Director Al Zochowski, was the city’s consolidated tax allotment. Although the city’s population and assessed value has increased more than 30 percent, the tax distribution has stayed the same, according to Zochowski.
Buck said the current consolidated tax formula has shorted the city some $100 million that could have gone to jobs and city services in past years.
“That (money) would have helped us preserve those things,” Buck said.
Another focal point of the meeting was the declining reputation of North Las Vegas, which committee members agreed will present issues moving forward.
“The bigger issue is the image the community has right now and how are you going to change that,” Schorr said.
The committee plans to meet monthly and will continue to do so until they have made some headway, Buck said.
“There is no deadline,” she said, “until we accomplish our goals.”
The committee’s next meeting is scheduled for March 20 at 4 p.m. at the North Las Vegas City Hall, 2250 N. Las Vegas Blvd.
This should have been a publicly posted meeting tonight, but I could not find an Agenda, date, time and place, as well as list of membership of the committee, posted on the city of North Las Vegas website. I will report this to the Nevada Attorney General, then let's see how bad this ugly town looks.
Just Merge it into Las Vegas Already and Fire the City Council and all Directors and Chiefs. That alone will go a long way towards solvency.
Sheri Buck is a joke- talk about too little too late. Buck finally puts together a committee of "experts" after 4 different rounds of layoffs, a tremendous decrease in city services, and state inquiries into the city's solvency. I sense a municipal election in about a year or so away!!!
Do we praise an emergency room doctor who shows up at a funeral home ready to help the deceased patient, should we have a "birds and bees" talk with a pregnant teenager? I think we should send Buck up to Newfoundland where about 370 miles off the cost their is a beautiful ship called the RMS Titanic ready for her to captain. Buck is clearly out of her league and it is unfortunate for the citizens of North Las Vegas that she has just now realized it.
Too little, too late. And no matter how Shari Buck tries to spin this - and spin she will - there is no papering over the fact that North Las Vegas has been recognized as one of the 10 worst governed cities in the entire country. At best, this committee is nothing more than window dressing for her upcoming re-election campaign. Why else would the roster include Dan Hart (Buck's campaign advisor) and Liz Trosper (Buck's political campaign advisor). What interest or "expertise" do these individuals have in how the City of North Las Vegas is run? Shari is probably paying them to be on the committee! I'm surprised that the other people appointed to serve would lend their good names to such a sham.
Oh, and "no deadline" until they accomplish their goals? What are their goals...other than to get Shari Buck re-elected?