Mayor: Morale not good among LV city employees

Nov. 19, 2009

By Dave Toplikar

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman didn't mince his words about morale among city employees today following Wednesday's announcement that 19 employees would be cut. "Let's put it this way: Morale can't be good," Goodman said.

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Council members get hands-on firefighter training

Nov. 19, 2009

By Erin Dostal

Henry Kokoszka flipped a switch and — whoosh — a car caught fire. Kokoszka isn’t a magician. He’s a captain for the Henderson Fire Department who was in charge of starting a controlled car fire during a training exercise with the Henderson City Council.

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Las Vegas to lay off 19 city employees as part of budget cuts

Nov. 18, 2009

By Dave Toplikar

Seventeen full-time and two part-time employees of the city of Las Vegas will be notified in the next couple of days that they're out — they no longer have jobs with the city as of Jan. 29.

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City adopts ordinance requiring pets be spayed, neutered

Nov. 18, 2009

By Sam Skolnik

The Las Vegas City Council, heeding the call of a wide coalition of spay-and-neuter proponents, on Wednesday passed the toughest such ordinance in the region in an attempt to reduce rampant pet overpopulation. After a hearing that lasted almost three hours, the council voted 5-2 to pass the measure. Regionwide last year, 55,000 stray animals found their way to shelters. More than 30,000 were put to death.

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Las Vegas mob museum continues to move forward

Nov. 18, 2009

By Dave Toplikar

The Las Vegas City Council took another step forward this morning on building a mob museum in the city's downtown. And they also heard it is still on track to be open to the public in a little more than a year in the historic federal office building and post office building at 300 Stewart. On a 6-1 vote, the council approved spending another $83,020 from the Nevada Commission for Cultural Affairs to continue seismic retrofit measures.

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Henderson water rates set to go up

Nov. 18, 2009

By Erin Dostal

Henderson’s water rates will increase for each of the next two years, starting Jan. 1, after the City Council voted 4-1 Tuesday for a rate hike.

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Henderson mayor says closed-door council sessions were proper

Nov. 18, 2009

By Sam Skolnik

The city of Henderson appears to be getting used to conducting important business in private. Secret meetings or votes by the Henderson City Council have occurred twice in the past several months.

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Layoffs on table in dealing with LV budget shortfall

Nov. 17, 2009

By Dave Toplikar

Las Vegas City officials will continue to consider how to deal with more than a $400 million shortfall over the next five years — including laying off city workers — during Wednesday's Las Vegas City Council meeting.

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New city hall bonds have given project stimulating effect

Nov. 17, 2009

By Sam Skolnik

President Barack Obama’s federal stimulus bill might bail out Mayor Oscar Goodman’s new city hall project. In recent weeks each of the three major rating agencies, Fitch, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, gave the city hall financing plan their fourth-highest rating — increasing the likelihood that the city will be able to raise the $179 million needed for the project.

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'Passport Saturday' event set at Las Vegas City Hall

Nov. 12, 2009

By Dave Toplikar

Heading out of the country for the holidays? The Las Vegas City Hall is now making travel documents easier to get and is even holding an event to help travelers get them on Saturday, Nov. 21.

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ICE wants to build in LV; city wants a certain builder

Nov. 11, 2009

By Sam Skolnik

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency wants to build a Las Vegas headquarters. That news was broken at last week’s Las Vegas City Council meeting by representatives of the Molasky Group, the developer behind several large government projects.

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Las Vegas officials seek public input on budget cuts

Nov. 6, 2009

By Dave Toplikar

What should Las Vegas' city government be doing in these tough economic times? And what options should the city take in January to cut the city's budget by $25 million for this fiscal year?

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Decision expected on sports arena before two-year deadline

Nov. 5, 2009

By Dave Toplikar

The buzzer sounds in two years on a study looking into whether Las Vegas' downtown will get a new sports arena.

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With revenues falling, city of Henderson likely to see layoffs

Nov. 5, 2009

By Erin Dostal

In Henderson, consolidated tax revenues continue to be lower than projected, and the city is likely to implement layoffs and program cuts early next year, a city spokesman said. Consolidated tax revenue — sales and other taxes allotted to Henderson by the state — for August were about 23 percent lower than those reported in August 2008. It was the largest month-over-month decrease on record.

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For the record, commissioner offers passionate defense

Nov. 5, 2009

By Sam Skolnik

Former Councilman Larry Brown was always among the cooler characters on the Las Vegas City Council. In contrast to Mayor Oscar Goodman with his outbursts and lectures, Brown usually laid out the facts in measured tones.

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