Friday, April 12, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
On paper, they're just lines on a map, but don't let that fool you: The new Las Vegas City Council wards can help determine who gets elected and who doesn't, which areas get scarce resources and which go wanting.
At 4 p.m. Monday, the City Council will tackle the issue for the first time publicly, holding a hearing on the new map to take comments from the public.
The plan could be adopted as soon as Wednesday.
Wisconsin judge hired
In the meantime, the city has hired retired Wisconsin Judge Frederick Kessler -- at $150 per hour -- to analyze and defend the plan. Kessler will be in Las Vegas for the hearings.
The most dramatic change in the city's proposed plan centers around putting the predominantly black West Las Vegas area into the same district as the eastern portion of the city. Since poverty abounds and growth has all but stopped in both areas, some have complained that the move creates a ghetto area that's too much trouble for a single council member to manage.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, in fact, has strongly criticized the plan and has advanced their own alternative that keeps West Las Vegas in the same central-city district as upscale neighborhoods like the Scotch 80s and Rancho Circle. That way, NAACP officials have said, there is an economic balance, and two councilmen to go to bat for programs and money.
Adamsen loses prize
The other major facet of the city's plan extends a "leg" from the central city west to the exclusive Canyon Gate County Club neighborhood, shifting the weighty electoral and fund-raising prize from Councilman Arnie Adamsen to Councilman Michael McDonald. That move could hurt Adamsen's neighborhood fund-raising next year when he is up for re-election.
Other upscale areas, like the master-planned Summerlin and The Lakes, home of Citibank Corp., stay in Adamsen's district, however. Councilman Matthew Callister's district, which takes in the growing northwest area, loses some territory to Adamsen's and McDonald's districts, but doesn't change much.
The city says the lines were drawn to accommodate growing populations in the west and north. Since the populations in each ward should be roughly equal -- and in any case within 10 percent of each other under federal guidelines -- the central and eastern wards had to take in more people.
But the NAACP map showed that growth doesn't necessarily mean West Las Vegas should move from Ward 1 to Ward 3; in fact, the civil rights group's plan shows a gap of 6.6 percent between the ward with the most people and the ward with the least. The city's plan has a 9 percent gap.
Some city leaders have argued, however, that putting West Las Vegas' black voters in the same ward as eastern Las Vegas' Hispanic voters will create a minority-coalition district, where a minority candidate would have an easier time winning election.
That area is currently represented by Councilman Gary Reese, who trounced black incumbent Ken Brass in 1995 elections and has worked steadfastly to fulfill campaign promises to clean up the area and get additional revenue for parks.
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