Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

SUBURBAN POLITICS:

NLV races come as city arrives at a crossroads

Voters will select mayor, two council members, and determine gaming’s future

Over the past decade North Las Vegas has sprouted from a gritty and sometimes maligned urban city into a middle-class suburb.

In the time since Mike Montandon was elected mayor 12 years ago, the population has more than doubled to more than 215,000 residents.

He’s leaving office because of term limits (and running for governor).

Three City Council members and a former planning commissioner are competing to be the next mayor. Voters will also pick Ward 1 and Ward 3 council members, as well as a municipal court judge.

Incumbent Ward 1 Councilman Robert Eliason faces a pair of weak challengers. A strong field of six candidates is running for the Ward 3 seat being vacated by Stephanie Smith because of term limits.

The primary election will be held April 7 (early voting begins today) with the top two vote-getters moving on to the general election in June. A candidate can win outright by taking more than half the vote.

Like cities everywhere, North Las Vegas is reeling from falling sales and property tax revenue. But there are only so many ways to cut a city budget and no candidate proposes sweeping changes in how the city does business.

The candidates do differ, though, on whether to expand gaming in North Las Vegas, which is the major question facing the city.

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Stephanie Smith

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William Robinson

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Shari Buck

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Ned Thomas

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John 3:16 Cook

MAYOR

For voters who like the way North Las Vegas has been run for the past 10 years, voting for any of the three City Council members seeking the mayor’s job will offer more of the same.

They are Shari Buck, a mother of four; William Robinson, a retired school counselor; and Stephanie Smith, a music teacher. They have all been part of the city leadership that ushered in unprecedented growth.

Buck (the only Republican in the bunch, although the position is nonpartisan) has been in office 10 years, Robinson for 26 years and Smith for 12 years. They also could be the targets of any of the criticism of the city made since 1999.

The three vote in lock-step most of time, although Robinson has more aggressively questioned city spending. He voted against last year’s budget, questioning the need to fill 30 city positions. Buck and Smith voted in favor of the $480 million operating budget.

Robinson also was the only of the three to vote against a new contract, including a lucrative severance package, for City Manager Gregory Rose.

Candidate Ned Thomas is the outsider, the one viable candidate who isn’t an established politician, and the one who would most put the brakes on gaming expansion.

For what he lacks in name recognition and financial backing, he has in experience and educational pedigree (he’s a Harvard grad). He sat on the Planning Commission in 2007 and 2008, and is the acting long-range planner in Henderson.

(Also running for mayor is a pastor who will appear on the ballot as John 3:16 Cook. He wants to legalize marijuana and force developers to hire English speakers.)

The outcome of the mayoral election will decide the future of neighborhoods along Interstate 215 between Aliante Parkway and Interstate 15.

At issue is how many casinos should be allowed in that emerging part of North Las Vegas. Aliante Station opened last year and Boyd Gaming has proposed a casino roughly four miles east.

Both sites are in an area that will someday likely be filled with houses.

Farther east on Interstate 215, the Miller gaming hotel has been approved at the Interstate 15 interchange in an industrial zone that’s been dubbed “Casino Alley.” At least three other casinos have been discussed for that area, near Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Decisions on whether to approve or reject those casinos — especially the Boyd Gaming site — will likely be the most contentious issues facing the City Council in the next year or two.

Buck said she is against casinos in neighborhoods, but would allow them near I-15.

Smith said she would decide on a case-by-case basis.

Robinson said he is against casinos in the area. But, he added, he may change his mind to help draw jobs during these tough times.

Thomas is against casinos in the area, period. It’s part of his neighborhood activism platform.

Another major land-use issue facing the city is what to do with 13,000 acres of the Upper Las Vegas Wash that stretch across the northern tips of Las Vegas and North Las Vegas.

The future use of this land will help determine how far north the city grows. Each of the mayoral candidates prefers preserving at least some of the archaeologically rich land.

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North Las Vegas - Ward 1

Rolando Cruz Launch slideshow »

WARD 1

In Ward 1, two-term Councilman Robert Eliason, a construction manager, faces a pair of untested, unknown, unfunded challengers.

One of them, Jeffrey Eggeman, is an unemployed bartender who doesn’t appear to be campaigning.

Rolando Cruz, a native of Puerto Rico, is campaigning in a heavily Spanish-speaking ward by creating signs using the colors of the Mexican flag.

Cruz says the city must put more pressure on the federal government to help stem foreclosures, and he says more casinos are needed to draw jobs.

Eliason is running on his record. He pushed for federal foreclosure aid to be used to aid homebuyers, rather than for the city to buy a dilapidated apartment complex it has slated for redevelopment.

He has also aggressively questioned city spending, including for downtown redevelopment, and on new nonpublic safety employees included in last year’s budget.

Cruz favors casinos north of I-215. Eliason and Eggeman are against them.

• • •

WARD 3

North Las Vegas - Ward 3

Felix Acevedo, Jr. Launch slideshow »

In Ward 3, which covers the city’s west side, each of the mainstream candidates supports casinos with amenities north of the beltway, and they hold similar theories on preserving Tule Springs and cutting costs.

So in Ward 3, it’s a question of leadership and smarts, not issues.

Angelo Carvalho, a former Planning Commission chairman and Iraq war veteran, was the first to declare his candidacy. By then he had raised about $35,000 and locked up Montandon’s support.

Anita Wood, a stay-at-home mom and former construction manager and planning commissioner, has been active in North Las Vegas politics since the mid-1990s.

Neophytes to politics are candidates Felix Acevedo Jr., a county emergency management analyst; Jack Kelso, an architect; and Michael Little, an alternative energy developer who is focused on the singular issue of drawing green energy projects to the city.

None is proposing dramatic changes to the status quo.

Candidate Kimberly McKinney didn’t return calls from the Sun.

North Las Vegas has 76,901 active voters, including more than 18,000 new voters who registered during the 2008 presidential cycle.

For the last mayoral election, in 2005, 12 percent of the voters turned out.

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