Three residents eye Boulder City Council bids

By Dylan Scott

Thursday, Jan. 13, 2011 | 1:55 a.m.

Three fresh faces are poised to throw their hats in the ring for the three Boulder City Council seats up for grabs in the June election.

Peggy Leavitt, 62, a retired child services worker, and Rod Woodbury, 43, an area attorney, told the Sun that they will file their candidacy paperwork by the Jan. 25 deadline. Rose Ann Miele, 61, recently forced into early retirement as the city's spokesperson, said she has been "feeling out" a run and expects to file as well.

Mayor Roger Tobler also has announced that he will seek re-election. Councilman Travis Chandler, elected in 2007, said he was "still undecided, but probably not" going to run again. Councilwoman Linda Strickland, also elected in 2007, said she was undecided as well.

Members of the five-person city council serve four-year terms. Seats held by Cam Walker and Duncan McCoy won't be on the ballot until 2013.

Leavitt, the superintendent at the Southern Nevada Children's Home in Boulder City before it closed in 1994, said she was approached about running by others who took note of her capacity for leadership and compromise.

"I think I have good people skills," said Leavitt, former president of the Sunrise Rotary Club, who has lived with her husband, Charlie, in Boulder City since 1984. Three of her four sons also reside in the city with their grandchildren.

"I'm able to get a consensus," she said.

Leavitt described herself as a "novice to politics as a candidate," but she has worked on several campaigns in the past. She was "a little fearful about putting myself out there," but said that she was compelled to run because of the problems the city is facing.

Those problems include a debt of more than $95 million, the city's pending lawsuit against four citizen-petitioners of a ballot question from November's election, regular traffic jams on U.S. 93 since the Hoover Dam Bypass opened this fall, and general discontent from some of the citizenry about the happenings in City Hall -- the controversy over City Manager Vicki Mayes and her husband's car registration, for example.

Woodbury is a lifelong resident, having graduated from Boulder City High School. He and his wife, Leslie, have seven children – five boys, two girls, between 3 and 17. He is a partner at Woodbury, Morris and Brown in Henderson, which usually practices civil law, he said, a job which could prove "very helpful" as a legislator.

Like Leavitt, Woodbury said there are a myriad of issues for the Boulder City Council to deal with, such as debt and traffic congestion. He added that the current environment is "not conducive to getting things done."

"I want to make (City Hall) into a place where there's civility," said Woodbury, who also said he's involved with the city's youth sports programs and the Boy Scouts of America. "I see myself as a consensus builder. I want to make it a place where people can express their convictions."

Miele, who was forced into early retirement in December because of the city's budget crunch, stopped short of saying she would definitely run for council, but said she has been meeting with other residents and gauging support for her candidacy.

The feedback so far has been "very positive," she said. "People need to know what's going on."

She declined to comment further before her paperwork has been filed.