Petition drive under way to recall NLV mayor

By Aida Ahmed

Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2011 | 9:26 p.m.

Disgruntled voters crowded the steps at North Las Vegas City Hall on Wednesday night to sign a petition to recall Mayor Shari Buck.

A group set up three tables outside City Hall, where a special meeting was being held at 5:30 p.m., and collected about 50 signatures in the first hour. The committee to recall the mayor plans to continue petitioning door-to-door.

The group has 90 days to obtain 2,466 signatures to recall Buck, who was elected in 2009 is halfway into her four-year term. The signatures must come from North Las Vegas residents who voted in the 2009 mayoral race.

Jacquelyn Isbach, who did not vote for Buck, was the fourth person to sign the petition.

“I mainly didn’t like the fact that we built a new City Hall in these bad economic times and the fact that (Buck) then decorated her office, which isn’t going to be her office by the end of the year,” Isbach said. “It’s not right at all.”

According to city spokeswoman Juliet Casey, the mayor’s office had a little more than $3,000 work done. Buck’s office was painted, her desk and electrical system were adjusted, columns were constructed and she received a new chair. Casey said the office hadn’t been painted in more than a decade.

William Robinson II also signed the recall petition. His father served on the Council for more than 25 years and ran against Buck for mayor.

“The city is going under,” Robinson said. “We need somebody in that has got the city’s best interest at hand and not their own personal interest.”

Some signing the petition cited the new City Hall as a reason to recall the mayor. Others said it was her strong backing of the police and fire unions.

Buck said she didn’t understand the reasoning behind the recall effort.

“I had to balance the budget and I’m working hard on moving us forward,” she said. “Their reasons are a little bit ridiculous to me.”

She said she will keep as many police and firefighters as she can to keep citizens safe.

The group must have all 2,466 valid signatures by December.

The effort to oust Buck started when three residents, James Olive, Cherlynn Thomas and Scott Sauer, filed an intent to petition. Sauer, however, did not vote in the 2009 mayoral election, so three voters refiled the paperwork Wednesday in advance of the special council meeting.