Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Opposition still runs high to redistricting of West LV

A heated meeting on redrawing Las Vegas City Council wards that was marked by shouting and angry outbursts didn't produce results, although a decision is expected early next month.

Emotions ran high at the council's recommending committee meeting Monday, where the city's proposed plan came under attack from West Las Vegas residents, including members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

At issue is whether to put predominantly black West Las Vegas in the same voting district as the eastern part of the city, or to leave it in same central-city ward where it's been since 1989.

NAACP leaders, who have advanced their own plan that leaves West Las Vegas in Ward 1, said the council should be expanded to seven members. They argue joining West Las Vegas with poor eastern Las Vegas would create a ghetto of poverty that couldn't fight for scarce resources.

But city officials responded that the booming growth in the west and northwest parts of the city have forced the changes, and that it makes sense for Ward 3 to pick up West Las Vegas. In fact, they said, the population differences on the current ward maps are so big they've opened the city to a federal lawsuit.

"We feel the city has not looked at the ramifications of their plan," said Chester Richardson, special assistant to NAACP President James Rogers. "No one person should have to bear the burden of having to represent these areas by himself or herself."

State Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, said the council should add members to increase representation.

"If you're serious ... about trying to deal with this problem, why not expand your council?" he asked.

Jesse Scott, former president of the NAACP, told council members "all kinds of other things will set in" if they approved the city's plan.

"You have an opportunity right now to do what is right. If you don't, anything might happen," he said.

And Joanna Wesley, who also works for the NAACP, berated the council for not appointing a citizens board to draw the lines.

"Once again, the City Council has given us what they think we need," she said. "All the money the city is spending on this, it could have been settled for free if it had been brought to the community."

Ward 3 Councilman Gary Reese, however, rejected the ghetto argument, saying he's been able to work with his colleagues to get benefits for his ward before. Reese was successful in getting the council to dedicate all profits from the under-construction Nature Park golf course to build more parks in Ward 3.

"I'm saying I can handle the work. I think I can do the job because of the experience I've had," he said.

Ward 1 Councilman Michael McDonald also rejected the argument. "No matter what ward I'm serving, the voters won't be shortchanged," he said.

McDonald called criticism of the plan "unfair," but, like Reese, said he'd agree to meet with West Las Vegas leaders to review their plan, which he said he hadn't seen before Monday's meeting.

"We're not trying to create a civil war by creating a ward," he said.

Richardson said the NAACP's plan is better than the city's because the biggest population gap between wards is 6.6 percent, while the city's map shows a 9 percent gap between the biggest and smallest districts. Under the federal "one-man, one-vote" standard, differences of up to 10 percent are allowed.

The issue will return to the council's recommending committee April 29, and whatever map is selected could be approved by May 1.

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