Monday, March 3, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
County commissioners said they do not support a legislative proposal requiring anyone seeking the chairmanship of the board to be elected at large.
Legislators said the proposal is being included as part of a larger measure to resurrect a proposal by Commissioner Erin Kenny to redistrict the County Commission seats based on the current population.
By law, the county redistricts after every 10-year census is taken. The next census will be in the year 2000. But Kenny argued that the districts have disproportionate numbers of voters because of the county's growth patterns and should be redistricted now. She tried to get the County Commission to adopt the change, but the district attorney said it had to go to the Legislature.
The commission narrowly approved the measure last October for inclusion in its legislative package, then later rejected the proposal after the November elections changed the board's makeup.
"Don't be surprised if the bill comes up even though the County Commission doesn't want it," said Assemblyman Tom Collins, D-North Las Vegas. "I've heard talk that it needs to be done."
While the deadline has passed for legislators to introduce bills on their own, they can try to get bills introduced by committee.
Other legislators said Collins is trying to build support for the bill.
Kenny and Commissioner Lorraine Hunt said they support redistricting now rather than waiting two more years when the U.S. Census is taken. Commissioner Myrna Williams said she opposes redistricting before then because it would cost the county $3 million.
Collins said he supported redistricting sooner because most commissioners have a lopsided number of voters in their district, compared to Commission Chairwoman Yvonne Atkinson Gates and Williams. However, he said the move to elect the chairman at large is a bad idea.
"I am not into the mean part of this," Collins said. "I'm not doing this to go against the commission chairman. I think that is politically motivated and wouldn't support it."
Assemblyman Dario Herrera, D-Las Vegas, said the intent is to make the chairman accountable to all the voters, rather than the smaller number who live in one district.
But commissioners said that would only give one commissioner more power than other commissioners.
"I'm not supporting electing a mayor of the county," Kenny said. "If that's what Mr. Herrera says his purpose is, then everyone should be elected at large. I don't have a problem with that. That's the way it used to be."
Williams said the bill sounds like it would dilute the voting power of minorities and women.
"Does he realize how he diminishes the possibility of a minority or a woman to be elected?" Williams said.
It also could scale back district representation, Williams said. If one commissioner is elected at large, then the seven existing districts would be merged into six larger districts, she said, "thereby diluting the vote of the people who live in those districts."
The bill also could take away the opportunity the commissioners now have to elect their own chairman "as somebody they feel they can work with."
Commissioners are elected by district to a four-year term. The seven commissioners then select a chairman from among themselves. Making one seat elected countywide would give the chairman more power than the other commissioners, said Kenny, who briefly sought the chairmanship last fall.
"Once you do that, you change the dynamic of what the County Commission is," Kenny said. "It always is seven equal people, seven equal votes."
Hunt, who also sought the chairmanship, said she doesn't like any proposal that gives one commissioner more power over another commissioner. However, she agreed with Kenny that maybe all commission seats be elected at large, after a round of district primary elections.
"Then, the person who gets the most votes can also be chairman," Hunt said.
Hunt said she didn't know what purpose it would serve to have an at-large chairman and the rest of the board elected by district, except to create an elected county manager, which is something she would oppose.
Gates, who was reappointed to a second two-year term as chairman in January, brushed off the bill as a petty ploy by people who don't want her to succeed in her plans to create a comprehensive infrastructure funding package.
Williams also dismissed the bill as a personal attack on Gates by gaming interests and their legislative supporters.
"This goes right along with what they've been saying without any corroboration," Williams said, referring to comments made last week by Assemblyman David Goldwater, D-Las Vegas, about Gates trying to hog the infrastructure limelight. "This is nothing more than a personal attack."
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