Where I Stand -- Brian Greenspun: Taxpayers foot the bill when recall option is abused

BRIAN GREENSPUN is editor of the Las Vegas Sun.

WHERE DO WE GO to recall the recallers?

In a world gone mad with people so upset about one thing or obsessed with another, it is no wonder that taxpayers are fed up. After all, who do you think pays the bills for all the madness that infests our political system? Hint: It ain't the other guy, baby.

It was no surprise to anyone who paid attention to the recall effort against Clark County Commission Chairwoman Yvonne Atkinson Gates that it would be a costly affair -- for both the politician under fire and the taxpayers who are constantly under fire from anyone who understands the way expenses get paid.

It shouldn't surprise anyone to learn that the real cost of the latest failed effort to undo what the voters who elected Gates have done will exceed $100,000. If you add in the lost time on the part of county and state staff and the lost productivity and attention of Gates and other elected officials who were brought into this fiasco, that number could go well into the millions of dollars.

Hey, buddy, those are tax dollars we are talking about. I'm not talking about the private bucks of a hotel owner who is rumored to be behind the recall efforts -- he can well afford the paltry sum he put up -- I am talking about real money. Yours and mine.

Whenever we are spending that kind of dough, we should be asking someone in a position to know, "What did we get for our money?"

And that's the problem with recall petitions. A few people, disgruntled about some such or the other thing, hire a firm to go out and get signatures that, if they do it right, will force a recall election. This, of course, means that all the antis will come out of the woodwork from where they were hiding since the last election, hoping to drum up enough support to short-term the incumbent.

In this case, the recallers failed to get the signatures necessary, so they saved us all a few dollars and a few weeks of unneeded aggravation. For in the end, the issue would have been whether Gates is a good and effective leader -- despite her mistaken attempted foray into the frozen-drink business -- and her constituents know it. So they would have given her a vote of confidence and sent her detractors packing.

The taxpayers, though, would have paid for all that fun. That's why recall efforts are supposed to be used sparingly -- in the case of gross and reprehensible conduct that must be resolved before the next election, and not just because some people saw an opportunity to "teach a lesson" to an elected official with whom they disagreed.

There is already a way to deal with the latter kind of discontent. Every four years we have an election. That's when people opposed to the methods and madness of one elected official should present themselves and their ideas to the voters for their consideration.

So the next time Charles Bennion decides to take anyone else's money in an effort to force the taxpayers to spend too much of their own, let him do the right and proper thing.

If he doesn't already live there, he should move into Gates' district and put his name and reputation into contention for the vote of the people. That's the American way to change the political course of events. It is called a regularly scheduled election, and it costs the taxpayers a fraction of what all this recall crap has extorted from the people of Clark County.

In the meantime, let those elected to do their jobs do them. Government will work far more smoothly and much more efficiently as a result.

And to all the recallers out there waiting to sign a petition that isn't warranted, be patient. Your time will come. And so will the due bill.

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