Sunday, Nov. 8, 1998 | 9:09 a.m.
Black community leaders believe West Las Vegas has been bounced around, underrepresented and, in effect, forgotten in the city of Las Vegas.
They will be keeping a close eye on the city's new Council Review Committee as it meets in the coming months to determine the city's future.
A number of black leaders hope the outcome will include the creation of more wards -- there are currently four, with the mayor running at large. More wards would give blacks a better chance at representation on what is now an all-white board.
"The way it is now, there is no representation for blacks," said State Sen. Joe Neal, the senior black member of the Nevada Legislature who at the 1997 session failed to get lawmakers to mandate six wards for the city.
"By having one black member on a seven-member City Council, blacks would have some kind of input. It shouldn't be just white folks making all of the decisions like it is now."
No voters in the city of Las Vegas have been ping-ponged around more in the redistricting process than those living in old West Las Vegas, the predominantly black -- and economically disadvantaged -- part of town.
In the last 21 years, redistricting has occurred six times in the city of Las Vegas -- 1977, 1983, 1987, 1989, 1993 and 1996. In the last 10 years redistricting has resulted in West Las Vegas being moved from its longtime home in Ward 3 to Ward 1 and back to Ward 3.
It is little wonder that the word gerrymandering, a term used to describe redistricting for political purposes rather than to achieve geographic balance, has been frequently used to describe West Las Vegas since the late 1980s.
This often overlooked, decaying section of the city, bounded by Bonanza Road, Rancho Road, Carey Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard North, is sure to be heavily impacted by the rippling effects of the review committee's findings.
If that decision is to indeed add wards, it would give hope not only to blacks but also Hispanics, as such a move could split both core neighborhoods that currently share Ward 3, the far eastern district.
About 20 percent of Ward 3's population is black, 18 percent is Hispanic, and about 60 percent is white, according to the 1990 census.
"Right now, blacks are being played off against Hispanics," said Neal, a resident of North Las Vegas who is interested in the advancement of all black communities regardless of the municipal boundaries.
By comparison, the average makeup of city of Las Vegas residents is 11.2 percent black, 12.1 percent Hispanic and 72.3 percent white, based on the 1990 census.
The Council Review Committee, which met for the first time last week, will next gather on Nov. 19 and every two weeks after that through at least January. But, regardless of what actions that board takes, redistricting in some form is sure to occur again in the not-to-distant future.
That is simply because large numbers of people are settling in the rural Southwest and Northwest -- the heavily white Wards 2 and 4.
As of July 1, the city's population was 448,244. Ward 4 was the largest at 121,285, up from 73,400 in 1990. Ward 1 was the smallest at 102,193, up from 75,801 in 1990. The city wards are mandated to be balanced in population.
Ward 4 is the fastest growing district, up 21 percent in population over the last two years, and 10 percent this year alone. Ward 2 is the second-fastest growing, up 17 percent over the last two years and 11 percent this year alone.
Urban Wards 1 and 3 each have grown just 2 percent over the last two years.
There are reasons why prospective homebuyers aren't flocking to the older areas of town. In Ward 3 more than 19 percent of residents live below the poverty level and 9 percent are unemployed -- the worst in the city.
Not surprisingly, the smallest percentage of poverty-level residents are in Ward 2 with less than 5 percent. Ward 4 has the smallest percentage of unemployed people at 4.4 percent, according to the last census.
Although some economic relief has come to West Las Vegas in recent years, including new businesses at and around the Nucleus Plaza, the area remains for the most part rundown.
After redistricting established West Las Vegas in Ward 1 in 1989, blacks enjoyed what was arguably their best representation, as Frank Hawkins became the city's first and only elected black city councilman.
"When I ran in 1991, I never thought of it (skin color) as being an issue," said Hawkins, who played football at Western High School, the University of Nevada, Reno, and for the Super Bowl champion Oakland Raiders in the NFL.
He had originally intended to run for the Ward 3 council seat in 1989, but his residence and neighborhood were redistricted to Ward 1.
So Hawkins, who had worked in the city manager's office and with city youth activities during the off-seasons from football, decided to take a shot at being the Ward 1 representative when that seat came up for grabs two years later.
"Yes, I believe a black can be elected to the City Council again," said Hawkins, who today owns and operates Community Development Programs Center of Nevada, an economic development firm.
"But to do it, he must know his entire ward and address the needs of all of his constituents."
When Hawkins lost to white Metro Police officer Michael McDonald in 1995, he won big in West Las Vegas precincts, but lost in other parts of the ward. The next year, West Las Vegas was moved back to Ward 3.
Hawkins served during a period when there were two blacks on the Las Vegas City Council, as banker Ken Brass became the second African-American in the last 16 years to be appointed to a Ward 3 council seat and the city's third black to hold such a post.
William Pearson, who was appointed to Ward 3 in 1982, was the city's first black councilman. He opted not to run again in 1983, and Bob Nolen, a white man, won.
In 1991 Nolen got a strong challenge from Hispanic Harold Giron, who grabbed 40 percent of the vote in a losing effort. Nolen resigned in 1993 to become Las Vegas Constable, a post he held until retiring this year.
Though several Hispanics were up for the Ward 3 council appointment, Mayor Jan Laverty Jones selected Brass, a move that drew outrage from the Hispanic community -- a situation Neal says will only get worse if West Las Vegas stays in Ward 3.
Brass held office for just 20 months, losing to white barber Gary Reese, the current councilman, in 1995. A year later, West Las Vegas found itself in Ward 3, represented by a man whom its residents played no role in electing to office.
Ironically, Hawkins will have no real say in what will happen to the future of West Las Vegas or Ward 3 as either a voter or a potential candidate.
The mostly white and wealthy neighborhood in which he lives -- not too far from West Las Vegas -- remained in Ward 1 after the 1996 redistricting, causing even more whispers about gerrymandering.
But perhaps no incident better demonstrates gerrymandering than how Hawkins' longtime home, the old B.B. King mansion -- and his neighborhood -- got to Ward 1 in the first place.
When the wards were redistricted in 1989, Ward 1 became a heavily urban center, arguably allowing for greater minority representation for West Las Vegas.
Some observers, however, felt the real reason West Las Vegas was put into Ward 1 was to assure that then-Councilman Steve Miller, a wealthy white businessman who was regarded as a maverick on the council, would have great difficulty winning reelection in a heavily black district.
Miller, however, decided not to seek reelection to his ward, but instead run for mayor. When then-Mayor Ron Lurie opted not to seek reelection, the path to that office appeared clear for Miller.
However, Jones, a popular automobile pitchwoman but political unknown, joined the race at the last minute and beat Miller, becoming the city's first woman mayor.
If the decision to move West Las Vegas to Ward 1 was not motivated by political intrigue against Miller, but rather was a sincere effort to give blacks a chance at office, then it worked because Hawkins won.
"I think Steve Miller could have had a good shot at winning (reelection to Ward 1)," Hawkins said. "He worked for all of his constituents."
Whether a black -- or for that matter any minority -- will hold a council seat in the foreseeable future is a subject of much debate. For no matter how the wards are structured -- even with six of them -- there is no way to make blacks a majority and still keep them balanced and contiguous.
"We (blacks) are not asking for electability -- that's not going to happen," Neal said. "We just want to get a chance at representation."
Las Vegas city officials say the only factors they can consider in redistricting are whether the wards are contiguous and balanced by population.
That can be argued, however, because in the South, long known for problems with racial division, courts have ordered redistricting along racial as well as geographic lines to foster better minority representation on elected bodies.
While Hawkins was in office he sought to increase the wards from four to six, but not because of the racial factor.
"I did it because of the workload (for councilmen in the urban districts)," Hawkins said.
"I was getting 75 calls of complaints a day. We had the largest city wards in America. I thought more councilmen would ease the workload. But instead it was decided to add more staff."
Hawkins also sees where Neal is coming from.
"Taxation without representation is wrong," Hawkins said. "People in the older parts of town do not see things getting done because the focus is on the newer parts of town (Southwest and Northwest Las Vegas)."
Hawkins also said he is concerned that if the four wards are redistricted again older Las Vegas will get even less attention.
Conceivably, Ward 3, which is landlocked on three sides and can only grow in a westward direction, will take even more of the urban areas from Ward 1. In turn, Ward 1 would continue to stretch to the rural southwest and eventually become the third rural ward, he said.
Council review committee or no council review committee, Neal says he will bring the fight to mandate additional wards back before the Legislature in 1999.
Neal's last attempt was killed by the Senate in June 1997, a month after the Senate Government Affairs Committee voted in favor of a public vote on the issue rather than on a law decided by legislators.
Council members say its review committee puts the issue of ward expansion in the hands of Las Vegas residents, not the Legislature.
While the committee will not actually design new or additional wards, if that is the path that is chosen, its recommendations for change are expected to play a key role in how the city's staff draws the new ward boundary lines.
"It's premature to discuss that at this time," Committee Chairman Ron Portaro, a local businessman, said. "There is also the issue of whether to keep the wards at four and add some at-large council members.
"The committee is open to all ideas."
Committee member Bob Forbus, a lifelong Las Vegan and the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce Chairman-elect, agrees that it is "too early to guess how this (the additional wards issue) will shape up.
"The basic thing is to provide fair and equal representation."
The committee also has other issues to consider.
"In addition to looking into whether we need more wards, the committee also will look at whether to make the council positions full time jobs and pay them accordingly," Jones said.
While City Council service is classified as a part-time job, Jones said it is a more than full-time duty that does not adequately compensate members, who often have to take time away from their regular jobs -- or quit them altogether -- to meet their responsibilities to constituents.
Council members currently receive $36,400 a year, the mayor $41,100. Each council member is entitled to two aides and a secretary at a cost of about $200,000 a year.
Those figures could greatly increase if full-time status is achieved. The Legislature would have to approve such a change.
"And there is the question of a strong elected official vs. strong city manager (the kind that now exists in Las Vegas) government," Jones said, noting that the committee is free to tackle that issue as well.
At its initial meeting last Wednesday, however, the panel seemed hesitant to broach that area because it would require changing the city's charter.
The other committee members are developer Russ Dorn, UNLV professor Leonard Goodall and business leaders Fernando Romero, Kathy Ong and Kenny Young.
Racially, the panel has four whites, an Asian woman, a Hispanic and a black.
City Manager Virginia Valentine says her staff will assist the committee in doing what is best for the city.
"We will try to find an equitable way -- something that makes sense," she said, noting that the committee does not have a preconceived agenda.
"The committee will put the questions on the table. We (city staff) will point out all of the advantages and disadvantages."
The findings of the committee could come before the full council for a vote by as early as next spring.
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