City considers plans to increase size of city council

Officials are expected to appoint a committee next month to look at whether the five-member council is too small and, if so, how much it would cost to add seats. Another option is to create a full-time board and increase salaries from the $36,407 a year for council members and the $47,129 a year for the mayor.

City Manager Virginia Valentine said she will recommend five people to sit on a committee that will study the issue and make a recommendation to the city council by year's end.

State Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, who supports a larger council to increase minority representation on the currently all-white board, said the city may not be acting in time. Neal said he is prepared to force the council to expand through state legislation.

"I'm going to introduce something to mandate it (the addition of seats) because they had over a year to act, and nothing happened," Neal said. "I don't think they want any minorities. If they wanted minorities, they would have done something before now."

Neal is the sponsor of a measure, passed in last year's Legislature, that gave the city authority to expand by two seats. Neal wanted to require the expansion but compromised with city officials, who said at the time that voters should decide the matter.

The council has four members - each of whom represent more than 100,000 people - and a mayor elected citywide. Las Vegas' population is approximately 425,270.

Neal, who is black, is convinced that adding seats would give minorities more clout and possibly more representation on the council. In a 1996 redistricting, the bulk of the city's black and Hispanic populations were lumped in one ward, which reduced their influence, Neal contends.

Whether additional wards would help minorities depends on how the districts were drawn. Most of the city's population growth is occurring in the predominately white area of northwest Las Vegas, not the central and eastern areas where many minorities live.

Councilman Larry Brown, who represents northwest Las Vegas, said his biggest concern would be the expense to taxpayers. The cost of a council member plus two aides and a secretary is about $200,000 a year. Equipment and office space would increase the expenses.

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