NLV: Brown beats adversity, tries for second term

Spend any amount of time with Paula Brown and you will discover there is one thing she rarely seems to be without.

Her cell phone.

As a businesswoman, a wife, a volunteer, a mother, a civic leader and a grandmother, her knowledge and advice are often in demand, which is made obvious by her phone's incessant ringing.

Much of Brown's experience goes toward helping run a community of an estimated 107,000 residents -- a community that is welcoming approximately 1,500 new residents a month.

The first-term North Las Vegas councilwoman, who is quick to smile and has a knack for making people feel comfortable quickly, often serves as the community's personal welcome wagon by providing tours along with Economic Development Manager Jacque Risner.

North Las Vegas Chamber Director Laura Coleman, co-owner of the Poker Palace casino, said Brown took her under her wing at Coleman's first chamber meeting. "I knew no one and Paula adopted me," she said. "She really got me involved in the chamber."

Brown lives in the Eldorado master-planned community in the city's fastest growing area, the northwest. Brown notes her family was one of the first five to move out there. The owner and operator of JB Chemical Co. for 18 years, she is now working in an advisory capacity. She and her husband, Jim, sold the company a year ago.

"It gives me more time to do other things," she said.

And time is what she needs to run from meeting to meeting.

Brown is especially proud of her work with the Southern Nevada Strategic Planning Authority, now the Regional Planning Coalition.

"It is a huge step to talk about regional issues," she said. "You need to make sure the person you elect gets along with others (on regional boards)."

Brown was appointed to the City Council in January 1997 to replace Mary Kincaid, who won a seat on the County Commission. In the general election in June 1997, Brown beat challenger Sylvester Rogers by a margin of 64 to 36 percent to win a two-year term.

Among her goals on the council is to "send a message that we're looking for a higher quality (development)," Brown said.

In keeping with this, Brown sponsored a new ordinance that calls for a minimum of 6,000-square-foot lots for residential zoning as opposed to "sandwiching in homes on postage stamp lots."

North Las Vegas resident Valerie Bugni, marketing director at Lucchesi, Galati Architects, has worked with Brown in organizing public design meetings for the proposed North Las Vegas Branch Library and on other projects.

"She seems to analyze every situation before she forms a decision and to look at everything as a whole," Bugni said. "She's very articulate and upbeat and passionate. She's one of those people who you are glad to have met."

But not everyone in North Las Vegas would agree, especially those who tried to get Brown booted out of office last year.

One of her biggest opponents is Marcia Blake, who also is running for City Council and who spearheaded a failed effort to get Brown recalled. Residents Mike Winne and Glen Easter, who both often criticize the city for wasting money, are also outspoken Brown critics.

"I believe I have the support of the community. This recall effort has been launched by a small handful of people," Brown said at the time. "I have done nothing wrong."

Jim Brown pleaded guilty in February 1998 to two counts of filing false tax returns for his chemical sales business, Lab-Kem Supplies. The business also became the focus of an investigation by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency.

Police said the chemicals were later used to manufacture methamphetamine in area labs, but the drug charges were dropped after he pleaded to the tax charges. He was given a one-year suspended sentence last April and three years probation.

"He did not sell drugs," she said. "What he sold was not illegal."

Paula Brown was never charged with a crime. And the citizens' group behind the recall effort failed to get the number of valid signatures -- at least 2,000 -- needed to force Brown to run again for her office.

Are the recall election attempts and the late-night phone calls from constituents worth it?

Brown says yes.

"You take all the negative and then I see children playing in a park I helped plan and that makes it worth it," she said, referring to Nicholas E. Flores Jr. Park.

"I care about the sections of the downtown area as well as the newer sections in the northwest. They are all different and that's where the challenge lies, balancing the two within the city budget."

Brown, who heads the North Las Vegas Crime Prevention Advisory Committee and who is a graduate of the Citizens Police Academy North, has first-hand experience when it comes to law enforcement: she used to be married to a police officer in California.

"It gives me an inside perspective with regard to day-to-day work that a patrolman must go through, the horror that he or she sees and also the good," she said. "I know the emotional roller coaster they are on, the danger they put themselves in."

A 21-year resident of Southern Nevada and a nine-year resident of North Las Vegas, Brown moved here from Southern California.

She met her second husband, Jim, while in California. They have two daughters, Dawn and Robin, who live in North Las Vegas and Henderson, respectively, and a daughter and son who live in California, along with five grandchildren.

Born in Pittsburgh, Brown went to high school in Tucson, Ariz., and attended the University of Arizona.

She said she moved to North Las Vegas because it had cleaner air and her business was located there.

Among the items on her campaign platform are managed growth, redevelopment, public safety, fiscal responsibility and quality of life. She believes her extensive community involvement and business experience distinguish her from other candidates.

Brown said that so far she has spent about $7,000 out of her own pocket on her campaign.

Fellow Councilwoman Stephanie Smith said that while she is staying neutral as far as whom she is supporting in the race for council, she said she enjoys working with Brown.

"We don't always come to the same conclusion, but I feel that she always listens," Smith said. "I feel that we can have a good discussion and sometimes persuade each other, sometimes not. It's nice to work with someone like that."

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