Sister Cities' worth debated

A Chinese proverb perhaps best describes the difficult position in which the Las Vegas Sister Cities Association finds itself.

"We must be friends before we do business."

Although the 11-year-old nonprofit program has many cultural success stories from its relationship with four Asian cities, critics still claim Sister Cities is more a boondoggle than a benefit because it has yet to prove its worth.

Sister Cities is an international exchange program in which municipalities in different countries form a pact to share cultural information and often assist each other with economic development.

Cities seek out partners across the globe not only to promote education, but also in hopes of sparking business-to-business deals with the prospects of job creation and a boon to the local economy.

That hasn't happened yet in Las Vegas, where the program has actually cost money in terms of blown deals. It's also damaged the political prospects of City Councilman Arnie Adamsen, a potential mayoral candidate and the most ardent elected supporter of Sister Cities.

Janet Peters, a longtime Ward 2 resident who has supported Adamsen's political opponents in the past, says the Sister Cities program diverts city resources from local problems in need of attention.

"We need to take care of Las Vegas, not some city somewhere that nobody's heard of," said Peters, 56, who voted for Sue Brna in the last City Council election because Brna made Sister Cities a campaign issue.

"We have poor people here, and we're spending money to wine and dine these foreigners without any proven result," Peters said.

City officials and local Sister Cities members disagree, citing an even better-known axiom than the "friends before business" proverb -- "patience is a virtue."

"I don't know that developing international rapport can be measured in dollars and cents," said Pete Cummings, the city's manager of international affairs. "You can't put a price tag on a program like this."

Adamsen, who has taken numerous trips to various Sister Cities and stridently supports the foreign companies, said it takes time to build the trust needed to reap financial benefits.

"My biggest disappointment so far is that we have not done a megadeal," Adamsen said. "It doesn't happen overnight."

The gifts and mementos from visits abroad and from hosting activities here line the walls and fill several tall shelves in his City Hall office. The golf ball from the president of the Philippines was given friend to friend. Paintings of Chinese mountains, a sculpture of an elephant and silk fans each bear the story of a visit, a foreign friend or a stately banquet.

The Las Vegas Sister Cities program started in 1986 when a group of South Korean businessmen encouraged the City Council to form a Sister City. In 1987, the first relationship began with An San, about 45 minutes southwest of Seoul.

In 1994, the city made the program private, creating the Las Vegas Sister Cities Association Inc. Three years later, Sister Cities relations were established with Phuket, Thailand; Huludao, China; and Angeles City, Philippines.

The city still gives a $25,000 grant to the nonprofit association each year, and the association raises an additional $25,000 more annually to fund delegation trips, according to the group's president, Ron Cook.

"It's not like we're spending millions and millions," said Cook, a former state senator who runs a local computer business. "Business takes a while to cultivate. It's actually a relatively inexpensive program."

Adamsen said delegation visits to foreign lands are "no vacation."

"We're over there promoting Las Vegas and working to change the image that we're just a casino town," Adamsen said.

That misconception sank a deal with Samsung Corp. to buy 750 acres in Summerlin South in conjunction with PGA West. Samsung backed out of the project to develop housing around a golf course because its owners believed Las Vegas was the wrong city in which to try such a nongaming project.

"That's 950 homes on 750 acres that wasn't approved because we're seen in Asia as a casino city," Adamsen said.

Andy Nazarechuk, director of the Hospitality, Research and Development Center at UNLV's College of Hotel Administration, agrees that part of the roadblock is the casino-dominated image.

"It takes many years to develop a relationship with the Asian world," said Nazarechuk, who gave a symposium during one South Korean delegation's visit to Las Vegas. "But it's a program that's certainly working."

UNLV has seen an increase in native South Korean students as a result of the Sister Cities program, Nazarechuk said.

Although a direct tie cannot be linked to the program, increases in Asian tourists could also be a result of the friendships forged overseas and the treatment given the foreign delegations while they are here.

"If you use the program appropriately with a vision, it makes such a difference," said Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones, who was part of a nine-person official delegation to Huludao in 1997.

"People there want to do business with other countries," Jones said. "But often they're on two different levels. You have to build the relationships in order for it to work."

Sister Cities, created by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956, grew out of a Cold War-era attempt to increase American understanding of other cultures.

Program in growth spurt

About 1,200 cities nationwide have exchanges with cities in 127 countries, according to Sister Cities International (SCI), a nonprofit organization that administers the program worldwide.

Despite technological gains that make the world smaller and allow for easier communication with people in other countries -- or perhaps as a result of that technology -- SCI is in its biggest period of growth.

"During the past six years we've received the most inquiries for partnerships since our inception," said Juanita Crabb, executive director of SCI, based in Alexandria, Va. "So many studies have come out saying the best jobs will go to those with international experience."

Emerging democracies in Europe and Africa and the lifting of certain trade barriers also have contributed to an increase in the program.

Las Vegas plans to expand its program, adding Sister Cities in Japan and Mexico or South America.

But competition for cities is proving difficult. SCI rules allow a U.S. city to have just one Sister City in any given country.

With Japan and Germany the most popular countries for the exchanges, finding a suitable partner in Japan is still a work in progress. "The question really is how many Sister Cities can you support and still have the relationships be active?" Cook said.

Considering its population, Las Vegas is slightly below average in its number of Sister Cities. Tucson, Ariz., and Reno each have eight; Orlando, Fla., and Phoenix have seven each; Miami has 15; and Chicago has the most with 22.

For each relationship the American city must have a volunteer group in place to plan delegation trips and to host visits.

Cook said donations of services and food by local ethnic associations amount to more than triple the Sister Cities Association's total budget.

Two trips, averaging $25,000 each, are planned from Las Vegas to Asia this year. "You can't tell me there isn't a more pressing need for that money here," Peters said. "Parks, fire service and the homeless could all use that."

Still, the association defends the trips and pays the airfare only for the head of the delegation. Tag-alongs, such as Jones' husband and son who went to China with the mayor in 1997, have to pay their own way.

The city usually covers the cost to send one or two staff members for administration purposes.

When Adamsen headed a delegation to Phuket, his plane ticket was paid for by the local association. "It was covered under their own donations, not from the city's portion," Adamsen said. "But you could never prove the money wasn't the city's, and I get attacked for it."

During the 1997 council election, Brna attacked Adamsen for not listing four Asian trips on his travel expense reports. The trips to South Korea in 1993, China and South Korea in 1994 and South Korea again in 1995 were not required by law to be listed because they were not paid for with taxpayer money.

"If he's going as a public figure, we have a right to know who's paying for his trips," Brna said.

Cook said the program's success depends on the backing of elected leaders and their visits to the cities as a show of respect and commitment to the program.

"You can't take a trip without a politician because, over there, all of the leaders expect to see their counterparts," said Cook, who has visited all four Sister Cities. "But the beating that we take in the media for these so-called vacations is brutal, and many politicians run scared."

City Councilman Michael McDonald and Clark County Commissioner Mary Kincaid recently were appointed to the Sister Cities Association's board of directors. Another county commissioner is expected to be appointed this month. Cook said their backing, and that of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, is critical.

"If you don't have government officials who are interested, the Sister Cities program is dead," Cook said.

Las Vegas is the only city in Clark County with a Sister Cities program, although several others have expressed interest in the idea.

Boulder City Mayor Bob Ferraro said he supports such an exchange but has been unable to make the program work. "We've looked at it several times over the years, but cost is the whole drawback," Ferraro said. "I have seen it work, but it's expensive and we're a small community with limited resources."

Henderson officials are interested in, but not actively pursuing, a Sister City.

A costly setback

Although a $25,000 annual donation does not seem pricey for a city the size of Las Vegas, the program has had other costs, including the loss of potential jobs and the bailout of failed investments.

For example, a South Korean company, Mercury Development, never came through with plans for a golf course and alpine village at Mount Charleston. That project was hyped as an economic-diversification project that would create a spark to nongaming tourism.

The most costly example came last December when the city was forced to buy back space in the Las Vegas Technology Center at a $140,000 loss.

Continental Wire America Co. of South Korea paid $348,480 -- or about $1 per square foot -- for eight acres in the high-tech industrial center at Cheyenne Avenue and U.S. 95.

The company had plans to manufacture electrical harnesses for computers and appliances and was expected to create 50 jobs.

The souring Asian economy caused Continental to pull out of the business and forced the city to buy back the land for $488,000.

Continental was originally sold the land at one-fourth the amount offered to companies elsewhere in the technology center -- $4 per square foot -- to encourage its potential role in helping diversify the Las Vegas economy.

Adamsen maintains the lower price wasn't a sweetheart deal to make the Sister Cities program reap a financial benefit.

"They had no exposure to major streets and were in a bad location," Adamsen said. "We had almost $400,000 of their money plus the interest, so we broke even.

"And we're going to turn it around and sell it for millions," he added.

When the delegation from An San comes to Las Vegas for three days in March, city officials are hoping to be able to sign off on another deal.

"Right now with the Asian (economic) flu, or epidemic, you just have to maintain the relationships and you hope they'll recover," the city's Cummings said.

At a planned business meeting during the South Korean delegation's visit, An San business leaders plan to present information on a project they're interested in establishing here, Cummings said.

The business meetings during any delegation's visit are a chance to meet face-to-face with foreign officials and maintain the camaraderie previously established, Adamsen said.

During a meeting between the delegation from Phuket, Thailand, and the city last November, Phuket leaders showed plans for a theme park in their island city. They also discussed the possibility that gaming will be approved there and asked for assistance courting Las Vegas-based casinos to open up shop there.

Letting time do its job

The longer a Sister City relationship is maintained, the better the chance for economic benefits to both cities involved, SCI's Crabb said.

"What may start out as an educational or cultural exchange can grow into more," Crabb said.

That's exactly what's happened in Jacksonville, Fla., which has five Sister Cities -- the oldest dating back 31 years.

An exchange with Bahia Blanca, Argentina, grew out of a cultural dance troupe and student exchange. Another exchange with Nantes, France, began with wine clubs celebrating Jacksonville's Huguenot heritage.

But it is a Sister Cities exchange with Masan, South Korea -- begun in 1982 -- that has paid the biggest dividends for the local economy in Jacksonville, whose city government gives $50,000 annually to the program.

Two Korean engineering firms just invested $20 million for an incinerator project in Jacksonville. The Florida city, in turn, will buy about the same amount in port container cranes for use in its harbor, according to Elizabeth Porter, who works for the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission.

"It takes time," Porter said. "We're beginning to see the friendships pay off."

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