Casinos want more seats on LVCVA board

CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Resort Association, the organization of hotel-casinos in Southern Nevada, wants a bigger voice on the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

The Assembly Government Affairs Committee today agreed to introduce a bill sought by the association to give it four of the 12 members on the authority, which runs convention facilities and spends millions of dollars in promoting Las Vegas.

It "was very important to the industry" that it have a larger say on what's going on, Harvey Whittemore, lobbyist for the resort association, said. The money to support the authority comes from the hotel-motel room tax.

The bill would require that one of the four authority members from the association would represent downtown hotels.

The present law requires only three members to be from the resort hotel business, with one representing downtown Las Vegas. There is no requirement they be members of the Resort Association.

Under the present makeup, there is one representative from motel operators and one from other commercial interests. The bill from the resort association would have only one representatives from "motels, other commercial interests, airline or tourist-related business."

The convention authority is made up of 12 members: two from the Clark County Commission, two from the Las Vegas City Council and one each from the North Las Vegas and Henderson city councils and one from another incorporated city in Clark County.

The elected officials choose the five lay members from nominations made by the Chamber of Commerce. But the chamber is limited to certain categories in its selection.

The chamber has had preliminary discussions with the Resort Association about its proposal, chamber president Pat Shalmy said.

Asked if this was an effort to "stack" the convention authority, Whittemore said it was more in recognition of the importance of the tourist economy.

archive