Political rookie ready to take bigger swings

Six months into what he calls alternately a sabbatical and the best job in the world, Oscar Goodman is still looking for validation.

Not politically, mind you.

On a late recent weekend, fresh off a major political coup to seat two councilmen of his choice, Goodman isn't out to gloat as he trolls through the Costco parking lot seeking recognition.

"I love, as crazy as it sounds, going to Costco and having everybody ask for my autograph," Goodman said. "If I don't get enough adulation there, we go over to Smith's.

"If that doesn't satisfy me we go down to Starbucks," said the 60-year-old former criminal defense attorney who has just completed half a year as mayor. "I love it when people say, 'You're doing a good job.' "

And most of the people Goodman encounters on each of his over-scheduled days agree.

His predecessor, Jan Laverty Jones, left office after eight years complaining of the city-manager form of government that gave her plenty of ceremonial duties but few special powers.

Goodman eschews talk of a strong mayor-style government because, he says with an impish grin, he gets everything he asks for from City Manager Virginia Valentine

"Virginia looks at it as her charge to effectuate my vision," Goodman said. "If I didn't have a Virginia, I might want to have much more authority as a mayor."

Valentine said she sees it as her role to help carry out the vision for the city set by the mayor and council.

"I've told him that he can be as strong a mayor as he wants," Valentine said. "He is a strong mayor. He has the votes, and he's shown that he's a strong mayor."

Goodman has asserted himself.

Unhappy at the pace, projects and public subsidies for downtown revitalization efforts, Goodman has set a Feb. 1 deadline for a major progress report on the beleaguered Neonopolis entertainment center.

He has publicly wooed the NBA and NHL is leading the local effort to build both a sports arena and a performing arts center.

The first legislation he sponsored cleared the way for formation of an arts district in which artists can live and work in their studios similar to zoning regulations in cities like San Diego, New York and San Francisco.

Political observers say Goodman's crowning moment of his first six months came when he orchestrated the delay in two council appointments by raising an unlikely ethical question. Goodman lost the ethical challenge, but spent the intervening weeks during the delay swaying his council colleagues to select his choices for the council.

Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald was convinced to change her vote from Michael McDonald's selections to Goodman's -- Lawrence Weekly and Michael Mack.

"One of the greatest lessons he's learned in the last six months is about building coalitions on the council," Boggs McDonald said. "I think he came to City Hall with some sense of naivete, but he's learning the political ropes."

Councilman Larry Brown sees Goodman's political inexperience as one of his greatest assets.

"Oscar has come in and really been a breath of fresh air," said Brown, who has become Goodman's closest ally on the council. "His naivete about the political process and bureaucracy has been a benefit.

"His comments are from someone who is truly a rookie in the political game," Brown said.

Goodman isn't afraid to speak his mind, and at times has been surprised by the front-page headlines his casual statements make.

The two-month fury over a rumored Metro deconsolidation effort surprised Goodman almost as much as the resulting calm that emerged after he declared deconsolidation a nonissue.

But as the spokesman for the city, Goodman has found his statements, at times, opposed to regulations or the simple reality that gets politicians re-elected.

Goodman has asked to serve on the proposed Citizen Review Board of the Metropolitan Police Department -- something precluded by the local ordinance written to create the board.

He once impersonated his friend and local columnist Barbara Robinson at a press conference by walking with arms bent at the elbows in a slow trudging fashion away from the lectern in what some perceived as ape-style.

The mimicry came at the same press briefing in which Goodman jokingly suggested the Citizens Area Transit bus system should serve his Scotch 80s neighborhood because, after all, the servants need access to public transportation.

"I think the low point was his suggestion that homeless people be given bus tickets and run out of town," said Gary Peck, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada.

Goodman says he made that suggestion to people who are homeless by choice and who do not strive to get a job or get off the streets. The remarks were made during a press conference at which results of a new homeless study were unveiled.

Peck is more critical of what he perceives to be Goodman's hypocritical stance on issues involving business licenses, work cards, public parks, the Fremont Street Experience and the police review board given the mayor's stated love and respect for the U.S. Constitution.

"I very much like and respect the mayor and hope he finds his bearings as he grows in the job," Peck said. "But to this point, I have been very disappointed in his performance."

Goodman admits he struggles with his personal beliefs and also is troubled by the council's actions on work card appeals and its decision to designate three parks for use only by children and their parents.

"I think that, feeling more comfortable and feeling like the mayor now, I'm going to start making a record as far as my votes are concerned," Goodman said.

He said barring teens, elderly and the homeless from the three parks is "utilitarian and probably in the best interest of the community as a whole, but a dangerous practice when you start excluding any group from a public setting."

From his first meeting in June, Goodman has taken exception to the appeal process that brings those arrested or convicted of certain crimes before the council to request a work card after they were denied such a privilege by Metro Police.

Goodman has occasionally voted against the rest of the council on individual work card cases and has at times reverted to criminal defense attorney in his cross-examination of Metro Sgt. Vincent Cannito, who brings the cases before the council.

"The next time the sergeant becomes a little snippety with me, I may ask the marshals to take him out," Goodman said, smiling perhaps at the irony of such a statement, but also acknowledging that he has the power to do just that.

In a recent interview, Goodman also said he would consider whether the city is being served by having both the private sector City Centre Development Corp. and the city's internal staff devoted to redevelopment.

"I think that since the city is ultimately responsible for its future that we have to look very closely to see whether or not the goals are being accomplished," Goodman said when asked if the CCDC is doing a good job.

"I'll make enemies with that," Goodman added. "Do I think they're trying? Yes. Are they succeeding? I haven't seen it."

Brown said Goodman will be a successful mayor because he isn't afraid to say what's on his mind.

"He challenges, he questions, he does not take a standard reply well," Brown said. "That's been a positive."

Even critics like Peck look to Goodman's intellect and background as reason to keep faith for the remainder of his four-year term.

"Maybe the mayor is just a captive to politics as usual, but I'm still hoping he will rise above all that and be the leader I know he can be," Peck said.

Goodman, a Philadelphia native, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and moved to Las Vegas in 1964. He spent three decades crafting one of the most nationally recognized legal careers, in large part, by representing reputed mobsters and celebrities in trouble.

It is that past when coupled with his current job that sends a regular convoy of national and international media to his 10th floor office. He has been the subject of features that aired, or will be broadcast, on "60 Minutes 2," CNN, "Geraldo Rivera" and ABC's "20-20."

Goodman also likes to brag about certain celebrity connections like dining with "my Casino co-star" Robert De Niro at Nobu or sitting ringside with former client Don King.

The press is not always kind when linking Goodman to his former clients or his words. A major article in the New Yorker quoted Goodman as saying he kept something of a hit list to avenge people who tried to stand in his way when he was running for mayor.

"People want me to apologize for my past," Goodman said. "I'm not going to do it. I joke about my past."

But his six months in office have taught Goodman something about that past that he didn't know when working in his marble-floored law office dubbed "The House the Mob Built."

"I didn't realize what kind of a burden I had been carrying for those years," Goodman said. "For 30 years I have been handling tough cases. And when I got rid of it, it was as though I was a bird.

"I had a weight of the world off of me, which I didn't realize was on me until it was off," he added.

Although he admits City Hall doesn't pose the same stress level for him as a courtroom, he said he is struggling to achieve personal goals that he thinks will be his legacy.

In addition to an arena and performing arts center downtown, Goodman said he would like to turn the old Stewart Avenue post office branch into some type of museum and unpave the surrounding parking lot to put up a park.

So far he grades himself with a C or even a D for actual accomplishments, but thinks he deserves an A+ for effort, honesty and integrity.

"We will have professional sports before I'm through," Goodman vowed. "I'm convinced of that because it's right. I think that anything that is pure and right has to be accomplished."

Tempted by his "freedom" both from his law practice and to have a social life with wife, Carolyn, Goodman hints it would be tough to return to his old job when his term is up.

"I could go back to it, but I'd be reburdened," Goodman said. "When I say I'm the happiest mayor in the world, I am, every single day."

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