Vegas council loses a fearless, dogged critic

By Sam Skolnik

Friday, Dec. 26, 2008 | 2 a.m.

By the time he died, Tom McGowan had accumulated 150 pounds worth of marked-up old Las Vegas City Council agendas in his downtown apartment.

He used them to come up with questions as a reporter would, or like a diligent citizen trying to keep his local government open and honest — which is what he was.

Over the years, McGowan’s presence at council meetings became impossible to miss.

He would wear his trademark suspenders and sit in the front row, and usually more than once per meeting he’d lean on his walker and shuffle a few steps to the podium to be heard.

And heard he was, in his unmistakably deep and tobacco-scratched voice.

McGowan took full advantage of his right to speak to the city’s mayor and council members — often to criticize them for what he believed was their ill-considered municipal stewardship.

McGowan, a retired musician and sometime political candidate, died Dec. 18 at Valley Hospital after suffering cardiac arrest, according to a family member. He was 76.

McGowan studied the council’s agenda in advance and was fearless in his questioning of the council, often taking members to task on a range of issues.

Almost a decade ago, he urged the council not to abdicate to voters the decision on whether to enlarge the council, to make sure there were more opportunities for minority candidates to get elected.

And repeatedly, McGowan implored city leaders to temper their enthusiasm for downtown development and remember the effect it was having on lower-income residents.

“He always did his homework, even if he wasn’t always on point,” said Clark County Commissioner Lawrence Weekly, a former Las Vegas councilman.

Weekly got to know McGowan, a piano player and singer, when he saw him play jazz standards and his own compositions in a trio at the long-gone Alpine Village on Paradise Road.

The two remained friendly, even when earlier this year he ran for Weekly’s commission seat, one of his many, ultimately futile attempts at public office.

“He was just this old man always raising some hell,” Weekly said. “I thought he was extremely impressive. He’ll be missed.”

In a statement, Mayor Oscar Goodman — who trounced McGowan for the mayoralty three times — said he’d miss “the old fella.”

“He spent sleepless nights preparing his critiques of how the city did business,” Goodman said. “Even though at times contentious, his suggestions were constructive and meaningful.”

Goodman was the recipient of some of McGowan’s most pointed comments — for example, when in 2000 McGowan questioned the legality of adding an eighth seat to a local redevelopment board so that Goodman could appoint a former law partner of his to it.

Or when, several years later, McGowan filed a complaint claiming Goodman had prevented him from speaking at a council meeting and that the mayor had a marshal throw him out when he protested. The incident caused the Nevada attorney general’s office to find that Goodman had violated the state’s open meeting law.

According to a 2006 Sun profile, McGowan came to Las Vegas from the East Coast in 1954, after serving in the Navy Air Corps during the Korean War.

After he retired from his music career, McGowan became increasingly concerned about the course of local government.

McGowan is survived by two children and five grandchildren.

In a KNPR radio interview in early 2007, McGowan said that over the years, people from all walks of life had expressed their appreciation for his participation during council meetings.

“When I’m speaking in front of the City Council ... the public is standing there with me,” McGowan said.

“I tell them that. When people come up to me all across the valley and say, ‘thank you for what you’re doing,’ I say, ‘thank you, because you are with me in spirit.’ ”