Let’s hope June election helps unify City Council

By Bill Erin

Wednesday, April 15, 2009 | 4:37 p.m.

Now that the primary election is over, the battle lines are clearly drawn for the general election June 2. The two candidates remaining for the open council seat, Cam Walker and Bill Smith, quite apparently have differing views on some important Boulder City problems.

With Duncan McCoy, an open supporter of Mayor Roger Tobler, elected in the primary, Walker or Smith will hold the swing vote in what now appears to be a clear 2-2 split on the City Council.

Walker has clearly indicated he would tend toward support of Tobler's views and the direction of the current city staff. Smith, while not directly criticizing Tobler, has been a constant critic of city actions. He has expressed himself on several occasions during public comment sections of City Council meetings and was almost able to derail the sale of the Nevada Highway/Buchanan St. corner lot to CVS.

So it's safe to say that Smith would probably align himself with Council members Linda Strickland and Travis Chandler on most matters, while Walker would side with the Tobler and Duncan views.

Both candidates have active backers who will be going all out during the following month-and-a-half of campaigning to see that their man is elected. To use a favorite cliché of sports announcers, "This one is going right down to the wire."

The forgotten man in this contretemps is Tobler. He has been the man in the middle during the past two years and could be in that same position during the next two years. In my opinion, he has done an excellent job of conducting the council meetings as evenly and fairly as anyone could.

While voting most of the time with council members Andrea Anderson and Mike Pacini, Tobler has made sure that Strickland and Chandler have had equal opportunity to express their opinions and justify their votes. His even-handed chairmanship at trying times deserves an accolade.

The current split among Boulder City voters probably started, or at least was aggravated into open debate, with the construction of the Boulder Creek golf course.

It was brought to a head and the lines firmly drawn during the two ballots asking voters to approve the sale of lots around that course.

From there, other issues that came up, such as the court-denied initiative to sell all of Boulder City and make every voter a millionaire, solidified the lines between factions.

With this election, all council members who had anything to do with the construction of Boulder Creek golf course will be gone. But like the Hatfields and the McCoys, the feud still exists. There is a sizable faction of voters who are still unhappy with the city administration. They have defined controlled growth as nearly no-growth.

Let's hope that with this final turnover on the council, no matter who wins, Tobler will be able to pull the council together so they can work together as a team during these critical times in Boulder City's history. Several candidates have expressed council teamwork as a plank in their platform for election, and there is no doubt this is an important element in solving Boulder City's financial problems.

The current split on the City Council has not only increased the level of animosity among voters, but has had a negative effect on the morale of city staff.

Whatever your feeling, however you vote, base it on facts, not rumors. There will undoubtedly be some misleading charges thrown around. There always are. When in doubt, call or e-mail the candidate. Then you can judge for yourself.

Bill Erin is a Boulder City News columnist.