Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Las Vegas City Council to get three new members, a first in 78 years

Three new representatives will join the Las Vegas City Council on Wednesday. The last time so many new members joined the body was in 1941, said Chief Deputy City Clerk Stacey Campbell.

In Ward 1, former city employee Brian Knudsen will replace three-term former Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian. Former state Assemblywoman Olivia Diaz will assume the seat in Ward 3, previously occupied by two-term former Councilman Bob Coffin. Former state Assemblywoman Victoria Seaman will fill the vacant Ward 2 seat most recently occupied by former one-term Councilman Steve Seroka.

The historic shakeup to the body makes it an exciting time to be on the City Council, said Ward 5 Councilman Cedric Crear, who won his seat in a special election last March. But, Crear added, there will undoubtedly be an adjustment period with so many new representatives on board.

“You don’t know who does what in the building. You don’t know what Operations and Maintenance does. You don’t even know they exist,” he said. “It’s a learning curve just getting the acronyms down.”

Click to enlarge photo

Brian Knudsen, President and CEO of Boys & Girls Club Southern Nevada, on Nov. 5, 2014.

All new council members go through an onboarding process, Crear said, meeting department heads and getting up to speed on the city budget. Even with experience as a member of the city’s Planning Commission, Crear said he learned a lot in the weeks and months after he joined the council.

Like the other two new members of the body, Knudsen has experience working in government, in his case as an employee in the city manager’s office. But he acknowledged that during his first few weeks in office, his focus would be on learning how the city operates.

Click to enlarge photo

Olivia Diaz

Even so, Knudsen has already started working on one of his biggest campaign promises: to bring a children’s hospital to the burgeoning medical district in Ward 1. Last week, he convened a group of local developers to discuss potential opportunities for a children’s hospital, he said.

Knudsen also plans to learn more about the city’s ordinance on short-term rentals, which restricts new short-term rentals to owner-occupied homes only.

“I haven’t been briefed on (city) staff’s perspective, but I held true to what I said on the campaign: We need stricter regulations,” Knudsen said.

Seaman said she has met with the other recently elected officials, current council members and Mayor Carolyn Goodman, and feels “optimistic” about the new city council. Crime and public safety are the first issues she plans to tackle after she is sworn in Wednesday.

Click to enlarge photo

City Council Ward 2 candidate Victoria Seaman celebrates with her husband, John, during an election watch party at her home Tuesday, June 11, 2019.

“I outlined a five-part plan during my campaign and I intend to work hard to put measures in place to help make Ward 2 a safer community,” Seaman wrote in an email.

As a Republican assemblywoman from 2014-16, Seaman worked alongside fellow former Republican Assemblywoman Michele Fiore, who now serves as the Ward 6 councilwoman. Diaz also served in the Assembly during that time, but as a Democrat. Council seats are nonpartisan.

Councilman Stavros Anthony, who, having been elected in 2009, will soon be the most senior member of the council, said he looks forward to working with the new members and to the fresh perspectives they will bring.

“Going from one new person to three is a bigger change, but that’s life,” Anthony said.