Quick and Dirty: a notebook of news and politics

Taken to task

Not surprisingly, Clark County's new Growth Task Force--a 17-person powerhouse composed of executives, professors, lobbyists, developers and concerned citizens--stumbled out of the gates during its inaugural meeting Tuesday at the Winchester Community Center. In fact, the only moment of genuine enthusiasm may have come when Chairman Pat Goodall took a cue from John F. Kennedy and called the group the finest assembly of talent since "Thomas Jefferson dined alone"--a sentiment that seemed ironic given the committee's lack of passion for the day's activities.

After roundtable introductions, the group slogged through 90 minutes of policies and procedures, including detailed analysis of the five different levels of agreement. Presumably, all this bureaucratic rigamarole was necessary to remain faithful to the task force's adherence to the open meeting law, but by the end, more than half the people in the audience had left.

And when the task force finally did get around to talking about growth issues, the prospects for positive change looked relatively bleak. Noting Las Vegas' dwindling water resources, declining air quality, lack of adequate public services and the city's economic dependence on development, the committee proposed four general areas of concentration: urban containment, conservation, facility adequacy and organizational cooperation. All of these, indicated one of the task force's many overhead projections, add up to successfully managed growth--or, in accordance with the buzzword of the day, "livability."

But the most discouraging statistics were offered by Assistant County Manager Rick Holmes, who noted that the city's population growth has yet to plateau as has been predicted for the past 10 years. He further observed that even though housing costs have increased dramatically, the median income for Las Vegans has remained the same since 1995. The likely consequence, says Holmes, is increasing residential density--which depending on the implementation, could be either good or bad.

Still, most of the task force seemed optimistic--particularly Goodall, who looks like he will be a competent leader throughout the upcoming nine months "It's going to be difficult to sort out all of the information," says Goodall. "But I think we can chip away at the issues and come up with reasonable solutions to some of our most pressing growth problems."

That, of course, will hinge on whether the committee members can find reasonable compromises. Unfortunately, with six people representing gaming, development and labor, it seems like the environmental (2) and health/social services (2) concerns might be shouted down. In the end, it may very well come down to the analysts and academics, who carry three important votes. Hopefully, they'll make their voices heard a little louder at the coming task force meetings.--NB

Let there be light

Bashing Nevada Power Co. is shaping up to be a summer hobby in Las Vegas, right alongside swimming in your neighbor's pool and recreational sweating. Sure, the company has its problems, but you have to give credit where credit is due: At least it's doing something for downtown and its monthly arts event, First Friday. In cooperation with the Las Vegas Arts District Neighborhood Assocation, Nevada Power has converted 28 old-style, wooden power poles to accommodate lights to help brighten up the neighborhood.

The upshot: This is one project whose costs won't, for once, be passed on to customers. In fact, the Las Vegas Arts District Neighborhood Association raised the money--about $10,500--to fund the lights for three years. After the three years are up, they have the option to renew the contract.

"Light means safety," says Anne Kellogg, one of the arts district residents who led the effort. "I think people will really notice the difference when they're walking, parking and doing First Friday things." The lights should be up and running by early May; already the arts district is looking for raise money for at least 30 more lights.--AK

Serving justice

Even the most casual political observer has to wonder if it's a good idea for Nevada Supreme Court justices to ask for and receive campaign contributions. Isn't it a problem when those making the donations end up before the court?

Well, yes. And the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada and Common Cause of Nevada, which are much more than casual observers, want to change this conflict-laden dynamic.

"We have to change the way we elect judges," says PLAN state director Bob Fulkerson. "Our current system puts judges in the terrible position of soliciting campaign funds from the very same people and corporations who later appear before them. Can a judge really be fair in this situation?"

PLAN's answer: publicly financed Supreme Court elections. "This can be done relatively cheaply," Fulkerson submits. "Easily under a million dollars an election cycle." Two ways to pay for this: have attorneys pay a voluntary $50 fee on their annual license renewal and pay a small fee for each lawsuit filed.

Considering that the seven Nevada Supreme Court justices since 1998 raised $1.5 million to win their seats, it does seem like a bargain. PLAN and Common Cause examined those contributions and found that eight of the 10 largest individual campaign donors had cases before the Supreme Court. "When a sizeable amount of the money contributed to the campaigns of the sitting justices comes from those who have litigation pending before them, then a reasonable person would conclude there's a conflict of interest," says Common Cause of Nevada Chairman Jim Hulse.

In addition to publicly financing Supreme Court campaigns, the advocacy groups want to outlaw bundling, or the grouping of contributions by one corporation or organization through its subsidiaries; lower the maximum contribution limit from $5,000 to $1,000 per election; and establish a committee to examine the funding of judicial campaigns and recommend legislation to reform the system.--GS

Say a prayer

This is kind of creepy. Six poor, starving members of Congress share digs in a Washington, D.C., townhouse paid for by a shadowy religious organization, according to an article published in the April 20, 2003, edition of The Tennessean. The name of the religious organization is called The Fellowship (make sure you say it with Darth Vader-like menace), and among the six legislators who call the place home is Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev. As the article tells it, the million-dollar townhouse is owned by a sister organization of the group; the six congressman pay a nifty $600 each to live there. While Fellowship officials denied it violates any principle of separatation of church and state, at least one watchdog group contacted by the Mercury finds the arrangement unsettling.

"It's a pecular mix of politics and religion that's very disturbing to a lot of us," says the Rev. Barry Lynn, a minister with the United Church of Christ and executive director of watchdog group Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. Lynn wonders whether the arrangement is such that the religious group is essentially paying for access. The fact that the Fellowship keeps its agenda secret doesn't help. "What is the agenda of the group? Do they have an interest in things like anti-abortion, anti-gay legislation? If so, do they expect that the folks living that house are going to follow the agenda?

"When you add secrecy to the mix of politics and religion, you have an even deeper well," Lynn continues. "It's not a strict church-state separation case, but it does raise all kinds of ethical questions that I think these members ought to be forthright in answering."

Amen! Ensign did not return phone calls.--AK

A feel for Neal

After a 32-year career in the Nevada Legislature, Sen. Joe Neal announced his retirement last week. Then he casually mentioned he was thinking about running against Yvonne Atkinson Gates for her County Commission seat. Now that he's had a week to think about it, he has the official answer: He's still thinking about it.

"I'm still taking a look at it," says Neal, 68. "I don't want to deal with suppositions. I might run. I might not. I haven't decided yet."

But he will say that quite a few factors contributed to his decision to bow out of the Legislature; one, his age, and two, the unprecedented rancor of the infamous 2003 session. What burned him was "the fact that people had developed ideas based on ideology and had nothing to do with people," he says. "When you get a group of people fighting against money to educate children, something has gone drastically wrong with the process."

He downplays his retirement having anything to do with the changes in his own Senate District 4; some political observers say as his district has changed from primarily African-American to white, Neal's grip on it has loosened. They point to his 2000 race against gaming-backed Uri Clinton as an example. Neal says a 2001 redistricting didn't help, either.

But whether or not he runs for County Commission District D, some in the gaming industry--which Neal for years has advocated taxing more heavily--are already nervous, Neal says, even though only the Legislature can raise gaming taxes.

"A gentleman from one of the hotels, the way he put it, was, 'Joe, you spent constructive time in the Legislature, you got some good press, why spoil it by running and losing?' They're saying, 'Please don't get in the race.' While you can't tax gaming [on the County Commission], you can encourage your commission to support a gaming tax increase by a resolution or something like that. And that would have a hell of an impression on the Legislature. No, I wouldn't think gaming would want some independent thinker on the commission."

And now that he thinks about it: "That commission district is tailor-made for a person like me. It took up a lot of the people I lost."--AK

Shirts for Jesus

Over the course of a year, local man Don Bazzu went from being a businessman to being homeless to being a businessman again. The first time around, he was a comic book publisher in Oakland; now his second stint as an entrepreneur entails selling slogan T-shirts and other novelties in Vegas. The difference this time around? Jesus.

Bazzu's recently opened venture, Inspirational Merchandise and Entertainment Company, hawks "Jesus Loves Las Vegas" T-shirts at a table set up on St. Louis Avenue just west of Maryland Parkway. Call it commercialism meets Christ; the entrepreneurial verve that Bazzu and partners Tony Wilt and Lenworth Smith bring to the venture comes from the fact that they were all, once upon a time, homeless, and that they all came into the same religious convictions.

But who's gonna buy a "Jesus Loves Las Vegas" T-shirt? Everybody already is, Bazzu says. He says he's hammering out a deal with a major souvenir company in town, which is even interested in making "Jesus Loves Las Vegas" keychains, coffee mugs, the works. "The shirt's a big hit. It's controversial, and people have never seen anything like it before. And as far as our life is a testament, Jesus does love Las Vegas."--AK

Literature lassos awards

Nevada has done well for itself at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum's Wrangler Awards for Literary Achievement. The 2003 Outstanding Nonfiction Book award winner is Sally Denton's American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, September 1857, published by Knopf and written by a Nevada native who also was the co-author of The Money and the Power: The Making of Las Vegas and Its Hold on America, 1947-2000. The Western Heritage Award citation called the book "the vivid account of an attack on a wagon train laden with gold as it passed through Utah. Approximately 140 people were slaughtered; only 17 children under the age of eight were spared. This incident in an open field called Mountain Meadows has ever since been the focus of passionate debate: Is it possible that official Mormon dignitaries were responsible for the massacre? Denton, herself of Mormon descent, makes a convincing argument that they were."

Meanwhile, Harm: Poems won the 2003 Outstanding Poetry Book award for Miles Wilson, an English professor at Texas State University-San Marcos and former U.S. Forest Service firefighter, and his publisher: the University of Nevada Press. The awards--the winner gets a beautiful bronze of a cowboy on his horse--will be given at the annual awards banquet April 17 in Oklahoma City.--MG