Mayor sees progress in Las Vegas during 12 years in office

Oscar Goodman's term as mayor of Las Vegas is coming to a close, but don't even think about suggesting that he's done.

"Don't write my obituary yet," he said earlier this month as he sat to down to discuss his time in office and the homestretch before he has to step aside for a successor. "I plan to have the next six, seven months (be) very active."

As mayor, Goodman has become a Las Vegas brand, with his gin martinis and a showgirl on each arm and a colorful past as lawyer to the wiseguys.

In 12 years in office, though, he has focused on perhaps the most hard-core of civic undertakings, revitalizing the city's core, which suffered neglect while the Strip and the suburbs were booming.

It started with a gamble on a 61-acre former rail yard downtown that now is known as Symphony Park, home to the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health and the future Smith Center for the Performing Arts.

Other projects followed, including a new bar/entertainment district called Fremont East, high-rise condominiums, upgrades to Fremont Street hotels, a new City Hall and, most recently, the announcements that online retailer Zappos is moving its corporate headquarters downtown, and work is finally beginning on the long-shuttered Lady Luck hotel-casino.

Goodman's dreams of a sports arena downtown continue to be frustrated, though negotiations continue.

His tenure included a period of explosive growth that slammed to a stop when the recession hit, decimating jobs and real estate and forcing the city to re-evaluate everything from the scope of future development to employee compensation.

Characteristically, he projected an upbeat attitude throughout and is looking forward to life after the mayor's office.

Review-Journal: What are some of the things you'd like to see wrapped up?

GOODMAN: I'd like to put (medical tourism) in place because I believe that's an ideal way to start diversifying our economy. The seeds are planted with the Nevada Cancer Institute and with the Ruvo Cleveland Clinic Brain Center, and we are in serious negotiations with the Cleveland Clinic to take additional parcels over at Symphony Park.

I hope that we get the arena, at least to the position that we know where the funding's going to be.

Keep on working with Zappos to make sure that their presence will be the wonder­ful presence that I believe it will be in the downtown.

And at our last convention authority meeting, there was a push to expand our international trade. .. That's something I'd like to do as "the brand," so to speak.

R-J: You've been in office since 1999. How has Las Vegas changed?

GOODMAN: I think the downtown has changed. When I first took over, I had never been involved in politics here. I thought everything was great. ... The day I became the mayor, same eyeglasses, but it looked different. I saw, really, a state of decay.

We've really made a difference in the downtown more than anything else. I think the smartest thing I ever did was not bite off more than I could chew. I said that I really want to revitalize the downtown through my efforts. Basically, in large part the seeds are planted and I'm seeing the fruit, actually, of the hard work.

R-J: The Zappos and the Lady Luck announcements -- people are really excited about those. At the same time, Assembly Speaker-elect John Oceguera came to the City Council meeting and presented very gloomy statistics about the state. How do you reconcile those?

GOODMAN: We're living it. They're about to experience it. We're living our success right now. But our success was planted over the last 10 years. It's not something that just popped up.

The state, the way it's set up, they can't address things the way we can. We can move with the punches. Up at the state, they address these problems every two years, and they're not able to move with the punches. When they have two bad years like they've had, they're going to have to come up with some very radical changes in the way they do business.

R-J: What do you know now about being the mayor of a city like Las Vegas that you didn't know when you first ran for office?

GOODMAN: I learned everything after I ran for office and became the mayor because I didn't know anything about being a mayor. I thought I'd be like Old Man Daley or Boss Tweed and be able to take a big stick and knock people over the head and get things done. It didn't work that way. Every success that we've had is the result of the city working very closely with the private sector.

R-J: Would that be your advice to the next mayor? What other advice would you have?

GOODMAN: One of the things I've tried to do, to the best of my ability, I've tried to be as honest as I can. I've tried to be transparent, and I've tried to be accessible.

I'm one of seven votes and it's by force of personality that I've been able to accomplish anything. The new mayor had better realize that.

Whoever's going to be the next mayor, they can get off to a running start and not have to go through the learning period that I went through. They must partner with public/private partnerships or else nothing will happen around here.

R-J: What options or plans do you have?

GOODMAN: I'm keeping all my options open. I'd like to make a lot of money. I was critical of myself when I said the mayor's job only paid $48,000 when I ran for mayor. It was relative to what I was making as a lawyer. But $48,000 to a teacher is a lot of money.

I haven't deprived my family of anything, thank goodness, as a result of being the mayor for 12 years, but I'd like to leave a little bit to my grandchildren that I would've been able to leave had I not done public service.

R-J: Can you at least throw out some of the options that you're considering?

GOODMAN: There's a very interesting TV series I've been approached on. It would be a fictional show … about a mayor, but I would not be playing the mayor in it. There's another movie, a script that I have, that I think would be a blockbuster movie (about a former client) and it would have all the elements of "Casino," and "Goodfellas," and what's the one with the Cuban drug dealer in Miami? "Scarface."

I've had some law firms approach me and talk to me about being a rainmaker. I've had some consultants approach me, try to get me into a consulting business.

There's a discussion about me perhaps being the ambassador on behalf of Las Vegas and the convention authority. ... If I were doing that, I would also like to be involved with the (Nevada Development Authority) and not only talk about bringing in tourism but also bringing in new business.

R-J: One of the other significant occurrences of the last few years is the negotiations with employees. What's going to be the future of the city's finances and work force?

GOODMAN: I think times have changed. I think now there has to be a parity between the private sector and the public sector. I don't see any reason why the (public) sector has to pay more to attract, because it's pretty nice working in the public sector.

The story has never been told, but basically I was asked by upper management whether or not I would be willing and able to withstand the wrath of public employees by taking a hard line. Even though we didn't achieve what we set out to achieve ... I think we got about 70 percent of that. That's remarkable. There have been rollbacks where people have given up salaries, given up benefits.

R-J: You were able to do that in your last term when you didn't have to worry about facing re-election.

GOODMAN: I never had to be the mayor. I love being the mayor. But I had a life before I was the mayor.

I did this really because -- and it sounds trite, cliché-ish, but it's the truth and I can't help the truth -- I did it because this town has been so good to me.

I never thought I would be more than a one-term mayor. I didn't think I would like it as much. Being perfectly frank, no other mayor in the world is treated the way I am. … When I go out and I go about, I am treated like a king.

Do I deserve it? No.

Do I enjoy it? Absolutely.

Am I going to miss it?

You bet.

Contact reporter Alan Choate at
achoate@reviewjournal.com or 702-229-6435.