Nevada’s first Black mayor wants to push NLV forward

Councilwoman Pamela Goynes-Brown flashed a wide smile at passers-by as she strode through City Hall’s corridors this week, hours before her soon-to-be predecessor led his last regular meeting as North Las Vegas mayor.

The 60-year-old lawmaker — first elected to the council in 2011 after serving for decades as an educator — said Wednesday that she was experiencing a whirlwind of emotions since her recent lopsided election to win the mayor’s seat.

“It’s still surreal,” she said in an interview. “This is a big deal.”

And historically, it was a momentous occasion.

When Goynes-Brown takes over on Dec. 1, she will become the first Black mayor in Nevada’s history. (A ceremonial swearing-in will take place at the city’s Dec. 7 council meeting.)

She defeated Nev. Sen. Pat Spearman, D-North Las Vegas, who also is a Black woman. Getting 65.7 percent of the vote, Goynes-Brown will replace Mayor John Lee, who forfeited re-election in a failed bid to become governor.

“To say, ‘why did it take so long,’” she said. “I can sit there and argue that forever, but it doesn’t matter because it’s happening now. Now it’s just about pushing forward.”

That also means inspiring children who share her skin color, who now can say, “Wow, if she could do this, I can.”

Goynes-Brown knows she only has one four-year term to cement her legacy as a lawmaker. State law says no one can be elected to a local governing body who has already served 12 years, and Goynes Brown was elected right before her third term came to a close. Because of that quirk of the calendar, she will end up serving longer.

Her tenure will, in some ways, be a continuation of the work she’s already doing, with a bit of a learning curve. “We all have a vision that we’ve worked on really hard the last few years,” she said.

And it will also “give me time to put that final stamp of approval on projects that we already had in the books,” she said. “The faster we move, the quicker we can get shovels in the ground, and buildings will go vertical.”

When she was first elected, Goynes-Brown — who also made history as the first Black woman elected to her council position — helped steer the city from a financial crisis that nearly led to a state takeover.

North Las Vegas will be a “fiscal champion,” she said, adding that she would work to avoid experiencing those “dire times” again, when people had expected the city to fail.

“That was just not an option for this current mayor and council, and it is still not an option today when I take over,” she said. “We are pushing North Las Vegas forward.”

She’s seen the city grow and has been part of the council that’s pushed development at the Apex Industrial Park and the revitalization of downtown.

Last month, the city broke ground at a 135-acre site, Helios, that will serve as a medical hub, with officials promising the creation of thousands of jobs and a financial infusion of billions of dollars in the next decade.

She said that while the council works well together, she would also embolden all city staffers to provide input.

During the campaign, she was criticized for siding with the North Las Vegas clerk, who on legal grounds rejected a rent control ballot petition sponsored by the Culinary Workers Union Local 226, which then endorsed and campaigned for Spearman, who called affordable housing her top priority.

Clerk Jackie Rodgers said the union did not gather enough valid signatures, and Goynes-Brown argued that the vote was not against the merit of rent control, which she supports. However, she said, “many questions” remain as to how the measure would work. She said the issue has to be addressed regionally, but that it would also be a top priority for her administration.

In the meantime, Goynes-Brown said she would champion “increasing the blueprint to attract more affordable housing developers to come to the city.”

Goynes-Brown has witnessed North Las Vegas’ growth since she was a young child, and again reflected on becoming its first Black mayor, surely a point of pride for her parents who are now ages 89 and 93.

“Just to be part of a first is just, ‘wow, who would have ever imagined,’” she said. “And I’m just ever grateful for the people who put their faith and trust in me, in my leadership skills.”

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @rickytwrites.