Something odd about not changing dates for municipal elections
A last-ditch effort to change the date of municipal elections (and save $1 million of Clark County’s money every other year) went phooey in the Assembly Elections Committee on Tuesday. And the bill killers won’t tell me why.
If I was up in Carson City, I could stalk them; but I’m not, so they can ignore my Wednesday morning e-mails seeking explanations why they didn’t vote to change municipal elections from odd-numbered years to even numbered years, where they could be combined with state and federal elections.
Assemblyman Tick Segerblom introduced a bill to do just that.
A previous column gives more details: www.lvrj.com/news/42516137.html
Segerblom barely got his bill out of committee the first time and didn’t have the votes to get it out of the full Assembly.
Rather than put it to a full vote of the Assembly in April, he pulled his bill.
But Segerblom made another push and on Tuesday tried to amend his bill into a Senate bill. But that also failed.
So, when the following legislators come to your door next year, ask them why they didn’t see the need to save $1 million every other year, especially when there are far better ways to spend that money than in low-turnout municipal elections.
The ones who voted against it were all from Clark County: Democratic Assemblymen William Horne, Harvey Munford and Marcus Conkin and Republican Assemblyman John Hambrick.
To get out of committee, it needed seven votes, and it only got six. The supporters were Segerblom, committee chairwoman Ellen Koivisto, James Ohrenschall, Ruben Kihuen, and Harry Mortenson, all Democrats from Clark County, and Ty Cobb, a Washoe County Republican.
Being of a suspicious nature, I wondered if some of the political consultants who helped elect the Frivolous Foursome might have whispered in their ears that this is a bad idea because they need the income in odd-numbered years.
So I looked to see who their consultants were in the 2008 election.
Horne’s consultant is Gray & Associates.
Conklin listed Christine Dugan and Paladin Advertising.
Hambrick listed Christine Dugan and Nathan Emens.
Munford apparently lacks the skills to read. He failed to identify his consultants, or anyone else he paid in his 2008 election, just generalizing he paid consultants and others.
Fortunately, Munford is not on Ways and Means and doesn’t have to deal with Nevada’s budget.
But Conklin is on Ways and Means; and while the $1 million every other year wasted is Clark County dollars and not state dollars, it’s still your dollars.
When did $1 million become so paltry?