Appeasing voters, one ordinance at a time

Las Vegas City Council members have always seemed a bit more like Chicago aldermen.

And no matter who gets elected -- whether it's a former pro baseball or football player, an ex-beauty queen, a barber, a cop, a union electrician or a criminal defense attorney -- the council is still all about ward heeling.

In just about any other city, City Attorney Brad Jerbic's record of legal counsel would have been rewarded with a pink slip. But in Las Vegas, each voter is awarded keys to the city -- not the type Mayor Oscar Goodman oft claims will open slot machines, but real access to staff attorneys who draft broad ordinances generally aimed at improving the quality of life in neighborhoods.

With the council's blessing, the city attorney's office has embarked on dubious legal jihads against your constitutional rights to assemble and to speak. And the courts have said no. Not once or twice. Every time.

The city's record in these cases makes the Tampa Bay Devil Rays seem like World Series contenders.

In Las Vegas, centrally located Ward 1 has helped generate many of these ill-advised schemes. The latest would duplicate what is already in city code with an ordinance making it a crime to rent your home out for a week. A few complaints from voters led to this proposal.

It's amazing how easy it is to get the city to pass an ordinance to settle your beef with a neighbor. If you don't like homeless people in the park, presto, it's illegal to hand out free food. You're sick of loud music from a neighbor and ask the city for help. Voila, the city calls it an "unruly gathering" punishable with a fine and jail time.

The latest example is the so-called "party house" ordinance, which would make it illegal to rent your house for less than 31 days.

This "ward heeling" mentality continues unabated at City Hall because each of the six council members (the mayor runs citywide and is less guilty of this) is elected by fewer than 3,100 voters.

Lois Tarkanian, the current queen of useless ordinances, unseated the incumbent Ward 1 councilwoman in 2005 with just 2,869 votes. Steve Wolfson, a co-sponsor of the most recent garbage, won his seat by getting 1,380 voters to pick him for Ward 2.

The ordinance Tarkanian and Wolfson have been working on would put an end to short-term vacation rentals in an effort to stop absentee landlords from disturbing the sanctity of a neighborhood.

It is already against city code to rent your home out for a short period of time. But as we've seen, the city (despite its burgeoning force of marshals) is unable to enforce its code. So the council asks the lawyers to do something to ameliorate a handful of residents who are noisier, it seems, than the party houses next door.

The county has a similar ordinance on the books. Roughly six party purveyors have been prosecuted since the law took effect in 1998. That's not even one a year that would be classified as a major case. The rest just provide full employment for the county's Public Response Office.

Once again, the city should enforce what's on its books and stop treading on the rights of its homeowners.

Protection money

This morning the Legislature's Interim Finance Committee will consider doling out $37,000, ostensibly to protect first lady Dawn Gibbons when she accompanies her husband on all of his out-of-state travel on behalf of the National Governor's Association.

The governor's budget analyst is requesting the increase in "dignitary protection" because Gibbons is "co-lead on Homeland Security" for the NGA and will be attending numerous conventions this year.

Gibbons has already traveled to the Mexican border (which doesn't touch Nevada) and to meetings in Long Beach and Sacramento, Calif. There are four other "anticipated" trips for Gibbons, the first lady and two Department of Public Safety officers.

The good taxpayers of Nevada don't mind when the Legislature dips into its contingency funds to pay for stuff that happens when lawmakers aren't in session. The biggest request on today's agenda is for $3.3 million to offset the costs associated with wildfires.

In terms of the fiscal impact, the request is more along the lines of money sought to deal with "bear nuisance" complaints rather than a multimillion-dollar fire response. But it adds up -- even if the justification for the travel doesn't.

The governor's budget analyst, Jim Rodriguez, wrote a memo stating the governor's highfalutin' duties with NGA are the cause of the need for more cash.

"If this work program is not approved, the Dignitary Protection Detail will be unable to adequately provide security to the Governor and First Lady while performing duties for the good of the state," Rodriguez wrote.

But the first couple isn't just traveling for NGA. There's another conference in Hawaii next month and numerous Republican Governors Association meetings as well.

It seems the governor and first lady are confusing party security with the homeland type.

Erin Neff's column runs Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. She can be reached at (702) 387-2906, or by e-mail at eneff@reviewjournal.com.