Water rate vote shows Mulroy at her best
The soon-to-open Smith Center for the Performing Arts is just down the road from the headquarters of the Southern Nevada Water Authority downtown. But on Wednesday, the maestro performance was happening in the government building.
It was there that General Manager Pat Mulroy demonstrated, once again, why she's the best local government manager in all of Nevada, if not anywhere.
On the agenda for the water authority's board: A rate increase to pay for bonds related to the "third straw" project, a massive tunnel that eventually will put an intake at the bottom of Lake Mead.
(Full disclosure: My wife works for a public relations and advertising firm that does work for the water authority.)
This vote saw a little controversy, even as the conservative activist group Americans for Prosperity and the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce raised questions about whether small businesses were being singled out to bear the brunt of the increase.
Using robo-calls, Americans for Prosperity contacted local residents to get them to oppose the increase. The chamber's government affairs chief, Brian McAnallen, complained that some businesses would see increases of 80 percent, while residents would see a small monthly increase of about $5. Instead, he argued, residents should pay a higher fee, about $10 more per month, so businesses wouldn't have to bear the entire burden.
"The third straw is fundamental to the future of Southern Nevada," he said. "But we've got to do this in the right way. We need to make sure everybody has skin in the game."
But Mulroy was unmoved. She advocated the $5-for-residents option, she said, because making recession-plagued residents pay more would be too great a burden, especially for low-income people. (Later, Mulroy said her agency struck 13,000 alternative-payment agreements in 2011 for people who had trouble paying their water bills. That's a record.)
At the hearing, representatives of small business, Realtors and builders said they preferred an option that would charge users based upon how much water they consume; the more one uses, the more one pays. Others asked for a delay in the decision so they could have more time to study the issue.
Finally, activist Ed Uehling, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor last year, rose to accuse Mulroy personally. Before she arrived, rates were low and the water district had no debt. But in the past two decades, he said, the agency has gone deep into debt and rates have risen. Admonished by board Chairwoman Shari Buck to avoid personal attacks, Uehling nonetheless summed: "It's created by lies. It's created by greed and it's created by incompetence."
Of all the many adjectives one could use to describe Mulroy, incompetent is simply not on the list. She immediately demonstrated as much, calmly and methodically detailing the history of the third-straw project, the reason it had to be done, and done now.
In the end, the board voted 7-0 to approve the rate increase, notwithstanding the objections of the business community or the agitations of Americans for Prosperity. And while the vote appeared simple, navigating the politics behind it was not.
Mulroy does it with aplomb, using a combination of history, an unparalleled knowledge of water politics and policy, and a keen eye for maintaining the relationships that are vital between a local government manager and elected officials. Anybody fighting her on an issue needs to come prepared.
After the unanimous vote, Mulroy characteristically refused to gloat. Instead, she said she sympathized with the concerns of the business community. "I think there's a new level of desperation in this town," she said.
Indeed. Just not on Mulroy's part.
Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist and author of the blog SlashPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter (@SteveSebelius) or reach him at (702) 387-5276 or ssebelius@reviewjournal.com.
