MINUTES OF THE meeting
of the
ASSEMBLY Committee on Government Affairs
Seventy-Second Session
April 15, 2003
The Committee on Government Affairswas called to order at 9:17 a.m., on Tuesday, April 15, 2003. Chairman Mark Manendo presided in Room 3143 of the Legislative Building, Carson City, Nevada. Exhibit A is the Agenda. Exhibit B is the Guest List. All exhibits are available and on file at the Research Library of the Legislative Counsel Bureau.
Note: These minutes are compiled in the modified verbatim style. Bracketed material indicates language used to clarify and further describe testimony. Actions of the Committee are presented in the traditional legislative style.
COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT:
Mr. Mark Manendo, Chairman
Mr. Wendell P. Williams, Vice Chairman
Mr. Kelvin Atkinson
Mr. Chad Christensen
Mr. Pete Goicoechea
Mr. Tom Grady
Mr. Joe Hardy
Mr. Ron Knecht
Mrs. Ellen Koivisto
Mr. Bob McCleary
Ms. Peggy Pierce
Ms. Valerie Weber
COMMITTEE MEMBERS ABSENT:
Mr. Tom Collins (Excused)
GUEST LEGISLATORS PRESENT:
None
STAFF MEMBERS PRESENT:
Susan Scholley, Committee Policy Analyst
Eileen O'Grady, Committee Counsel
Pat Hughey, Committee Secretary
OTHERS PRESENT:
Stephanie Garcia-Vause, on behalf of the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition
Dan Musgrove, Director, Intergovernmental Relations, Office of the County Manager, Clark County, Nevada
Kimberly J. McDonald, Special Projects Analyst and Lobbyist, City of North Las Vegas
Patrick Smith, Legislative Advocate, Office of Administrative Services, City of Las Vegas
Cory Anderlohr, Citizen
Chairman Manendo:
Committee on Government Affairs, please come to order. Madam Secretary, will you please call the roll? [Roll taken.]
Everyone should have received a letter on the stationery of Assemblyman Jason Geddes [Exhibit C]. This is in regard to Assembly Bill 398 that Mr. Thompson and Mr. Geddes discussed at a meeting last week. We’re going to place this letter in the official record. I wanted everybody to have one so everybody is up to speed.
Our office received a stack of faxes in regard to Senate Bill 236. This bill has to do with halfway houses. It passed out of the Senate 21 to 0. It was sponsored by Senator Titus, and there are quite a few communications. If anybody on the Committee would like to look through these, you are welcome to.
Mr. Williams, are you okay with that letter [Exhibit C]?
Assemblyman Williams:
Yes, Mr. Chairman. This letter makes me smile because I really understood the concerns of Mr. Thompson and Mr. Jeffrey and the position of labor, and also really understood Mr. Geddes’ attempt. It’s one of those things that things happen when great people get together. It’s good.
Chairman Manendo:
Just so the Committee knows and the listening audience understands, our deadline is approaching. Most committees are going to be having light agendas. We have our Floor deadline coming up where bills need to move out of the House, which means that our legal staff is going to be working again, trying to get us through our next deadline to do the people’s work. We’re going to have a bill again tomorrow. Thursday we’re off, and we’re trying to schedule one bill for Friday. If that doesn’t pan out, we’ll take Friday off. I believe we’re going to be doing double Floor Sessions the whole week. Monday and Tuesday will be just like the end of session. For the freshmen who have not seen the process, we could be here all night.
Turning to the agenda. I’ll open the hearing on Senate Bill 79.
Senate Bill 79: Reduces number of required meetings of Board of Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition. (BDR S-455)
Stephanie Garcia-Vause, on behalf of the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition:
I’d be glad to defer to my colleague from Clark County should he so desire, or should you so desire, or even to my colleague from North Las Vegas, or the City of Las Vegas, because we are all members of the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition.
For the record, my name is Stephanie Garcia-Vause, and I’m here today on behalf of the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition, also known as the SNRPC. I’m here to discuss S.B. 79, which is proposing to change their meeting requirements. A member of your Committee was one of our former board members, and that is Assemblyman Hardy. I’m sure he would be able to discuss some of the intricacies of the SNRPC Board, if you have some questions.
The SNRPC Board members and one of the planning directors will be here next Monday to do a presentation for you to discuss what the SNRPC does and who they are. Rather than steal their thunder, I don’t want to give away all of the things that they do, except I will go into a brief overview of who they are.
The SNRPC Board is comprised of elected officials from Clark County, and the cities of Boulder City, Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, and Henderson, and also a representative from the Clark County School District. The Board evolved from the Southern Nevada Strategic Planning Authority that was created during the 1997 Legislative Session. Although the SNSPA had a sunset, the local governments in southern Nevada realized that there was a need to carry on regional planning beyond the sunset of 1999.
[Stephanie Garcia-Vause continued.] Through an interlocal agreement, they initially created the SNRPC and then during the 1999 Legislative Session, the SNRPC was formally created. The bill before you today [S.B. 79] proposes some of their meeting change times. In state statute right now, it requires that the SNRPC Board meet every month.
The SNRPC Board is supported in terms of staff primarily from all of the local jurisdictions giving their staff time on a rotation basis. They are evolving towards having one hired, full-time employee, but at this time, most of their work is either done by the local jurisdictions or through consultants. Sometimes they find themselves waiting on information and having to meet because of the state statute of a monthly basis, and they’re meeting for the sake of meeting, and not necessarily meeting to complete work.
The Board is primarily responsible for creating policy and insuring that all of the local governments and local service providers, such as the water district and flood control district, are all meeting those policies. No entitlements would be held up if they were to go to meetings every other month. The way this reads, they would meet every other month, but the Board intends to meet almost every month, but have the flexibility to skip a month, sometimes during the summer and potentially during the holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas.
S.B. 79 proposes to change the Board’s meeting requirements from that monthly meeting requirement to every other month. This is an option that they would not plan to regularly exercise, but an option that they would like to have.
Assemblyman Williams:
I wanted to know who are the members of the coalition?
Stephanie Garcia-Vause:
The Board is comprised of members from Clark County, the cities of Boulder City, Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, and Henderson, and one representative from the Clark County School District.
Assemblyman Williams:
Did we get verification from all those members that they were in agreement with this legislation?
Stephanie Garcia-Vause:
The Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition is actually the group as a board who submitted this bill draft request, and the Board members were all in agreement. I’d appreciate it if my colleagues from the other jurisdictions could come up and support the bill [S.B. 79].
Assemblyman Williams:
It’s just like when we had the veterans’ bill and a person got up and testified that all the veterans’ groups were in support of it, and in fact, we found out later that they all weren’t. I represent part of North Las Vegas as well as Las Vegas, and several other members of this coalition, and I would like to be assured that they are actually in support.
Dan Musgrove, Director, Intergovernmental Relations, Office of the County Manager, Clark County, Nevada:
[Introduced himself.] I did not sign in, as I did not want to violate the rules of the Committee that Chairman Manendo is so known to impose upon us, but we are in support. As Stephanie Garcia-Vause testified, this bill [S.B. 79] came from the SNRPC. They are allowed to submit to the Legislature one bill draft per session, and so the Board had to take official action to approve this recommendation to the LCB [Legislative Counsel Bureau]. We are in support and ask for your consideration of a “do pass.”
Chairman Manendo:
Mr. Williams, do you want that in writing?
Assemblyman Williams:
From each one of the entities. How many meetings were they having annually and what number are we going to reduce the meetings to?
Dan Musgrove:
They were meeting every month. There is a technical committee that also meets every month, as well as a group of planning directors that meet on behalf of the SNRPC. It is our intention that those two groups will probably continue to meet on a monthly basis. However, depending on the agenda items that need to be brought forth in front of the elected members, they wanted the flexibility to be able to meet at least every other month, although with the consent of the Board, they can call special meetings and meet much beyond that. But, it is our intent to meet when matters arise that are of importance, and just having the flexibility of every other month was something that the Board requested of the Legislature.
Assemblyman Williams:
I represent a very small part of North Las Vegas, and I’d like to ask the representative from North Las Vegas, with the amount of growth that we’re facing in Clark County, do we still think we can handle the people’s business by having fewer meetings as opposed to more meetings? We have more of a population and now we’re going to have fewer meetings. Will our needs still be serviced?
Kimberly J. McDonald, Special Projects Analyst and Lobbyist, City of North Las Vegas:
[Introduced herself.] We wholeheartedly support this legislation for the SNRPC to adjust their meeting schedule. We do believe that with streamlining the meetings and making sure that they are targeted to use effective time management, we can handle the business of the people so that when our elected officials do get together, we have a lengthy, substantive agenda to work on, instead of one that is imposed every month when we may not have as many items to discuss.
Assemblyman Williams:
Before the next representative speaks, I need to disclose that I am an administrative officer with the City of Las Vegas, and this bill [S.B. 79] will not affect me in any way, so his response to my questions won’t be affected by my employment.
Patrick Smith, Legislative Advocate, Office of Administrative Services, City of Las Vegas:
[Introduced himself.] We support the bill [S.B. 79] for all the reasons that have been so eloquently stated previous to me.
Assemblyman Williams:
That takes care of my concerns, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Manendo:
Who represents the City of Las Vegas on the Board?
Patrick Smith:
I believe that’s Mayor Goodman and Councilwoman McDonald.
Assemblyman Williams:
I have other questions, Mr. Chairman, but I’m sure other members of the Committee have questions as well. I don’t want to monopolize any more time.
Assemblyman Goicoechea:
We haven’t heard from Boulder City yet, and I want to make sure we don’t slight them.
Chairman Manendo:
Thank you for those thorough answers.
Assemblywoman Weber:
In coming into this meeting this morning, I wasn’t sure what direction this was going, and I find that the testimony was compelling. I, for one, am comfortable with the decision, and having been lobbied heavily on this yesterday, I think we know where we’re going with this.
Chairman Manendo:
We’re going to close the hearing on Senate Bill 79, bring it back to Committee. For the record, I want to introduce the Committee Manager’s son, Cory Anderlohr, who is visiting us again. He’ll be on the Floor. I have to make a correction to the introduction yesterday on the Floor. Mr. Anderlohr is not a first-degree black belt, he is a second-degree black belt. Mr. Anderlohr, will you come up to the microphone?
Cory Anderlohr, Citizen:
[Introduced himself.] I’m in 8th grade this year. I attend Hyde Park Middle School Academy of Mathematics and Science. I applied for four magnet schools for high school, and I got accepted to all four. I’ve made my decision and I’ve decided I’m going to go to the Advanced Technologies Academy.
Assemblyman Williams:
Please let the record reflect that the Advanced Technologies Academy is located in Assembly District 6.
Chairman Manendo:
Mr. Anderlohr resides in Assembly District 14.
Cory Anderlohr:
Also, I applied for this school to go for the law program, and I’m hoping that it can help me in my future of becoming a lawyer.
Chairman Manendo:
Anything else to come before the Committee? I want to also mention that we have an exceptional team on the Government Affairs Committee and staff, and we are saddened that we are losing one of our members. Rosemary Zienter has applied and was accepted for a position that came a little earlier than she anticipated, so we are losing her as one of our valuable members of our team. I know she’s actually working on minutes. Today is her last day. I was hoping she’d be able to come by here, but on behalf of the Committee, we appreciate her hard work. We’re going to miss her. She is a valuable member of this team. We wish her all the best, but she has promised to come visit and say hello. It’s a big loss to our team, and she’s a wonderful person to work with. We appreciate all her hard work if she’s listening in. We love you and thank you very much for your service to our state.
Assemblyman Williams:
I share that grief, but it reminds me of how bad I felt when I lost a valuable staff person who staffed my Committee last session. She was stolen from my Committee during the interim and I didn’t know anything about it. She was my lead staff person. When I got back this session and came to Government Affairs, I found out who stole her. Susan Scholley.
Chairman Manendo:
Anything else to come before the Committee? Floor Session at 10:30 a.m. We are adjourned. [9:42 a.m.]
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:
Pat Hughey
Committee Secretary
APPROVED BY:
Assemblyman Mark Manendo, Chairman
DATE: