Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

WARD 1: Moncrief foes turn in signatures

City Clerk's office receives recall petitions; possible opponent emerges

Janet Moncrief The City Council member is accused of violating campaign laws Deputy City Clerk Beverly Bridges examines recall petitions submitted Tuesday. Photo by RONDA CHURCHILL/REVIEW-JOURNAL The City Clerk's office received signatures Tuesday for the recall of first-term Las Vegas City Councilwoman Janet Moncrief. The Committee to Recall Janet Moncrief got 2,660 signatures, said Billy Rogers of Southwest Strategies consulting firm. Photo by RONDA CHURCHILL/REVIEW-JOURNAL

Opponents of Las Vegas City Councilwoman Janet Moncrief on Tuesday submitted signatures they said are sufficient to force a recall election to replace the freshman official, indicted in August on charges of violating campaign laws.

"There was a strong level of support for the recall," said Billy Rogers of Southwest Strategies consulting firm, which orchestrated the recall campaign. "It's clear the voters of Ward 1 are ready to remove her."

After the recall petitions were submitted to the City Clerk's office, Vicki Quinn, a friend of former Councilman Michael McDonald, said she plans to run because Ward 1 has not been well-represented since Moncrief defeated McDonald in June 2003.

Quinn, whose husband, Stephen Quinn, was McDonald's appointee on the city's Planning Commission, said she wants to protect the ward from unwanted development and prevent strip clubs and other adult businesses from taking root in its neighborhoods.

"The recall group asked Michael McDonald to be their candidate, and Michael McDonald said `no,' " Quinn said. "Our ward has suffered since he left this seat, and I hope I can do as good of a job as Michael did in representing the ward."

Moncrief said Tuesday that the fact she was indicted on what she called small-time campaign fraud allegations was used by recall supporters to make her look bad. Voters, she said, would not have signed the recall petition if they had understood the indictment.

Moncrief in September pleaded innocent to charges that she concealed campaign contributions and expenditures during her 2003 bid for office and that she lied in reports filed with the state.

She said her attorney plans to file a motion to have the charges dismissed as early as next month.

"I just hope they (voters) look at what I was indicted on. I didn't take any bribes or money," Moncrief said. "Maybe some people were misguided about what I was indicted on. I didn't do anything wrong, and I am hoping my case will be dismissed before this (recall) election."

The Committee to Recall Janet Moncrief needed to collect 2,106 signatures to force a recall election.

The group got 2,660 signatures and has verified that 95 percent of them are from registered voters as the law requires, Rogers said.

Lee Wayne Haynes, leader of another group seeking to recall Moncrief, said his workers in recent weeks had stopped circulating their own petitions and helped Southwest in collecting signatures.

Haynes' Ward 1 Cleanup Team started its recall effort in early September, a day after the Committee to Recall Janet Moncrief filed paperwork to start circulating recall petitions.

The Ward 1 Cleanup Team, which is about 300 signatures short of the number required to force a recall vote, will focus on supporting Quinn's candidacy to replace Moncrief, Haynes said.

"It looks like she (Quinn) will be the candidate we'll be attempting to get in," he said.

The Clark County Election Department has 11 business days to count and verify the petition signatures, City Clerk Roni Ronemus said.

State election officials then have 12 days to notify her on whether a recall election should be held, she said.

Ronemus declined to say when the election would be held, but Rogers and Moncrief said it might be held as early as January.

The Committee to Recall Janet Moncrief includes members of the Neighborhood Alliance, a homeowners group that lost a zoning fight last year before the City Council to keep developer Irwin Molasky from building a Social Security building on Buffalo Drive.

Moncrief voted against the zoning change, but the group also was critical of billboards rising along Charleston Boulevard and several other zoning matters approved in the area since the councilwoman was elected.

With Moncrief facing a five-count felony indictment accusing her of breaking campaign laws, the group thinks she will be too distracted with the case to serve on the council, Rogers said.

Moncrief defeated incumbent Councilman Michael McDonald, who suffered scandals during his two terms.

In the campaign, McDonald revealed he was a paid consultant to Michael Galardi, the strip club owner at the center of a federal political corruption investigation into former elected officials who are accused of receiving gifts or money from Galardi for political favors.

To have Moncrief indicted on campaign fraud charges was just too much for Ward 1 voters frustrated with elected officials who are too distracted with their own legal problems to do their job, Rogers said.

"People are just tired of it. You look at what has gone on in this community over the past 18 months, and people are just sick of it. They are sick of seeing their elected officials indicted," Rogers said.

Rogers said committee members tried to poll voters on how they felt about Moncrief.

He said that 57 percent of voters supported the recall and that 23 percent opposed it, while the rest were undecided.

"When only 23 percent say they don't support the recall, it's pretty indicative of how voters feel. They think it's time for a change," Rogers said.