As Gov.-elect Jim Gibbons left the Clark County Government Center Tuesday night, the former fighter pilot was on a natural high.

"This is why people elect us to office; this is what it's all about," he said, his smile growing wide enough to show his upper and lower molars. "People want solutions; people want us to work together. And that's what we did. I'm telling you: That's what we did."

Gibbons, along with Assembly Speaker-elect Barbara Buckley, Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, managed to persuade Valley Health System Group Director David Bussone and his legal counsel, Rick Albert, that negotiations should go forward amid the labor strife that has seen 800 nurses locked out of Valley and Desert Springs hospitals.

Late Tuesday, the union for the nurses accepted terms of the cooling-off period. Nurses will return to work Saturday morning as negotiations on a new contract are worked out.

Since his election in November, Gibbons, 62, had largely been absent from public view, far more quiet than his defeated rival, Democratic state Sen. Dina Titus.

But Tuesday, the man who overcame three separate scandals to win the state's highest office was almost talkative enough to host "American Idol."

"I fully expect both sides to work in good faith to get this agreement done," Gibbons said after the 41/2-hour marathon meeting with Valley Health System officials in a government center conference room. "I'm very optimistic. Health care is just too important to this community to have this last any longer.

"Anything else you want to ask me about this?"

Buckley, who along with Democratic Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie of Reno promises to keep health care issues on the front burner during the upcoming legislative session, was impressed with Gibbons.

"The governor made it very clear that they (the Valley Health System) had a public relations problem, and it was not responding appropriately to resolve the problem," said Buckley, who is expected to often be at odds with Gibbons on legislative issues. "I thought the governor conducted himself very well in negotiations with all sides. We got along very well together. Hopefully, this is a harbinger of things to come."

Bussone, too, was impressed with the governor-elect.

"I found him statesmanlike," said Bussone, who said there "was some intensity involved" in the "civil discussions."

Bussone and Albert frequently had to leave the room as the political leaders called the nurses union with the latest proposed solution that public officials had hammered out with Valley officials.

"I bet we had to leave the room at least five times," Bussone said.

Buckley's cell phone was used for the calls to the union. "My cell phone is about dead," she said after the bargaining session.

No one really knows, of course, if a long, labor-management conflict has been resolved.

But Gibbons, his heavily starched white shirt still unwrinkled after a long day, seemed sure of what's going to happen.

"People are going to do what's good for the community," he said, before getting into an SUV. "I can see that."