Even in junior high school, executive thought her destiny was in politics

From the time she was a member of her junior high student council, Cindy Creighton thought she was destined for a career involving politics.

She met Washoe County District Attorney Bob Rose when he was running for lieutenant governor in 1974. Intrigued by the political process, she joined his campaign.

"Ultimately, he became one of the greatest statesmen of Nevada," Creighton, executive director of Nevada Subcontractors Association, said in her Las Vegas office. "The lesson he taught me is if you want to be doing this in 30 years, remember two things: The truth never changes and no matter what I did, I have to believe it with all my heart."

Creighton served two terms as chairwoman of the Washoe County Democratic Party and was a protege of the late Charlie Waterman, chairman of the Clark County Democratic Party for decades.

"In my young, impressionable years, I can still hear him saying, 'It's just not right,' " she said. "It's all about being bipartisan in Nevada. It's not even six degrees of separation. The advantage of those of us who've grown up here ... your reputation, no matter what part of the state you grew up in, that's still very important in Nevada."

Creighton moved to Reno with her parents as an infant and was educated in the Washoe County public school system, graduating from Wooster High School in 1975.

She moved to Las Vegas in 1996, making the transition from working on political campaigns to working on issues such as construction defect litigation for subcontractors. She was named executive director of the 130-member Nevada Subcontractors Association in 2001.

Question: Why did you take the job with the NSA?

Answer: Because I knew that I had the ability to be a resource to legislators, to bring them up to speed on what subcontractors were dealing with, and for subs, I had the ability to educate them and expand their knowledge of the legislative process. I'm a resource for both sides. I guess not two sides, but all interested parties.

Question: What does your job entail?

Answer: I do everything. I do government relations. I do community relations. I do administrative. I have a membership director and everything else I do, all the newsletters and event planning.

Question: What are some of the issues you're working on?

Answer: As an organization, I'll advocate for construction defect reform. We'll be watching all the bill drafts coming out to see what we have to react to and see how they affect the overall business community, not just construction. There's business taxes, regulations for air quality. Anything with business. What affects one affects us all.

Question: Why have so many disputes arisen between subcontractors and general contractors lately?

Answer: That's commercial. I represent mainly residential subs. I don't represent commercial. It's not a question that applies to me.

Question: Do you ever get caught in the middle of union versus nonunion battles?

Answer: No. I have union and nonunion members. I have residential and commercial members. But this group is not about legislative issues that divide us. We deal with issues that bond us.

Question: How much diversity is there in construction trades?

Answer: It's the second-largest industry in the state. We represent everything from three-people companies to mega-companies with thousands of employees. It encompasses all religions, races and genders. It's diverse in every sense, from financial and monetary to personnel.

Question: How did you get into the construction industry?

Answer: It was the 1995 (Legislature) session that Chapter 40 was enacted to cover the construction defect litigation process. All of a sudden, a company that's been in business for 50 years, stacks of lawsuits were piling up. So this group (NSA) formed in 1999 to find out what was going on and why.

Very few subcontractors know how the legislative process works. They're building Nevada. We needed to figure out some kind of reform that ultimately benefits homeowners with legitimate problems.

Question: So you came up with Senate Bill 241, which gave subcontractors the "right to repair" within a reasonable time after notification of a problem. How has that worked out?

Answer: Even with the revision in 2003, while it presents an avenue to bring the subcontractor and homeowner together first, that's not happening. These things all start in the courtroom with a lawsuit. Ninety-nine percent of the time, the first time a sub hears of a problem, it's when they're notified by the plaintiff's law firm of a defect. Nothing good happens when a case starts in the courtroom.

Why are we bringing in every single subcontractor? Why the caulking subs? Why the company that installed the door knobs?

Legal fees and expert witness fees are guaranteed by statute. Insurance companies settle because when that bill runs up, they don't want to be the last ones standing.

Question: Who do you go to with problems or when you need leadership and guidance?

Answer: My resources are my board of directors. They're diverse, all longtime valley residents. A lot of them started out of the back of their trucks. I have legal counsel and political counsel. I have a great relationship with federal, local and state representatives on both sides, Democrats and Republicans. Those are from decades of nurturing and meeting people. It's somewhat of a Nevada advantage versus a big national company sending in someone from government affairs to lobby the Legislature.

Question: Where do you see the construction industry headed?

Answer: Nevada will continue to be one of the fastest-growing states in the nation. We have open spaces, culture, beautiful climate, entertainment. We have migration from the East Coast. We need to provide affordable housing to our labor forces and people need to feel safe in their homes. We have to make sure we provide infrastructure to our growth. It isn't just construction. It has to be a total state plan, protecting the environment and providing education and leisure services.

The people migrating to Nevada is what brings about growth and housing is an outcome of that growth and you need to provide services to go with that.

Contact reporter Hubble Smith at hsmith@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0491.