$45 to see the mayor? State of the city fees draw criticism

If you want to be in the room as your mayor lays out his vision for the city’s future, get out your credit card — at least if you live in Henderson or North Las Vegas.

As usual, their mayors will deliver State of the City addresses this week before paying crowds at chamber of commerce luncheons. Tickets are $45 in Henderson and $40 in North Las Vegas.

The cost drew criticism from advocacy groups, who say it’s wrong to charge money for what should be a public event.

“No paywall should exist between public officials and the people who put them in those offices,” said Tod Story, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada.

And Laura Martin, a spokeswoman for the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, said holding the speeches before chambers of commerce reflects elected officials’ cozy relationship with business interests.

“Nevada kind of puts off the idea that businesses come before everything,” she said. “Businesses are more important than the actual people who live here.”

North Las Vegas’ flier for its State of the City is headlined “Taking Care of Business” and topped by a logo of a handshake.

Other local cities don’t charge to watch the state of the city in person. Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman delivered hers Jan. 8 during a free public event in City Hall. Boulder City Mayor Roger Tobler’s speech Thursday at a golf club also was free and public.

“Having the State of the City address in the evening for free has always been something that has worked well for us,” Goodman said in a statement. “We have this beautiful City Hall, and I feel like the public should be able to attend and visit what is really the people’s building.”

‘NETWORKING’ EVENTS

North Las Vegas Councilman Isaac Barron said it’s easy for Las Vegas to hold its yearly address at City Hall and just expect a good crowd, while his smaller city must work harder to stand out.

“At this time last year we didn’t even know if we were going to have a city by the middle of the year,” Barron said. “Las Vegas, of course, it has not just a national brand, but an international brand. They don’t have to advertise. They’re Las Vegas.”

Staff and elected officials in North Las Vegas and Henderson said they had never heard any criticism of the luncheons, which have been held for years.

They said anyone who wants to see the speeches for free can, since Henderson streams it online and North Las Vegas shows it on local cable. Henderson also will show the speech live on screens in City Hall.

North Las Vegas’ event will be Tuesday at Texas Station, while Henderson’s will be Thursday at Green Valley Ranch Resort Grand Events Center.

In previous years, North Las Vegas has had gallery seating for the public that was free, though unadvertised, said Kathi Thomas-Gibson, a former manager of community outreach for North Las Vegas who was with the city for about six years.

Thomas-Gibson said she used to do crowd control for the addresses and said she thinks a lot of people didn’t realize there were “free seats” because the area of 50 to 100 seats was also where the media would sit. But those seats weren’t just for the media, they were for everyone who wanted to come for free and just not eat the lunch.

North Las Vegas spokesman Mitch Fox said there would be a table for the media, but no free public seating at this year’s event.

Having a ticketed event is a long tradition in North Las Vegas, Mayor John Lee said.

“Anybody can watch (the address) on TV. Anybody can buy a ticket,” Lee said. “The one thing I’m responsible for is to report my successes and failures, however I can get that out there.”

Andy Hafen, who has been Henderson’s mayor since 2009, said the State of the City has been given at a Chamber of Commerce event since before he was elected to the City Council in 1987.

Asked about concerns that the event is geared toward business interests, Hafen said, “Cities are all about economic development.” He said the luncheon serves as a “networking” event for those who attend.

Henderson spokesman Bud Cranor said the city thought about changing the luncheon a few years ago. But 82 percent of attendees surveyed said they preferred it to another type of event.

Years ago, the event raised money for the Henderson chamber. But all the money now goes to the city, which Cranor said makes nothing off the event. The ticket money pays for the food and sometimes part of the costs of recording and broadcasting the speech, with the rest of the costs coming out of the city budget.

FAVORITISM?

The ACLU’s Story said he has attended many such events and has always found it odd to have to pay to hear public officials speak. He wasn’t aware of any law against it, but said the costs raise questions.

“The appearance of charging someone to be there in person would lead them to conclude there is some kind of favoritism being shown toward those with the ability to pay, and that should never be the case with a public official disseminating public information,” Story said. “The fundamental design of the way our government works is that every citizen has the opportunity to engage with our officials.”

Martin of PLAN, an umbrella group of unions and liberal organizations, noted the Las Vegas Review-Journal also has partnered with the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce in charging to hear public officials. In a just-launched “breakfast series” called NewsFeed, attendees pay $40 to eat and hear journalists and elected officials discuss issues.

Although it’s impossible to say how the audience for state of the city speeches would change if Henderson and North Las Vegas stopped charging, it’s likely the current crowds are disproportionately businesspeople rather than average residents.

“The same people that you see at ours, you see the same people at North Las Vegas,” Henderson Councilman Sam Bateman said. “The same kind of people and business entities tend to come.”

The $40 to $45 charge could discourage people from attending, especially in North Las Vegas, where government figures show the unemployment rate is higher and the average income lower than in the rest of the county or state.

North Las Vegas has, since 2012, given $5 of every $40 ticket to charity, Fox said.

“The $35 goes to pay for lunch and other event expenses such as ticketing, printing, etc.,” Fox said in an email.

“We have a budget for it. If you subtract out the budget, it’s a bit of a loss for us.”

Fox said he could provide the Review-Journal with those figures, but not by press time.

This year’s charity is the Friends of the Library, North Las Vegas Library District. Barron said the $40 is not inconsequential, but he is glad the city is able to raise money to support its libraries, particularly after budgetary woes necessitated closing the city’s oldest library. The downtown branch, which is in Barron’s ward, was then moved into City Hall, its collection significantly reduced.

Barron said he had invited a couple of residents to the event with him and said he believed other council members had done the same.

CROWDS EXPECTED

Some officials said the popularity of the state of the city luncheons is a good argument in their favor. There wouldn’t even be room in Henderson’s council chambers for the 800 or so people who usually attend, Councilwoman Gerri Schroder said. The city said more than 800 people have RSVP’d for this year’s speech, and 980 attended last year.

“If you came to it, you’d see that there’s a really good cross-section of the community there,” Henderson Councilman John Marz said. “It’s a really nice, wonderful event, so we probably get more than most people do at their state of the city.”

Bateman, the Henderson councilman, and North Las Vegas Councilman Wade Wagner said they’d be open to a different type of event. But Wagner and Henderson Mayor Hafen said they thought fewer people would attend a speech held in council chambers.

After all, City Council meetings — which are always free and public — rarely attract crowds.

“The apathy for this kind of stuff from the residents in general — I don’t think we’d get anybody even if we offered it for free, so why not have a nice lunch?” Wagner said.

Review-Journal writer James DeHaven contributed to this report. Contact Eric Hartley at ehartley@reviewjournal.com or 702-550-9229. Find him on Twitter: @ethartley. Contact Bethany Barnes at bbarnes@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861. Find her on Twitter: @betsbarnes.