Mayoral candidate Brown embraces boring

Editor's note: This is the second in a series of stories about the leading candidates in the Las Vegas mayoral race.

One recent afternoon, Larry Brown gathered seven campaign volunteers around a folding table in his mayoral campaign office, a concrete-and-brick space at Main Street and Charleston Boulevard that's great on visibility and low on such basic features as heat.

The goal: Figure out easy-to-deliver policy nuggets for his canvassers when they are faced with issue questions from potential voters.

Only Brown does not speak in nuggets.

He talks about the background of parks issues and the nuances of the Clark County firefighter sick leave mess. He uses the word "infrastructure." And "RFP," which is government-speak for "request for proposals."

He seems genuinely enthused about the bump in mass transit ridership whenever gasoline prices increase, and is a rare voice arguing against the recent crop of sports arena proposals.

It's a nice civics lesson for his young volunteers. But it highlights the challenge for Brown, a Harvard government major and former pro athlete who has been a local elected official since 1997.

In an 18-way contest for mayor of Las Vegas that includes louder, flashier and better-financed candidates, how much traction will he get from being the political equivalent of eating all your vegetables?

"A lot of the issues we deal with are not 'spin' answers," Brown said. "The key issues in this campaign can't be answered in a sound bite."

And, he acknowledges, that will make it hard to reach some voters who may be used to the glitz and automatic attention accorded Oscar Goodman, who is leaving the post after 12 years and whose wife, Carolyn, wants to succeed him. She already is attracting the pro-arena votes that Brown won't get, especially among downtown boosters.

MAKING THE CUT

It's why he is running for second place right now -- second, because the top two finishers in the April 5 primary move on to the general election, provided no one wins a majority.

That's where he is right now, according to a recent Las Vegas Review-Journal/8NewsNow poll, which had him with 17.5 percent voter support. That is well behind Carolyn Goodman's 36.5 percent, but a comfortable distance from fellow Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani's 11.7 percent. At least for the present.

"That is the race right now," Brown said. "We need to get there. I think I'll be as strong as any candidate one-on-one.

"That's when you do have time to not just throw up the rhetoric. You can really spend some time dealing with issues."

He is among a handful of candidates spending money on TV ads, and he started out focusing his door-to-door efforts in Sun City Summerlin. It's a senior community, and senior citizens are the most likely voters in city elections. It also is in the ward he represented for 12 years on the Las Vegas City Council.

Brown grew up in Boston and attended Harvard University, where he played football and baseball and studied government after divining that psychology was not his cup of tea.

He played professional baseball following graduation and in 1983 came to the Las Vegas Stars, where he ended his pro career.

He worked for the Las Vegas Valley Water District and later returned to baseball, and now is the community relations manager for the Las Vegas 51s.

He ran successfully for the Las Vegas City Council in 1997, staying alive in the primary by coming in second place to attorney Michael Callister, then prevailing in the general election by 63 votes. He was re-elected twice without facing opposition, and in 2008 handily won a seat on the County Commission.

He is known as a quiet elected official who scrutinizes budgets and pushes the idea of a government's "core services": public safety, parks, roads and sewers.

That was true even when Brown worked for the water district, said Glenn Trowbridge, a Las Vegas planning commissioner and former county parks and recreation director who unsuccessfully sought Brown's council seat in 2009.

"He takes time to study both sides of the issue, and he generally comes up with a good decision," said Trowbridge, who said he and Brown discussed parks funding issues when Brown first considered running for the council.

"It's an issue, quite frankly, because Larry's kind of a quiet guy, and he's more of a worker than he is a grandstander," Trowbridge said. "In a crowded race like this, he tends not to stand out like others might."

It wasn't surprising when Brown entered politics, said Don Logan, executive director of the Las Vegas 51s and a friend since 1984.

"That was always something he's had in the back of his mind," Logan said. "He takes it seriously. "

Still, facing a Goodman in the race is a challenge.

"It's unfortunate that there is a term limit. I know that Larry would've supported Oscar as long as he would've been the mayor," Logan said. "If he had known back in October that Carolyn wanted to run and Oscar would support her, he probably wouldn't have run."

DOLLAR DISCUSSION

Since his days on the City Council, Brown has talked about the need to restructure how public employees are compensated because of the mushrooming cost of salaries and benefits. That problem was masked for a while by the incredible growth of Southern Nevada that kept public coffers overflowing.

The fact that the situation went unchecked for many years is why local governments are in such pain now. Clark County is holding 1,500 positions vacant and expects hundreds of layoffs without employee concessions. The city of Las Vegas is in better financial shape, but has had layoffs and pay reductions as well, and officials still expect a budget shortfall next year.

Brown said the city needs to keep trimming, and should focus on sharing services with other governments or privatizing functions where possible.

"We cannot continue to be all things to all people," Brown said. "There's no choice anymore. It's a mandate now. I haven't talked about it for 60 days. I've talked about it for 12 years."

During that time, and before, numerous plans have been put forward for a professional sports arena.

Brown was part of the County Commission vote to reject three other arena proposals that said they needed tax subsidies to get started.

Other proposals, including a football stadium at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a three-stadium complex downtown, have been shopped around.

"Would an arena create jobs? Absolutely. Would an arena be embraced by having an NBA or a soccer team here? People would like that," Brown said. "But is it realistic? Is it practical today? No."

A subsidized arena would unfairly compete with privately owned arenas on and around the Strip for non-sports business, he said.

"If they want to compete on a fair basis, fine. Build it with private sector dollars," Brown said. "That's why it's not being done. It's not profitable.

"The timing now is probably the worst it's ever been in at least my 15 years of hearing this dialogue. Now is not the time."

Contact reporter Alan Choate at achoate@reviewjournal.com or 702-229-6435.