Montandon photo shows cautions on campaign trail

When you're running for governor, you don't want controversial photos from the past suddenly emerging to haunt you.

In Mike Montandon's case, it's the photo of him gently clutching a pigeon.

So the former North Las Vegas mayor and Republican gubernatorial candidate sprang into action when he heard a buddy was in hot water over a pigeon sanctuary operating without the city's approval.

Montandon remembered one day in the spring when Nephi Oliva, the owner of Nevada Pigeon Control, took some shots of the then-mayor smiling while cupping a pigeon in his hands.

"Please don't tell me you're using me anyplace," Montandon said he told Oliva this week.

Alas, Oliva had posted Montandon's portrait with a pigeon on the front of his business's Web site at nevadapigeoncontrol.com. A heading over the photo read: "Mayor Montandon Dedicates Pigeon Control Sanctuary."

"I had no idea they (the photos) were meant to be Web site fodder," Montandon said Wednesday. "I also had no idea he didn't have proper zoning for that place."

Oliva has lately been squabbling with the city over his sanctuary for unwanted pigeons, which he constructed in an industrial area near Cheyenne Avenue and Commerce Street. The city says the facility wasn't licensed accurately, doesn't comply with neighborhood zoning and poses a threat to public health.

Oliva needs approval from both the city's planning and zoning department and animal control division to operate a sanctuary, the city said. Officials have ordered him to either get in compliance or get rid of the birds.

Montandon, who said he was simply hanging out at the sanctuary the day the shots were taken, didn't want to be linked to the now-controversial sanctuary by way of a compromising photo.

"I didn't want any implication that because the mayor was out there, it meant some sort of city approval," he said.

Montandon asked Oliva to take the photo down. He quickly complied, and a visit to the Web site now shows no trace of Montandon, let alone Montandon with a pigeon.

"He was getting some grief," Oliva said. "It looked like the mayor had dedicated an illegal sanctuary."

Montandon is an old friend who has been a "huge supporter" of the sanctuary, Oliva said.

"He's my buddy, and he'd make a great governor."

And Montandon isn't holding a grudge over the whole pigeon predicament.

"We're great friends," he said. "I'm very impressed with his ability to get inside the minds of those vermin. I don't know if that's a compliment, but he does it."

Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285.