Stavros Anthony sworn in as Las Vegas councilman
One of Stavros Anthony’s campaign promises was to oppose a new Las Vegas city hall, and on his first day in office today he tried to demonstrate he was serious about that promise.
An item concerning financing for the new building was on the consent agenda, which is a list of matters considered routine enough to be enacted in one vote.
Anthony asked for that item to be heard separately, but unfortunately there wasn’t much to it.
The state Department of Taxation has given its OK for the city to seek up to $267 million for construction. The agenda item proposed making that approval part of the council minutes, and did not involve actually approving the project. It passed unanimously.
Earlier, Anthony was sworn in with his wife and one daughter standing beside him.
“Thank you very much for putting up with me over the last six months,” he said. “It was a bear.”
He thanked both Glenn Trowbridge, his opponent in the June 2 election, and David Steinman, who was interim councilman after the seat’s former occupant, Larry Brown, was elected to the Clark County Commission.
“Now the real work begins,” Anthony said.
His city hall stance puts him at odds with Mayor Oscar Goodman, who has championed the new building as essential to downtown redevelopment. And that, naturally, led to a joke.
“There is one area that the mayor and I differ on, and you probably know what that is,” Anthony said. “He drinks gin, and I drink single-malt Scotch.”
Anthony, a 29-year veteran of the Meteropolitan Police Department, is set to retire from the agency June 26. He also was a regent with the Nevada System of Higher Education and resigned that post Wednesday.
Las Vegas pays part of the Police Department’s budget.
A former councilman, Michael McDonald, was on the force during his term and abstained from votes involving the department.
Contact reporter Alan Choate at achoate@reviewjournal.com or 702-229-6435.
