Walker defeats Smith for Boulder City Council seat

In the end, the Las Vegas Monorail couldn’t derail Cam Walker’s campaign for Boulder City Council.

Despite relentless criticism for his role in the development and operation of the Strip transit line, Walker, 42, narrowly beat out former City Councilman Bill Smith, 83, on Tuesday.

Walker took almost 53 percent of the vote to Smith’s 47 percent, as almost 4,300 of Boulder City’s 17,000 residents turned out to cast their ballots.

The former executive for the monorail’s management company will be joined on the five-member council by Duncan McCoy, who won a seat outright during the primary.

The two men will replace outgoing council members Andrea Anderson and Mike Pacini.

Boulder City voters also weighed in on six ballot questions, all but one of them related to proposed amendments to the city charter.

In answer to the only advisory question put to them, voters gave a resounding yes to the idea of opening some vacant city land to geothermal energy research and development.

Already, Boulder City leases a portion of the 167 square miles of empty desert it owns in the Eldorado Valley, south and west of the community, for solar power development.

The five questions concerning changes to the city charter also passed with ease.

As a result, the charter will be amended to make it gender neutral and to prohibit the City Council from meeting behind closed doors to discuss the possible firing of a city officer.

The three other charter amendments approved on Tuesday will be placed on the ballot again in November 2010, since all changes to the city’s governing document must be passed by voters in two consecutive elections.

Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350.