Williams appointed interim councilwoman

Ten candidates ran in Tuesday's Ward 5 primary election. The person who was sworn into the seat Wednesday didn't get a single vote, and wasn't even on the ballot.

Brenda Williams, a former staffer for Sen. Richard Bryan, was sworn in as the Las Vegas Ward 5 City Council representative on Wednesday and will serve until the election is settled on June 5.

Williams promised she wouldn't be just a seat-warmer.

"I plan to do a lot. I'm not one to sit by the door," she said. "I promise to serve all residents of Ward 5."

Williams, 62, said she is a lifelong Ward 5 and West Las Vegas resident. She served as Bryan's constituent services representative for 12 years.

The seat has been vacant since Lawrence Weekly was appointed to the Clark County Commission in early March.

Ricki Barlow and Stacie Truesdell finished first and second, respectively, in Tuesday's Ward 5 election, but neither got more than 50 percent of the vote. They will face off in the general election on June 5.

Wednesday morning, Mayor Oscar Goodman called Williams to the front of the council chambers. He asked for a verbal vote to appoint her to the seat and then swore her in. The vote was unanimous, and no other council member commented.

Williams described an area under a freeway that is an entrance to West Las Vegas. "There's barbed wire, toilet paper, weeds coming up," she said. She promised to get that area cleaned up.

During the meeting, she certainly was not content to sit quietly by.

During a discussion about future city plans for Floyd Lamb State Park, she raised a sticky issue: Where would the money come from for improvements to the park?

"My concern is we're not taking resources from our older areas for the development," Williams said.

When it was time to ratify minutes from last week's meeting, she voted to abstain.

"I'm sure you meant yes," Goodman said.

She informed him that she indeed meant to abstain, since she wasn't at the last meeting and couldn't verify the accuracy of the minutes.

Community members had criticized the council's decision to leave the seat vacant. Councilman Gary Reese and some of Weekly's former staff had been watching issues in Ward 5 in consultation with Weekly.

Williams said Weekly submitted her name to Reese.

Barlow said he worked with Williams in Bryan's office, and praised her appointment. "I can't think of a better person," Barlow said.

Truesdell said she was "very impressed" by Williams' remarks after she was appointed.

"It's great that residents of Ward 5 will be represented in the next two months," she said. "I don't know why they waited until this point do it. If they were going to appoint all along, they might have done it a month ago."

The city is required to appoint someone within 30 days of a seat being vacated, or else set a date for a special election. The City Council was told by the city attorney's office that the general election in June could be declared a special election.

But further research found that designating the general election the special election would re-open the ballot and allow more candidates to file.