Authority a vital community partner
To the editor:
Your Nov. 30 article, "LVCVA, ad agency defend deal," was misleading and lacked the necessary context to provide an accurate picture of the contract between the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and R&R Partners.
It left your readers with the misconception that something illegal has transpired. Moreover, I take great issue with what amounts to a personal attack on the authority's Board of Directors, who are charged with the oversight of the agency. The article ultimately questions whether we are doing our jobs properly, which includes ensuring that the room tax dollars funding the authority are spent with the utmost fiscal responsibility. As a board, that is our duty to the residents of Southern Nevada, and we take that responsibility very seriously.
The convention authority is a public agency which conducts meetings under the rules of the open meeting law. The authority is audited every year by an external accounting agency and several times annually by an internal auditor. The purpose of conducting audits is to ensure everything is in compliance, and if it isn't, to correct it. That's exactly what happened in this case: the minor issues found through the authority's self-audit were immediately rectified.
Let's put this in perspective, though, which is something the article also failed to do: The overcharges referenced in the article amounted to less than $2,200. That amounts to .01 percent of the authority's annual marketing budget. It seems inappropriate to place this level of emphasis on such a minor discrepancy.
Unfortunately, what also was lost in the story is the big picture of the work of this agency. Aside from the obvious tourism impact, the convention authority's efforts have contributed to an annual non-gaming economic impact of $2.5 billion at the Las Vegas Convention Center alone, benefiting all our community's residents and businesses. Clearly, the authority's marketing efforts also contribute to the overall annual visitation of 39 million people and a non-gaming economic impact of more than $40 billion. The success of the authority is intrinsically linked to the economic vitality of Southern Nevada as well as our state and should be a great source of pride for the entire community.
Now is not the time for attacks and unfounded criticism of such a vital community partner. Now is the time to do what this community does best in difficult times: to band together, to support each other and to support the industry and entities that generate millions of dollars in tax revenue, thousands of good jobs and improve the quality of life for all of us.
Keith Smith
LAS VEGAS
THE WRITER IS PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF BOYD GAMING, VICE CHAIRMAN OF THE LAS VEGAS CONVENTION AND VISITORS AUTHORITY BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND CHAIRMAN OF THE AUTHORITY'S AUDIT COMMITTEE.
Educated voters?
To the editor:
In response to Thomas Mitchell's Nov. 30 column, "Just anybody can vote?":
Mr. Mitchell's concept of having U.S. citizens take a test prior to being eligible to vote is a great idea, except for the fact that the public education system in not designed to teach to success.
Former public school teacher and longtime public education critic John Taylor Gatto holds that centralized schools have the function to provide seven lessons:
1. Stay in class, where you belong.
2. Teach the kids to turn on and off like a light switch.
3. Surrender your will to a predestined chain of command.
4. Only I determine what curriculum you will study.
5. Teach that your self-respect should depend on an observer's measure of your worth.
6. Teach children that they are being watched.
7. Teach that you can't hide.
In my 30 years in the U.S. Navy, I met a lot of people who couldn't pass a civics exam but put their life on the line for the country. Mr. Mitchell, do you want to keep these people from voting?
Melvin C. Bailey Jr.
NORTH LAS VEGAS
Stop fighting Yucca
To the editor:
A solution to Nevada's bloated cost of government is 100 miles north of Las Vegas: Yucca Mountain. Simply stop the endless opposition and massive amounts of federal money would flow into the local economy.
With the help of Nevada's Harry Reid, the most powerful man in the U.S. Senate, Nevada could become the pork capital of America. Thousands of highly paid government and private-industry jobs would be created. The housing market would be revitalized.
Clark County and the city of Las Vegas would not have to make any of those hard decisions. The Clark County School District and University Medical Center could return to business as usual. Research grants would pour into both UNLV and UNR.
Unfortunately, our elected representatives are totally gutless.
CURTIS F. CLARK
BOULDER CITY
