EDITORIAL: Incumbent protection
North Las Vegas struggled mightily during the recent recession. There was even talk of a state takeover. The municipality’s budget for the current fiscal year remains below the city’s spending blueprint in 2010.
Given such fiscal realities, you’d think the folks at City Hall would be eager to save money. But apparently not — if it means risking their own political futures.
On Wednesday the North Las Vegas City Council voted against a proposal to shift the city’s election cycle to even-numbered years, in line with state and national balloting. Currently, North Las Vegas races — along with municipal campaigns in Las Vegas, Henderson and Boulder City — take place in odd-numbered years.
Mesquite made the switch recently, while Las Vegas and Boulder City have been investigating such a change.
The North Las Vegas decision will cost city taxpayers more than $325,000 next year, the price of paying Clark County to run the municipality’s 2017 April primary and June general election. Piggybacking on regular state and national balloting wouldn’t cost the city a dime.
Predictably, North Las Vegas council members — other than Mayor John Lee, who introduced the proposal — bemoaned that any change might render their local campaigns invisible among more high-profile state and national races. That’s fake news. The status quo helps existing officeholders, who benefit from fewer voters and easier fundraising.
Turnout in the 2015 North Las Vegas municipal election was below 10 percent. If members of the City Council were truly concerned about democratic participation, they’d have jumped at Mayor Lee’s suggestion as a means of increasing turnout and saving a few bucks.
Instead, they opted to preserve a costly system that generates widespread disinterest — all in the name of incumbent protection.
