What’s going on in the city of Henderson?

To the editor:

My wife and I have always been proud to live in Henderson. We have nice parks, good schools and other amenities, and -- very importantly -- a low crime rate. But in the past few years our community has become an embarrassment on a national scale. We clearly have lots of problems in Henderson, and we need to clean up our city government and our police force.

Our downward trend seems to have started four years ago when my police completely unnecessarily killed a little woman, an ice cream vendor, in front of her small children. That disaster cost us a lot of money to settle the case, but no cops were fired.

Then, the recent video of the violent, brutal beating by about six policemen of a motorist who did not and could not resist has spread nationally. One of our sergeants was shown repeatedly kicking the motorist in the head and face. We were lucky to get off with about a $300,000 settlement to the motorist, but no cops have been fired.

Stirred by this national embarrassment, our city manager requested the resignation or retirement of our police chief, which resulted in the city manager "retiring" this week. The chief announced her retirement on Thursday.

Last year, our city made the national news when the city attorney hit a tree while driving drunk during a work day. We had to pay her a lot of money to go away. A golden parachute for a job well done.

The fiasco continued when the replacement process for the city attorney was rigged so Harry Reid's son would qualify for the job. Josh Reid got the job -- and a big pay raise to boot. Our city government is at best bumbling and ineffective, and in the case of former Councilwoman Kathleen Vermillion, suspected of corruption and under investigation by the FBI for possibly ripping off a charity.

So we are embarrassed. But we voters have remedy at the ballot box. Mayor Andy Hafen and his helpers should realize that if our city government and police are not cleaned up, the voters will make a lot of changes to try to improve our dismal situation.

Richard N. Fulton

Henderson

Reid juice

To the editor:

I see that Henderson City Manager Mark Calhoun is resigning his $225,000 per year job in May (Thursday Review-Journal).

Of course, qualified applicants need not bother. Because, in a related story, the LVH book has posted 3-to-2 odds that Sen. Harry Reid will manage to strong-arm another relative into the position.

Bob Hogg

Las Vegas