For more time than I like to think about, the old Monger has been struggling in Nevada’s crappy economy. This period is apparently now at an end. I have accepted a job out of state and will be leaving the future site of unincorporated Clark County called Titanic, Nevada–formerly known as North Las Vegas–currently in the incompetent hands of a city council packed with police-union stooges and a mayor who sold out the future of Norftown to greedy developers pushing a Ponzi scheme of mindless growth wherein the non-existence denizens of Park Highlands would pay for the new City Hall and the Midge Manufacturing Plant out near Nellis.
So, in what is most likely my last act of un-civic duty to the city whose bankruptcy has been postponed six months by meager concessions from the union which is in bed with mayor and thus knows it never has to make a concession, let me make a suggestion.
Get rid of Mayor Buck but in a way that has a slight chance of succeeding. Yes, recalls are very entertaining, but they seldom work and only distract from the main method we use for selecting our officials: elections. Guys, the mayoral election is less than two years away, and you know what? A plausible campaign against Buck may already be too late. It takes a good four years to rev up a campaign in these parts, and you’ve already wasted two. Nonetheless, if all of you who are tired of the Buck-Montandon school of minimal urban planning really want to do something, you would unite behind a strong candidate for the 2013 elections. Don’t waste energy on recall petitions, you will have plenty of work trying to beat the Dan Hart/Police Union election machine.
Or, you can cross your fingers that Buck will again get the itch to run for the County Commission or some higher office, a not unlikely possibility given that everybody else in Nor’Town is running for Congress.
But, uncharacteristically setting snarkiness aside, I hope I will find the following in Norftown should I return in ten years or so.
A thriving national monument for the Tule Springs fossil beds where young Nor’Townies discover that the history of North Las Vegas did not begin with the creation of the El Dorado subdivision.
A city of intelligent citizens actively engaged in the political life of North Las Vegas, where one faction can no longer gain a strangle hold on the community
A research park springing from the ashes of CSN and UNLV to which brainiacs immigrate by the thousands bringing exciting, challenging, environmentally friendly, and multifarious work to town.
A place that folks will choose to live in, no merely because it’s cheaper than Henderson.
Failing that, the only advice I can offer is: mimic the Monger and get out of town, and let your mortgage company sort out the dead.
Weird Al Yankovic has decided to start his “Alpocalypse” tour in Apocalypse central: North Las Vegas. I’d say this is a true sign of the end times, but what it really means is that Yankovic jumped the shark so long ago that only the mucus-filled Methuselahs at the Nor’Town Cannery remember who he is.
Anyways, before you abandon your house and default on your mortgage because you won’t be able to afford the new state-imposed property taxes, you can catch the show on September 10th as a fitting farewell to your community of choice–to leave.
Anywhere but Norftown and you’d take a headline like the above as a mere metaphor. Not here.
Quite literally the city of North Las Vegas has decided to urinate on Clark County and the rest of Vegas Valley. It has started to release it’s lightly treated pee-water from it’s brand-new pee-water recycling plant into a ditch designed to drown kids during heavy rains.
Now, I’m forced to conclude that the ditch was designed to drown kids during heavy runoffs because, to hear the county commission describe the runoff channel the lightly treated pee-water gushes through, it is always full of neighborhood children tempting the rain gods by spending most of their days riding their bikes there.
Not surprisingly, residents near to Nor’Town’s “discharge” have found it a bit stinky. (Sun) If you can call eye-burning fumes “a bit stinky,” I mean.
Meanwhile, the never-ending election for Ward 4 is set to continue for a year or two more. After Toothless Wade Wagnerfound himself a judge to force the city council to canvass votes in the election, Richard Cherchio found himself a judge to keep Wagner from getting the official election certificate. (RJ)
Gotta love the fair and balanced headline over at the Review Journal which says the “winner”–presumably Toothless Wade–was kept off council by the (second) judge. The Dentist “won” the election by one vote in an election where at least one vote was illegally cast. Also, Cherchio is by latest accounts going to ask for a recount. So, calling Toothless Wade the “winner” is a might premature.
Nevada Admiral-Governor Brian Sandoval Invades North Las Vegas
Meanwhile Shari Buck, the soon-to-be ex-mayor of the soon-to-be ex-city of North Las Vegas, was on the radio machine today trying to blame everybody but herself for the fact that “her” city will soon be taken over by the state due to its inability to pay its bills or govern itself. (Sun) Somehow she failed to convey the idea that the reason all other unions except the police have made wage concessions probably has more to do with her extremely close ties to that very union than any alleged misdeeds by other council members. Why should the cop union concede anything when they know she won’t say “no” to her husband, the police union lobbyist? The mayor is so spineless viz the cop unions that she couldn’t even prevent her police union friends and family from putting up signs inviting criminals to make Nor’Town their community of choice.
The mayor can’t even control her political base. Any surprise she can’t run the city?
Be sure to enjoy these other tidbits from the Shari Buck radio hour: How she’s calling the new council “wonderful”. That apparently means: thank Gawd Robinson and–at least temporarily–Cherchio are gone, and that Pamela Goynes-Brown, at least so far, seems willing to obey her police union masters. The mayor is still hopeful, it seems, that she can turn all those 1-4 council votes against her into 3-2 votes in her, and the union’s, favor.
Couple of Norftown news items coursing through the Internet tubes:
Clark County District Judge Elizabeth Gonzales has ruled in favor of Toothless Wade Wagner and put a halt to the special election in Precinct 4036. (Sun) We’ll see if there is such a thing as an appeal in the wind, or if the recent resignation of a city shylock, as a commentator suggests, is connected to the mess. Richard Cherchio apparently will challenge the ruling. (RJ)
State Senator, Congressional wannabe, and gun-nut John Lee doesn’t want to say the word “receivership,” but, apparently, can’t help himself while watching the former city of North Las Vegas creep closer to a state takeover. (Sun) But the scariest part of the tale is the thought of so-called Governor Brian Sandoval “monitoring the situation.” Still, this will give him the opportunity to raise new taxes while pretending Shari Buck forced him to.
Funeral services for Buck’s political career will be held in June, 2013.
Putative North Las Vegas Mayor Shari Buck has officially given up on the city she helped to dismantle. The Mayor plans to sell off most city assets, including that unneeded monument to unbridled mayoral hubris, the new city hall. (RJ)
This follows the court-ordered coup by the police union to undermine the meager threads of democratic government still tenuously stitching together the fabric of civilization up in NorfTown. Police unions are forcing the city to keep six-figured fat-cat cop managers who haven’t been on a call for twenty years. The result? The so-called city they’ve sworn to protect will pretty much have to give up every other service the city provides, while selling off city buildings to cover the budget hole. So, what happens when there is no more city to protect, fellers? Off to a Station Casino security gig?
Yet, the union has plenty of bucks (pun intended) to mount an expensive ad campaign. They’ve placed–in case you missed them–a pricey billboard on every corner of Nor’Town and are cluttering up the Internets with drivel, which is supposed to be my job. One can only wonder if a pay-cut would hurt so much. But then again, think of those union dues. They must be pretty steep.
At this point, I suspect most Nor’Townies would prefer handing over the city to the control of the State of Nevada. It would mean higher taxes, as the state would be required to balance the budget, but at least there would be the sense of someone being in charge.
Meanwhile, democracy has completely collapsed in Norftown. Apparently, at least until the next court-ordered injunction brought about by a lawsuit from cash-strapped former mayor Mike Montandon, there will be a re-do of the Ward 4 city council vote in a precinct where a illegal vote was cast. Now, I’m not the only one to find it disquieting to learn that city officials who certify elections are, at the same time, contributing money, time, and spouses to the campaigns of folks in those same elections. If the Nevada Legislature wanted to do something useful, it would make it illegal for officials who contribute to candidates in elections they must officially certify. Everybody looked bad on this one. Anita Wood and Robert Eliason contributed cash to Richard Cherchio‘s campaign, while the mayor’s husband, Keith Buck, actually worked for Wade “Toothless” Wagner’s campaign. And, it seems, Wagner tried to cover it up on his campaign reports.
In a laughable response today, some members of the police union have filed a complaint with another toothless entity, the Nevada Ethics Commission, questioning the contributions of Wood and Eliason. (RJ) That’s not to say that the complaint is without merit. Everybody on the city council should recuse themselves from certifying elections at this point. Of course, that leaves us with the tiny detail that elections would be impossible in Norftown, but, then again, what’s so new about that?
But the most ridiculous outcome of this entire mess will be that Nortowners, assuming there will be any left, will even consider re-electing Shari Buck. Where else could someone who destroys a town be elected its mayor? I mean, besides in emperor Nero’s police state?
“Let them investigate me,” Mayor Buck responded when told of a requests by Clark County Democrats to the Secretary of State to investigate her and her hubby’s, ahem, incestuous relationship with “Toothless” Wade’s campaign. “They’ll find nothing improper.” She protests.
Really? Even after a forensic check of the bedsheets?
From the City of North Las Vegas Police Department:
CITY OF NORTH LAS VEGAS
POLICE DEPARTMENT
NEWS RELEASE
FROM THE OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF POLICE, Joseph Chronister
SENDER: Sergeant Tim Bedwell, PIO
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 06/16/11
SUBJECT: Robbery / Kidnapping Suspects Sought, Case 11-10048
North Las Vegas, Nevada – Detectives need help locating suspects in a recent robbery / kidnapping. On May 25, 2011, at about noon, a mother and daughter were kidnapped from the Wal Mart parking lot at 3950 W. Lake Mead Blvd. Two men forced the victim to drive to Wells Fargo Bank at 801 North Rancho Road. Once there, the victim was forced to withdraw money, which was taken by the suspects. The suspects spoke Spanish.
Suspect #1 was described as a Hispanic man, between 50 to 60 years of age, black hair, brown eyes, 5 foot in height, about 115 pounds, thin build, with a light complexion. He was last seen wearing a brown plaid shirt.
Photos of Suspect #2 are attached. Suspect #2 was described as a Hispanic man, between 30 to 35 years of age, 6 foot in height, about 160+ pounds, medium build, with a light complexion. He was last seen wearing a black beret, reading or prescribed glasses, and plaid shirt.
Suspect in Kidnapping and Robbery
Anyone with information is urged to call the North Las Vegas Police Department at (702) 633-9111 or, to remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at (702) 385-5555. Tips leading to an arrest or an indictment called into Crime Stoppers may result in a cash reward.
For more information, please contact:
Public Communications Office
North Las Vegas Police Department
1301 East Lake Mead Blvd
North Las Vegas, Nevada 89030
North Las Vegas is going puppet mad! For months in the Ward 4 city council race, Richard Cherchio has been calling Wade “he is your dentist” Wagner a puppet to the police and firefighter unions for taking loads of their campaign contributions and promising (I’m guessing) to vote in lock step with the Mayor who says “No” to her family/core political base living off of union fees.
Now, Linda Meisen-heimer a lucky candidate for ward 2 is the beneficiary of the mailer shown here which attacks her opponent Pamela Goynes-Brown as a puppet to the “public safety” unions.
Now, I have some sympathy for the view since a police union PAC just came out with a mailer accusing Meisenheimer of going all Silence of the Lambs and trying to wear Sharron Angle’s skin like a frock coat.
The flier is the product of one Ken Angell who has created a political action committee called North Las Vegans for Truth, which although it sounds like a cult of Nor’Townie vegetarians, is really just a guy with some extra cash. You can read the report filed with the Nevada Secretary of State over here. Ken Angell is the fellow who filed campaign funding complaints against Wade Wagner for Richard Cherchio, and the ‘Dog has a rather unflattering description of the fellow.
In any case, the ‘Dog seems to have mischaracterized the Ward 2 race by calling it “classy.” Although joining the fray late and less well funded, the Ward 2 candidates are taking off the gloves.
By the way, it is always good to see old friends. NLVPAC, the political action committee originally created by goofball Utah Republican millionaire Patrick Byrne to fund Republican races in Nevada has made a few token payouts in the Norftown elections. It has handed Wade Wagner a couple of hundred and bought some tickets to a Meisenheimer fundraiser. Mike Montandon, the ex-Mayor of Norftown who spurred the growth-or-die frenzy that helped make North Las Vegas what it is today, used to administer the fund, and used most of it up running his doomed gubernatorial campaign. The PAC, like the city it is named for, and the ex-Mayor who used to run it, has seen better times.
A particularly nasty flier showed up in the ‘Monger mailbox today. It contains one of the most outrageous and hence entertaining claims about the dull as dust Ward 2 council race.
The mailer shows a picture of Linda Meisenheimer, who is still in the race literally due to the luck of the draw, nestled cosily with one full-court nutjob failed, failed, failed candidate Sharron Angle.
The mailer accuses Meisenheimer of being in favor of “radical Republican” ideas, which is truly odd since she supported the government giveaway to goofball developers trying to sell a snake oil plan to resurrect Nor’Town’s zombie downtown. That was a move more worthy of a Kucinich than a Gingrich.
And what makes it all the more odd is that a PAC called the North Las Vegas Police Officers Association paid for the flier. This group is among the police and firefighter unions that are throwing that overtime money into Wade Wagner‘s campaign against Richard Cherchio in Ward 4. Wagner is apparently the closest thing to a “radical Republican” in that race, so we know that the NLVPOA doesn’t really give a crap about who counts as a Republican or not in the council races. It is more a question of how the candidate will dance when it comes to vote on police and firefighter contracts.
I say that Wagner is “apparently” the “radical Republican” in the Ward 4 race because labeling him anything besides a stuffed shirt or a puppet requires that he actually take a substantive position on an issue relevant to the workings of the city. Naturally, he has taken no stance on anything as he is relying on Norftown apathy and police union muscle to win him the election.
By the way, the other side of that Meisenheimer flier has a beaming portrait of her opponent Pamela Goynes-Brown, who, we learn, has “solid Democrat Ideas,” just so the recipient will have no doubt as to who the police union puppet in Ward 2 is.
News outlets are reporting that the RC pig farm is on fire. (KLAS,Fox5,News13) It started around noon and was contained to manure and hay, no unlike local politics.
There have been, as yet, no reports of firefighters burning effigies of Richard Cherchio. Nor have there been any reports of the city smelling any different than usual.
Now I’m sure everybody in Nor’Town enjoyed the Las Vegas Sun’s repetition of the Unions vs. Richard Cherchio meme. Granted, we’ve all heard the local press repeat the same thing for the last five months, but, hey, how else do you make Norf’Town’s dull little off-off-year elections interesting?
Well, discussing actual issues that are or soon will be before City Council might be a start, but you won’t be hearing much about that, especially from the Public Safety…sorry, I mean, Public Safety Unions….no, no, wait, I mean, the Police and Firefighters Political Action Committee to Preserve Six-Figure Salaries for Administrators who Haven’t Smelled Smoke for 20 years candidate.
Indeed, who knows where Wade Wagner (R-Police Unions) really stands on anything? In the Sun article we read:
Wagner said he makes only one promise to residents: “My door will be open and you can come in and talk to me anytime.”
That’s it? Nothing about sweetheart deals to developers, if they ever return? Or building pointless government buildings like the new City Hall or the Wastewater Treatment plant to nowhere? How about improvements to North Fifth Street, which should be renamed the Road to Nowhere since the big old development up there went bankrupt? Nothing to say about the Tule Springs’ fossils monument?
Your answer to all of the above is: “my door will be open”?? Mr. Candidate, have you read a newspaper in the last five years? Read a council transcript? Read the budget?
Or consider his breathtaking stand on “fiscal responsibility” for the official campaign site:
City leaders have an obligation to the taxpayers in North Las Vegas to spend their money wisely. The investments made by our local government must be both creative and fiscally sound.
Vapid is too colorful a word to describe this empty, pointless pap. The candidate’s site looks like it was designed by the same guys who did that one about him being a puppet seeing how poorly it counters his image as a union pawn.
Oh, and if you’re interested in the fines that the guys working against Cherchio got slapped with for paying more to Wagner’s coffers than the law allows, the letter from the Secretary of State are here.
Meanwhile, the race for Ward 2 is trying to beat Wagner in vapidity, that is, until Goynes sent the ‘Monger’ household a mailer full of public service union logos. So, the question is, are public safety union scare tactics going to be the main political force in Nor’Town politics for the next few years? Indeed today’s Sun story mentions that councilgal Anita Wood will be the main target in 2013. Note, of course, that the Mayor, who’s up for re-election, wasn’t mentioned. That’s because her 4-1 minority votes against balancing the city budget have insulated her against such attacks.
But now, picture this: Wagner wins and Goynes wins. Does that mean those 4-1 votes will become 2-3 votes, with the majority of council supporting cutting everything in the city first except six-figure salaries for Police and Firefighter administrators? Is that the new community of choice?
Free tax prep offered to southern Nevada residentsKVVU Las VegasUnited Way's "Earn It Keep It Save It" free tax service is available now through Tuesday, April, 17 at the Doc Pearson Community Center located at 1625 West Carey in North Las Vegas. The event will be hosted by United Way of Southern Nevada's President ...and more » […]
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Obama's visit, a strange ballot and Goodmans galoreLas Vegas SunAn hour and a half before the president alighted in Las Vegas to tout, among other things, alternative energy and tax incentives for manufacturing, the Sun posted a story about a North Las Vegas solar facility that received a tax break from the federal ...and more » […]
Las Vegas SunBail set for man accused in North Las Vegas fatal shootingLas Vegas SunBy Dave Toplikar (contact) North Las Vegas Police arrested Terhain Woods, 20, in connection with a fatal shooting Sunday night. Bail was set at $1 million Thursday morning for a man who police say got into a fight Sunday night in North Las Vegas with a ...Man arrested in Nort […]
Two-alarm fire at tire shop in northwest Las VegasKTNV Las VegasBy Joyce Lupiani Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) -- Firefighters from Las Vegas and North Las Vegas responded to a large pile of tires on fire behind a tire shop on the corner of North Rancho Drive and West Lone Mountain Road at about 11:47 pm Jan. 26.and more » […]
Las Vegas SunSome 200 laid off at North Las Vegas Amonix solar plantLas Vegas SunBrian Sandoval addresses the crowd during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Amonix, a California-based solar power company that recently opened its new North Las Vegas facility, Tuesday, May 17, 2011. By Aida Ahmed (contact) Just seven months after ...Solar array plant that opened i […]
Arrest made in North Las Vegas murderKTNV Las VegasBy Molly Waldron North Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) -- Police have arrested a suspect in connection with a shooting that left one man dead and another injured in North Las Vegas on Sunday. 20-year-old Terhain Woods was booked into the North Las Vegas Detention ...and more » […]
North Las Vegas Neighborhood NewsLas Vegas Review-JournalIn an effort to remove barriers and help everyone in the community get moving, the YMCA of Southern Nevada is to offer its "Try the Y" promotion to prospective members through Feb. 24. Southern Nevadans can "discover, play and be active" for two weeks ...and more » […]
Utility sues Las Vegas law firm over letter circulated after fatal NV Energy ...The RepublicAP LAS VEGAS — Nevada's dominant electric utility is suing a law firm to try to block circulation of a letter seeking witnesses and evidence from a North Las Vegas neighborhood where a crash involving a NV Energy boom truck killed the wife of a Nellis ...FOX5 Veg […]
For more time than I like to think about, the old Monger has been struggling in Nevada’s crappy economy. This period is apparently now at an end. I have accepted a job out of state and will be leaving the future site of unincorporated Clark County called Titanic, Nevada–formerly known as North Las Vegas–currently in the incompetent hands of a city council packed with police-union stooges and a mayor who sold out the future of Norftown to greedy developers pushing a Ponzi scheme of mindless growth wherein the non-existence denizens of Park Highlands would pay for the new City Hall and the Midge Manufacturing Plant out near Nellis.
Weird Al Yankovic has decided to start his “
Anywhere but Norftown and you’d take a headline like the above as a mere metaphor. Not here.
Putative North Las Vegas Mayor Shari Buck has officially given up on the city she helped to dismantle. The Mayor plans to sell off most city assets, including that unneeded monument to unbridled mayoral hubris, the new city hall. (
From the City of North Las Vegas Police Department:
Now I’m sure everybody in Nor’Town enjoyed the 
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