The Buck Stops Somewhere Else

As the recriminations from the last special budget meeting of the North Las Vegas City Council are still flying like a flock of Nor’Town pigeons fleeing a burning aviary, this Wednesday will feature yet another special meeting on the budget at 4:30pm, Weds, April 10th, down at city hall.

Nor’Townie watchers will be especially interested to see if members of city council are still speaking to one another. By all accounts, the April 1st meeting, where council voted 4-1 to layoff 204 people, tested the patience of council-members mightily. (Sun,RJ)

Indeed, the mayor, who took the easy way out and voted against the cuts, accused one of her colleagues of being “petulant” and throwing a “an adolescent temper tantrum.” (VN) This after Councilmember Robert Eliason–presumably the petulant adolescent in question–complained that the mayor had, after months of meetings over the budget mess, failed to offer an alternative to layoffs. He also reported being frustrated when, after casting her lone vote against the layoffs, she immediately gloated that the nay vote proved that her first priority was public safety, and, by implication, that other members of council tended to push it down the list a piece.

The mayor continued her diatribe over on Jon Ralston’s Face to Face (look for Block 3 – 04/05). True, she noted that she had proposed that the North Las Vegas police postpone upgrades to their shooting range as one way to save the city some money. However, it was unclear how that small savings would successfully fill the budget hole.

Still, I suppose we should have some sympathy for the mayor’s plight. Her re-election hopes would be dim indeed if she lost the support of the police and firefighter unions–and she might end up sleeping on the couch.

Yet, as her first year as mayor crawls to a close, the jury is still out on the question of whether she is capable of “real leadership” as her campaign materials promised. On the budget, at least, there is a vacuum where the mayor should be, and if she really has a plan to avoid layoffs, then I’m sure everyone would love to hear it. Or, they would have, six months ago when the crisis really came home to roost.

Nonetheless, all members of the council need to take a deep breath and prepare to muddle forward. As amusing as it is to watch our leaders hurl insults at one another, now is a really bad time for them to lose it.

And I suppose none of us should be entirely sure of the outcome of the current fracas. After all, the unions might cave in the face of the layoffs and rush back to the negotiating table with concessions sufficient to avoid many of them. If that is the scheme, then among the four who voted for the layoffs is the sort of leader that would make Machiavelli proud–and give union leaders pause.

As for the pic of the mayor with the senate majority leader, I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say: I can’t wait to hear of her endorsement for Harry Reid. I wonder how long I’ll have to wait?