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Moapa TAB Members Express Initial Opposition To Incorporation

By Vernon Robison
Moapa Valley Progress
Submitted May 21, 2008


The ad hoc Committee on Local Incorporation faced vocal opposition from members of the Moapa Town Advisory Board (MTAB) during a presentation given at a meeting held Thursday evening, May 15. Board members expressed skepticism and even an element of distrust about working together with the lower valley community in becoming a single unified city.

“To be honest, I don’t see any benefit to Moapa at all in incorporating with the other community,” said MTAB member, Craig Wolfley.

“I think that you could do all of the paperwork and planning that you want,” Todd Lewis told incorporation committee members. “But you’ll never get the numbers of signatures and votes from this community to go your way. You might win an overall majority by pulling enough votes in the lower valley, but you won’t ever get a majority here.”

The Committee on Local Incorporation was formed by the Moapa Valley Chamber of Commerce to explore the feasibility of becoming a single city. The Committee was then asked to present its findings to the community for consideration.

Last week, Committee Members, Byron Mills and Ben Robison, took the first step in that process by making presentations to the two Town Advisory Boards. The presentations were meant to introduce the subject, educate Board members about the process of incorporation and take a reading of the initial general feelings of the community.

Mills explained the nuts and bolts process of working through the county to become incorporated. This process begins with a groups of five electors from the community filing a notice of initial interest with the county. Next a petition must be filed which would include details about the proposed city and also would have to contain the signatures of at least a third of the registered voters in the community.

The county would then be required to perform a feasibility study; looking at the various sources of revenue that would be available to the new city and weighing them against the cost of providing the needs of the community. If the study showed the the proposed city was feasible, it would go to the Board of County Commissioners for approval. Public hearings would be held. Finally, an election would be scheduled wherein a simple majority of voters would be required to vote in favor for the issue to carry.

Mills explained that the only other route available to incorporate is by taking it directly to the state legislature. In that case, though, the community would have to pay to perform its own feasibility study.

“It would cost us about $50,000 up front to hire someone to do that study,” Mills said. “This way we can get the study done at no intial cost to us and we can see if it is even possible for us to consider.”

Mills pointed out that, if the community finally became an incorporated entity, then it would eventually receive a bill from the county to pay for the study.

At Wednesday night’s presentation before the Moapa Valley Town Board in Overton, Boardmembers had expressed a general openness to continue on and take a closer look at the Committee’s findings on the subject.

In Moapa, however, Board members expressed strong concerns about the process itself. Most of these concerns centered around the idea of the Moapa community receiving equal representation with the lower valley.

Board members worried, for example, that the much higher population existing in the lower valley would allow incorporation to be approved against the will of the people in Moapa. Mills explained that the County Commissioners would, undoubtedly, be looking very closely at what each town wanted individually. “For example, on the petition, we would need to get at least 1/3 of the voters signatures from each community individually,” Mills said. “Our idea would be that we would need to get a majority vote from each community separately for this process to go forward. A third of the signatures from the combined population of both communities together would probably not be enough for the Commissioners.”

The matter of equal representation went further into a discussion of what the make-up of a future City Council would look like. MTAB member Todd Lewis said that the upper valley would never go for City council districting based solely on population. “We would require equal representation from up here on that board as you would have down there no matter what the population is,” he said.

Mills explained that the field would be open to do whatever the community wanted in this regard. Equal representation on the City Council from both upper and lower valleys could be a possibility, he said.

“This same type of thing is already being done at the Overton Power District,” Mills said. The Overton Power District has five elected members on its board. One board member is elected from each of the five communities served by the district regardless of population. “If it went by population, the city of Mesquite would get three of those board seats and the other two would have to be divided among Logandale, Overton, Moapa and Bunkerville,” Mills said.

Instead all of the OPD board members are committed to working together for the good of the whole district, Mills said. This could be a possibility for a future city council. Todd Lewis expressed doubts that the lower valley had as much to offer the upper valley as Moapa had to offer the lower valley.

“I think that their numbers will show that the lower valley needs us to incorporate,” Lewis said. “For example, I don’t know of any future development on the books down in the lower valley that is going to help in their tax base. Moapa is further along with stuff on the books that can benefit our community. If we incorporate it looks to me like you’ll be the one benefitting from our dollars.”

Mills responded that there was huge potential for growth in both communities. Several large projects which had been moving forward in the lower valley had slowed down because of a general slowdown in the market. But when the market turned they would, certainly, be back. Mills also pointed out that 11,000 acres of BLM is tagged for release to developers along the eastern bench of the lower valley.

“When conditions are right, we will see a tremendous push for growth at both ends of the valley,” Mills said. “The important point is, as an incorporated city, we’d get to make the decisions right here. It wouldn’t be North Las Vegas, Las Vegas or Summerlin that would influence our decisions and determine what happens here. If we don’t like what our city council is doing, we can elect other people to do a better job.”

But this idea was met with opposition as well. “I’m not sure but that I’d just as soon have Las Vegas tell us what we are doing as Logandale,” said Craig Wolfley. “As I see it that is what we would have. Unless we have an equal number of votes on the council; and I don’t believe that you will really do that for us; our votes would be overrun every time.” Wolfley said that in the 22 years he has lived in Moapa, he has never once seen the lower valley be concerned about anything that happened on the north side of the freeway. “Never on any issue,” he said.

Mills responded that with incorporation he would expect that to change because the two towns would now become a unified city. Residents and leaders would become more invested in the community as a whole.

Mills pointed out that just such a unification had occurred before, many years ago, when Logandale and Overton merged to become a single town of Moapa Valley. “They had the exact same concerns as we are talking about right now,” Mills said. “The same concerns about population differences. But they now work well together as a single community.”

Wolfley insisted that the old divisions between Logandale and Overton still existed. “I see it everyday teaching kids at school,” he said. “Don’t tell me that there isn’t a tremendous looking down the nose between Logandale and Overton. It’s in the kids and so it’s in the parents too. Don’t tell me that you’ve all become united down there because you haven’t and you know it.”

“You might have a point there,” responded Clark County Northeast Liason, Matt LaCroix, “But look at the town board level of how the community is governed and I’d say that you have one unified community. They are very much voting for what is best for the community as a whole not just their own district or neighborhood.”

MTAB member Lyn Wren wondered why pressure was suddenly being put on now for incorporation and why the focus was being placed on Moapa to be included.

“There really isn’t any pressure,” Mills said. “I want to be clear, I’m not here on behalf of the Moapa Valley or of anyone in Moapa. I’m just here on behalf of this ad hoc committee of the Chamber of Commerce that was asked to look into incorporation. I just think that everyone should have the opportunity to look into it and see what the benefits are and what the downsides might be. What is the harm in looking at it?”

Mills said that he had originally been invited to work with the committee because he was a skeptic. He hadn’t believed that it was possible or feasible. But the research that was done over the past year had brought him to see that incorporation would be a benefit to both upper and lower valleys if they could work together.

“What we really are asking this Board is, do you want us to involve you and come back to present our research with some numbers and details for you, or should we just do it separately through informal town meetings?” Mills said.

MTAB Chairwoman stated that many of her constituents had indicated a desire for a MTAB resolution stating that the people of Moapa were not interested in considering incorporation with the lower valley.

But Wren pointed out that the ad hoc committee were acting independently of the Town Boards in the community and were not affected by such a resolution. “If we pass a resolution they will undoubtedly go forward with this anyway,” she said. “I think that we should ask them to come back and show us some numbers and financial information and then see what the next step is from there.”

Mills and Robison expressed a willingness to do this.

“What we are saying here is that we are opposed to this idea,” Schreiber concluded. “But we invite you back to try and convince us otherwise.”

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