Woodbury Provides Clear Guidance In A Confusing Field

This year, the race for the County Commission District A seat has been full of legal complexities and confusion. In May, just after the candidate’s filing deadline, Secretary of State Ross Miller raised the legal issue of term limits and the eligibility of many long-standing public servants to seek re-election. This included County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury who has served in the District A seat for 27 years. The final word on this issue was not given until the day before early voting in the Primary Election, after the ballots had already been printed. At that point, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled that Woodbury and several other local officials would not be eligible for re-election.

All of this has been the cause some confusion among many voters. Voters, without the option to vote for the most popular, and perhaps the preferred candidate: Bruce Woodbury, were instead left with a choice between two lesser known candidates Brian Scroggins (R) and Steve Sisolak (D). This has, in many cases, left some uncertainty of who would be best for the job.

“I have known Brian for many years,” Woodbury said in a recent interview with the Progress. “He is a man of high integrity and strong ability. I trust him to be an effective representative, not only for urban Clark County, but to also pay special attention to outlying areas like Moapa Valley and Bunkerville.”

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Scroggins is the youngest of five children. He graduated from Brigham Young University in 1988 with a degree in design and graphic arts.

Scroggins and his wife, Barbara moved to Southern Nevada 20 years ago. He founded his own sign company, United Sign, 15 years ago and has, during that time, overseen its growth into a successful business.

During an interview with the Progress Scroggins said that he believes strongly in Woodbury’s philosophy of home rule. He feels it is important to listen carefully to the residents of the outlying communities and then follow what is wanted there. “It isn’t the County’s job to dictate what the rural communities should do,” he said in an interview last week. “The residents in areas like Moapa Valley and Bunkerville know what they need. It is the County’s job to listen to that and find ways of providing it. They should be advising us and not us advising them.”

Scroggins says that he understands the plight of the remaining rurals in the most populous county in the state. He lives in an area, at the Southern end of the Las Vegas Valley, that has successfully held out as one of the last Rural Neighborhood Preservation Areas left in the Las Vegas Valley. Though they live in Las Vegas, the Scroggins children have even had the opportunity, since they live in a Rural Neighborhood Preservation Area, to raise pigs as 4-H projects and then to have them sold at the Clark County Fair.

In the four years serving on his local town board, Scroggins witnessed and participated in the constant struggle to retain rural standards in his community. “I certainly understand that there is really nothing more discouraging than to give local input to the County and then be ignored,” he said.

With this sensitivity to rural ideals, Commissioner Woodbury believes that Scroggins is the ideal candidate to represent the outlying areas of Clark County that fall within District A. “Brian knows well what it is to deal with the County government and the bureaucracy there,” Woodbury said. “He also knows that the rural areas need a strong advocate on the commission with the county government.”

Woodbury has no hesitation about throwing the full weight of his support behind Scroggins. In a final moment of his interview with the Progress Woodbury related an anecdote that, he felt, was quite revealing about the characters of both candidates seeking to replace him. Woodbury told about how, back in May, on the last day of candidate filing, the Secretary of State had begun to make his concerns known about the issue of term limits in this election. “None of us, at that time, really knew where it would end up,” Woodbury said.

A day or two after that, Woodbury received calls from both Scroggins and Sisolak. They both told him that they had filed to appear on the ballot. But both said that they would remain totally supportive of Woodbury’s candidacy. They were very straightforward and public about the fact that they only planned to run in earnest if Woodbury was removed from the ballot.

“Brian kept his word totally,” Woodbury said. “He openly told people that he supported me and would not run unless my name was removed.” Indeed, Scroggins didn’t even start raising campaign funds until after the Supreme Court ruling in July.

But only a few days after those calls, Sisolak hired an attorney to file a lawsuit to remove Woodbury’s name from the ballot.

“I think that story tells a lot about the character of both of the two candidates in this election,” Woodbury concluded.