MVTAB Decides Against Holding Straw Poll

By Vernon Robison
Moapa Valley Progress

The Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board (MVTAB), in a meeting held on Wednesday, August 11, voted unanimously to forgo the straw poll vote that has traditionally instructed the County Commissioners in the selection of MVTAB candidates. The reason for the decision, according to board members, was that the straw poll required too much work and volunteer time to be conducted if it’s results were not going to be honored by the Commissioners in the appointments.

The informal straw poll has been taken for many years alongside the official Moapa Valley polling places during the November elections. The ballots listed all of the applicants who had expressed interest in serving on the board. An independent committee was appointed to oversee the straw polling and to count the ballots.

The top five candidates who had received the most votes in the straw poll were recommended to the County Commissioners as the community’s choice for the positions.
Though the Commissioners were never bound by law to follow the results of the straw poll, the wishes of the community were nearly always honored by the Commissioners in their selection of town board appointments.

But in January of 2009, the Commissioners departed from this long-standing tradition. Rather than following the community’s straw poll results, Commissioners Tom Collins and Steve Sisolak appointed Bill Mildice who had received the least number of straw poll votes and Deborah Greco who had also not appeared in the top five candidates of the poll.

During Wednesday’s MVTAB discussion, Board members felt that, if the straw poll was not going to be adhered to, it should not be held.
“My personal position is to not have a straw poll at all if it is not going to be honored,” said MVTAB member Guy Doty. “We have held it in the past because historically we have had the impression that it would be honored. Now, where it was not honored two years ago, I see no point in putting the community through it.”

“It is disheartening to do the voting; appoint a committee to volunteer a lot of time to oversee the polls and count the vote and do all of these things; just to find out it was all for naught because the Commissioners were going to do something else anyway,” said MVTAB member Judy Metz. “It is disheartening and it does cause a lot of friction in the community.”

“We should do one or the other,” said MVTAB member Deborah Greco. “If we are going to have a straw poll then we should stick to it. If we are not going to stick to it, then we should just use the application process and the Commissioners should select them. The problem comes in when you try to do both.”

“Basically the straw poll is nothing more than a popularity contest,” said MVTAB member Billy Mildice. “Gene (Houston) and I have discussed this. He has more friends and family than I do. It causes friction and hard feelings when the Commissioners don’t follow what the straw poll says. And, according to NRS, they do not have to abide by the straw poll. It is only guidelines.”

Commissioner Tom Collins, who was present at the meeting, gave a lengthy commentary setting forth his position in the matter. He prefaced his comments by stating that the town board appointments were purely the prerogative of the County Commissioners who are the elected representatives for the area.
“We [Collins and Sisolak] have both made it pretty clear that if you have a straw poll, we will look at it; but we are not going to commit to go by it,” Collins said.

Collins stated that the straw poll was an old vestige of, what he called, the “Woodbury era”. “None of the other Commissioners historically or presently have held straw polling anywhere else in the county,” Collins said. “It was in (Bruce) Woodbury’s district when the polling began. It was that Commissioner’s desire.

“We live with a republic form of government. The decision lies with the elected representative. Now it is fine to honor a straw poll, but it is advisory only; and it was only done by one commissioner.”

Collins inferred that, as a Commissioner, he was able to view the appointment process from a higher level and that it was best for him to have the ability to select the best candidate to serve the community.
“In my appointments I have looked for the people who will work for the community but also will recognize the needs of the county and work well with the county both upwards and downwards,” Collins said, “and not just with the community out here who says they only want the streets paved with only red brick or sandstone or whatever. I’m looking for someone who will work well with Commissioners, Planning Commissioners, Development Services, Community Liaisons, Public Works, Parks and Rec and all the other departments.”

Collins criticized the community and the town board for having done away with the straw poll voting districts several years ago. This at-large voting had caused a situation where, in the last straw poll, four out of the five people chosen in the poll had resided in the same neighborhood of Logandale, while only one resided in Overton, Collins said. He saw this as a significant problem.

“You are at-large now and not divided up by any precinct boundaries,” Collins said. “That means that the five most popular guys or the five most vigorous campaigners could get the most votes even though they might live on the same street. Does that mean that is who has the best interest to represent this community? There are some people who can campaign and some who can serve. You need to get someone who can campaign a little bit and serve a little bit and be a little better off.”

On this point, Doty responded that the decision for at-large voting had been made so that the people would have an unrestricted choice of the most qualified candidates no matter where they lived in town. “I don’t think we have boundaries of interest in the community anymore,” Doty said. “That hasn’t been there for a long time. If I live in Logandale I’m just as interested in Overton and genuinely concerned with what is best for the whole community.”

In the end, Collins said that he would look at the applications for the town board position, along with Sisolak, and they would exercise their prerogatives in making the appointments. “You can have a straw poll vote every day if you want to,” Collins said. “You are allowed to by law. Polling is allowed. But it is advisory. If you want to have one, have one. It will be considered as part of the applications.

“And if you don’t have one, you’re probably right, it will be a little less contention in the community if they’re not the five guys or ladies that live on the same block.”

MVTAB Chairman Gene Houston made a motion. “Because of what we’ve heard here tonight I move that we do not have a straw poll vote,” he said.
Houston’s motion was approved with a unanimous vote.