Last year at this time the idea of Moapa Valley Incorporation was in the air, and on the tongues of local voters. The notion of breaking free from the mammoth, urban-centered Clark County government and forming a more directly representative rural town government of our own was tremendously appealling to many people. Of course, the big question on everyone’s mind at the time was: Can we really afford it?

Last week, after 15 months of grinding through the incorporation process, we were bluntly told that the answer to that question is ‘no’.

But, if that is really the final decision, why does it feel like there are still so many more questions than answers? If the process is truly over and decided, why were so many core issues left unresolved? Why is there so little real budgetary data available for the community to see, discuss and consider? Why does it feel like we have taken great pains on this process, only to come full circle and end up right back where we started? Though the wheels of this process have turned slowly for more than a year, why do we still not have a definitive answer to that original and fundamental question?

First of all, a comprehensive feasibility study was never completed as requested. Last spring and summer, the community went through an arduous process of obtaining signatures on a petition. The petition simply asked for a formal feasibility study to be conducted to answer the question: Can we afford incorporation? Pursuant to that petition, the County Commission made a timely request to the State Committee on Local Government Finance (CLGF) for such a study to be done. According to state law, the CLGF then had 90 days to complete the study.

Back in 2001, the town of Laughlin made a similar request for a feasibility study. The result at that time was an in-depth 100 page document going into every possible financial detail. Something similar to this was what was hoped for by the incorporation committee and the 41% of local voters who had signed the petition.

But when the Dept. of Taxation analysts appeared before the CLGF back in October to discuss Moapa Valley incorporation, they brought no such thing. Instead they presented a mere five page report to the committee. This document consisted mostly of quick regurgitations of the dart-thrown guesses submitted in the original petition by our own local incorporation committee.

This was not a feasibility study by any stretch of the imagination. The members of the CLGF immediately recognized it as insufficient to make a decision on the matter. So what did they do next? They sent the local incorporation committee back to Clark County to try to find reliable data with which to fill all the empty spaces.

Well that was the whole problem from the start! None of that information had been forthcoming from the County up to that point. That is why the community had taken great pains, through much of the hot summer, to collect hundreds of signatures on a petition. We hadn’t been able get the answers any other way.

With this slight pressure from the CLGF, the County staff did then find a way to provide a few additional answers to the community’s questions regarding expenditures. But at the same time, they also smoked up the air raising many more additional difficulties and uncertainties along the way. Rather than look at a set of challenges and work to simplify them and find solutions, the County, as it is wont to do, immediately dug up 1001 reasons that it just could not be done. This technique worked perfectly to overwhelm, disorient and discourage the small group of local volunteers in the incorporation committee.

Of course, none of this should have come as a big surprise to the incorporation committee members. But somehow it did. These civic-minded local volunteers, working generously on their own time notwithstanding, had not done their homework. They had not yet come up with well-researched and credible projections of their own. As such they were forced to accept whatever data they were given at face value.

What’s more, these well-intentioned locals didn’t heed the old salesman’s axiom that says, “Never accept a ‘no’ from someone who doesn’t have the authority to say ‘yes’ ”. Therefore, they made a custom of accepting the bureaucratic ‘no’ far too often; and then they just let that ‘no’ stand without further question.

What’s more, while the diligent members of the incorporation committee should be commended for their many hours of work on this issue, they still allowed far too many questions to remain on the table. Even now there are many options to negotiate, much information to gather and multiple avenues to explore in order to truly satisfy the public with a final decision.

The Metro police issue, which was the alleged dealbreaker to the whole process, is a good example. The notion that a significant reduction of police coverage would be necessary in order for a newly incorporated city to be viable was no surprise. Our current excellent police service is gold plated. It would be reasonably expected that such a wonderful and costly luxury might be unaffordable for a new, small city.

But this issue comes right to the heart of the matter. At the very crux of incorporation was always the question of just how much the community is willing to sacrifice for its own self government. No one yet knows the answer to that question. It should be a community decision reached through open discussion and public debate. But rather than gathering the data, determining the options and presenting it all to the community for a meaningful discussion and an eventual vote, the committee members made assumptions based on the informal twitterings of a few people in town. With that very limited scope of feedback, they then made the call on their own, gave up hope and threw in the towel. Thus the process ended on an extremely unsatisfying note for the public.

Despite these mis-steps, though, at least the local committee members got up, went out and made an honest effort in the community. The vast majority of residents talked a lot and did little. In the end it is only fair to point the finger of responsibility back to the community at large.

The Moapa Valley is chock full of talented leaders and willing volunteers. Unfortunately, not many actually step up to the plate and lead out in civic matters of importance. Those who do often enjoy very little loyal and active support, or feedback, from their peers and neighbors. Unfortunately, the bench of willing civic leadership and committed followship has proven surprisingly shallow in the Moapa Valley.

The local incorporation committee and its small group of volunteers was able to hold together for a short time last summer. But it eventually began splintering apart. In the end only a couple of people were left functioning, no doubt feeling like everyone else in town had taken a step back in the crucial moment and left them alone on the front lines.

The primary hurdle to incorporation was not a financial one. Rather it was a crisis of community leadership and followship.

There is no doubt whatsoever that Moapa Valley incorporation would have posed tremendous challenges to the local people and the new city government for years to come. That is not to say it would not have been worth it. But given these certain challenges, the worst that could happen would be for the community to enter those uncharted and perilous waters without strong and capable leaders willing to stand up and take the helm.

Since these recent events seem to indicate that such a worst case scenario was a likely end-game to Moapa Valley incorporation, perhaps it is best that we just stay right where we are.