Representative Steven Horsford deserves some due credit!
For the first time, Mr. Horsford came, in person, and met publicly with the folks of Moapa Valley. In that meeting, held Saturday, he formally presented the Reid/Horsford Bill on the future of Gold Butte to local residents. This was done two weeks after he introduced his version of the bill in the House of Representatives; and about a month after Sen. Harry Reid introduced a companion bill in the Senate.
No doubt coming to Moapa Valley was a daunting task for the Congressman. While the local crowd which attended treated him with respect and courtesy, Horsford knew that there would be strong local opposition to this Reid/Horsford plan for Gold Butte. He also knew that he was far from his home political territory. All the same, he came. He came personally and boldly and made a presentation of his proposal. We commend him for doing so.
In addition to his carefully-crafted presentation, Horsford also participated in a brief, tightly controlled question/answer session with attendees. The meeting was, after all, billed as a chance for the Congressman to listen to public input on his bill. Numerous times during the presentation, he assured the audience that he was fully committed to getting public input from all stakeholders. Unfortunately, by the end of the meeting it was clear that this event was not really about public input.
The whole subtext of the meeting seemed to us to betray this claim. After all if he was really looking for feedback from the public on how to fashion important public lands legislation, it seems a bit condescending to ask for “public input” two weeks AFTER introducing the bill? The Congressman insisted that the bill is a working document, and we truly hope this is true. He said repeatedly that he needs and wants input on ways to make the bill’s language better and that he was here to listen. Unfortunately, it seemed that there was a lot of talking and not much of listening going on in Saturday’s meeting.
Local concerns about the bill language proposing a new eastern Overton Arm boat ramp were dismissed by the Congressman by asserting that the bill’s language was drafted vaguely enough to neutralize those concerns. Meanwhile however, he avoided offering any assistance to Moapa Valley in developing and restoring boat access on the west side of the lake at Overton Beach or Echo Bay; which was really the heart of these concerns to begin with.
He went to some length to demonize federal management agencies on the issue of roads; threatening that, if local consensus on the Reid/Horsford bill could not be reached, these agencies would be free to run rampant by closing roads without any input from the public. This seems strange in view of the fact that the BLM did vastly more public input gathering before making final decisions on Gold Butte road designations than has taken place by either Senator Reid or Congressman Horsford before their bills were introduced in their respective houses of Congress last month.
Mr. Horsford completely sidestepped the central question of the issue which is the NEED for the proposed federal wilderness. It was asked a couple of times: ‘Why do we need additional wilderness designation in that area?’ That is, of course, a fair question since BLM management documents have not recommended wilderness designation on any of the proposed areas. In fact, the BLM documents state that at least two of the areas being proposed for wilderness do not even have traits sufficient to comply with federal requirements. The Congressman simply chose not to respond to those questions at the meeting.
He repeatedly touted the idea of gathering local input but did not take the time to really engage local constituents, some of whom are experts, in the on-the-ground issues that are the chief local problems with the proposed federal wilderness designation.
In the end, the meeting came off too much like a well-scripted sales pitch rather than a sincere listening session. It seemed like the plan was already in place and all that was left now was to check off the ‘public input’ box. Moapa Valley: check!
Still Mr. Horsford came and sought to initiate a relationship. And that truly is worth a great deal. We hope that his repeated pledges about gathering extensive public input are genuine. We hope that he and his staff will continue to engage in sincere discussion with the local communities. We hope that they will spend some face time with various community leaders and stakeholders getting down to the crux of the concerns and crafting some meaningful solutions. We hope that it will be a true exchange of views and not just a monologue. We hope that the discussion will be allowed to veer off of the script a little and begin to scratch the surface of the truly important concerns of the residents of northeastern Clark County.
After all, in one thing, Mr. Horsford is right. This is the time for all parties to come to the table and have a meaningful discussion.
Thank you again, Congressman Horsford for your visit! Please don’t make yourself a stranger!
