Testimony
Before The Nevada
(March 27th, 2009 )
Last Monday I exercised my right as a citizen and traveled to the Grant Sawyer State Building in Las Vegas as did two other somewhat more prominent Laughlin residents, Former Laughlin Town Advisory Board Chair Kathy Ochs and Dick McCall who has been active in civic affairs for many, many years. We were there to support Assembly Bill 383 which would allow Laughlin residents to choose the option to incorporate. Below is the text of the comments I made.
Testimony
Before the Committee of Government
Affairs
Nevada State Assembly
Chairman Kirkpatrick and
Members of the Committee, I am pleased to appear before you to testify on AB 383,
regarding the incorporation of Laughlin. My name is Jordan Ross; I am a
resident of Laughlin and have been actively participating in local civic
affairs for six years, primarily as Editor of The Laughlin Herald, an online
political column. My views presented today are my own and do not necessarily
reflect those of other Laughlin residents.
Laughlin’s institutional
status has been an issue of concern to me for some time. I myself authored some
minor proposed amendments to the Bylaws of the Laughlin Town Advisory Board in
2008 some of which were subsequently adopted by that body.
There are long standing
questions as to what extent elective government should extend vertically to
local inhabitants. How small a population should have an elected representative
council? In some states, incorporated cities may have no more than a few
hundred inhabitants. In our nation’s largest city, New York
How many layers should local
government have? In most states two layers seem to suffice, but complex
metropolitan areas may have three and in Great Britain
Whatever may work in one
place or another, in Laughlin the overwhelming sentiment is that the current
single unitary local government, supplemented by various appointed bodies such
as the Laughlin Town Advisory Board and the Laughlin Economic Advisory
Committee, no longer meet either the practical or aspirational needs of our township,
particularly in light of its geographical isolation.
We have had and continue to
have concerns about decisions made for us and priorities set for us. Issues
from those as significant as the planning and disposition of the 9000 acres of
former Colorado River Commission land to the more mundane issues of which
potholes should be fixed first, can all be rationally argued to several logical
yet different conclusions.
But the overriding and truly
fundamental issue at hand here is our desire to have some control of our own
destiny. Large scale services such as planning, public works and parks and
recreation can adequately and efficiently serve hundreds of thousands of
residents in one urban Clark County region or another
that may encompass several different communities. But that cannot be used as a
template for a community as distant as ours.
We are not idealists. We are
under no illusion that incorporation is a panacea for all our ills nor that it
will not bring its own challenges. But as a community we are more than up to
that challenge. Our citizens have created a Laughlin Economic Development
Corporation to look to the future. We have a significant number of active
senior citizens, who not only bring a wealth of significant professional
experience that so many of them even now contribute to civic affairs, but who
also place no demands on the local job market. We are, as a body of active
citizens, convinced that we can rise to the occasion and truly create an
innovative municipal government worthy of the new millennium, creating an
administration that is genuinely “out of the box”.
There is also available to
any new government entity, a significant body of cutting edge, relevant
research in public administration. I include in this, by way of example, the
2002 Callahan Report of the Brookings Institution on franchise funds and
service provision as well as the 2003 Volker Report of the National Commission
on the Public Service on revitalizing 21st Century government.
What ever the future may
bring, I ask that this Committee in the final analysis, view this as a matter
of voting rights and home rule. There may be errors to make in the destiny of
Laughlin, but all we ask is that you let us make those errors ourselves.
This concludes my statement
Madame Chair. I wish to thank the Committee for it’s time and attention and I
appreciate the opportunity to share my views with you. I would be pleased to
respond to any questions you and the Committee Members may have.
We welcome the public’s feedback. Please send your Letters To The Editor to editor@laughlinherald.com