Mayor Oscar Goodman and other city officials say theyre moving forward with their grand plans for a new city hall with a price tag of $150 million to $267 million for several key reasons.
The current City Hall is more than three decades old and crowded, and its mechanical systems are beginning to fall apart, city officials assert.
Perhaps more important, they say a new city hall is vital to the success of redevelopment plans throughout downtown, including the adjacent Union Park, which they expect to bring more than 13,400 jobs and $4.1 billion in private investment.
Arguing against the plan, the Culinary Union contends that the project is an overpriced boondoggle reflecting misplaced city priorities. Such money could be better used to fund cash-strapped schools, police and firefighters.
The union claims the city is so eager to cement development deals that little is being done to ensure that good jobs, with decent pay and sta
ble benefits, will result.
Those are arguments each side is making publicly, but its becoming increasingly clear that each is operating with the belief that the other has hidden motives.
Though theyre reluctant to say so publicly, the Culinary thinks Goodman is emphatic about the issue because he views it as a legacy project perhaps one that will come with his name on the building.
The city has said the Culinary demanded that the union be represented in any new downtown hotels and casinos. Having failed, the city claims the Culinary is exacting revenge by trying to put the kibosh on the city hall project.
The fight is on, as the Culinary on Thursday turned in more than 14,000 petition signatures to the city clerks office in support of two ballot measures. One could stop the city hall project by requiring voter approval of lease-purchase construction projects, and the other would rein in the citys redevelopment agency.
Scott Adams, director of the citys Office of Business Development, referred in a recent interview on KNPRs State of Nevada program to what he said was the true motive of the Culinary: Do what it could to ensure that new hotels and casinos downtown are unionized.
They are using the veil of the public trust as a motive to get these projects organized, Adams said. Thats the real motive here.
Adams also defended the redevelopment agency. He said it has in the past five years tripled tax revenue downtown, created 9,000 construction jobs and 7,500 additional permanent jobs.
Chris Bohner, the Culinarys research director, responded on the program that the issue is larger than a new city hall the municipality needs to do more to ensure that future city employees are protected.
I think weve made it abundantly clear that this is an issue that transcends any one project, Bohner said.
The citys proposal includes a roughly 300,000-square-foot city hall at First Street and Clark Avenue. The seven-story building would be part of a new office complex. Completion of city hall would allow developer Forest City Enterprises to build a casino/hotel on Union Park land the city traded for the city hall site.
Goodman says the city hall project is vital because its a linchpin for further redevelopment meaning new jobs.
At a Jan. 21, City Council meeting, Goodman lambasted Juanita Clark of the Charleston Neighborhood Preservation group when she raised concerns about the project.
Its going to revitalize downtown. Its going to create tons of construction jobs, which will be needed after CityCenter is complete, he said.
And then after that, its going to have 13,441 permanent jobs at a time when people are losing their jobs, theyre in soup lines almost, Goodman said. And people are objecting to this? Smart lady, I dont understand it.
The Culinary maintains its protest is principled.
The development plan, union officials say, is fiscally irresponsible, especially at a time when the city faces a $150 million deficit over the next five years and has announced cuts in public services.
We have a large obligation to members of our union who are also taxpayers, said Pilar Weiss, the Culinarys political director. We have fought hard for the Las Vegas dream. Part of that is living in a community where your kids school is good, where if something happens theres a public safety response and, in an economic downturn, theres a social safety net.
Weiss said the union sent a letter and sample organizing agreement to the developer last year but did so as a matter of standard practice.
Goodman and Culinary leader D. Taylor met several weeks ago, when Taylor reportedly handed Goodman a list of proposed changes to the Las Vegas Redevelopment Agency. Weiss said it was a brainstorm list of possible changes in the agency.
The changes include creating a citizens advisory committee for the agency; ensuring that subsidies to developers create good paying jobs with health insurance; and enacting a labor peace ordinance, which would mandate that the developer and the union agree before all future such developments could proceed.
The union says the city is neglecting to use leverage other cities have used to guarantee quality of life for workers, including demanding community benefits agreements from developers.
Weiss said Goodman requested the sit-down a claim a city spokesman could not confirm at which Taylor detailed the unions concerns. Many of the changes, she said, are being considered by redevelopment authorities across the country.
Its unclear whether Goodman and Taylor plan to meet again.
Sam Skolnik can be reached at 229-6436 or at sam.skolnik@lasvegassun.com.
Source: Las Vegas Sun
