The race for County Commissioner in District A in Clark County is an important one, because it not only covers the ever-growing southwest and stretches all the way to California, but parts of the Strip as well.
Transportation is a big issue for that area — and now, so is crime, given the spate of violence that has plagued the resort corridor since Labor Day Weekend.
That issue could make challenger and Republican Michael Thomas, a retired police officer, well-suited for the job.
But there are many issues — especially thanks to Covid-19 — that concern District A. And Democrat Michael Naft, the incumbent, knows the area and its needs well.
DISCUSSION HIGHLIGHTS
Michael Naft
On violence on the Las Vegas Strip:
I have conversations every single day about this topic. It’s critical, not only for our own residents to feel in our community – it’s really what amounts to quality of life knowing you can be safe and have the resources you need to protect you and your family – but it is also so pivotal that we’re ensuring the safety of our tourism corridor.
I speak every single day with Metro and with the stakeholders who are involved. Just a few minutes ago, I got off the phone with Capt. [Dori] Koren, who oversees the Convention Center Area Command. That’s the area that has jurisdiction over most of Las Vegas Boulevard.
I commend him. He has done an incredible job. He’s one of the best we’ve got working on this problem every day with a program he calls: Persistence. He has been working hard, he and his officers, to try and make sure we’re doing everything within our power to return the Strip to the safe corridor that we all know it to be.
Through that operation, we’ve made sure, at the county level, that they have the resources they need to succeed in that. The good news is, generally, for our community crime rates have decreased throughout Clark County.
It is really isolated to the Strip corridor where we’re seeing this increase in violent crime. I think it’s important that we’re paying particular attention to that but also highlight the fact that things are moving in the right direction in Clark County generally.
But we can’t take for granted the Strip that we know and love. We have to make sure that as the governor has increased our ability to bring business back to Las Vegas Boulevard that we are equally making sure that business wants to come back to Las Vegas Boulevard and keeping public safety in mind is critically important.
How can the country recover from the budget cuts it needed to make in the wake of the economic downturn from the pandemic?
I can report that thanks to the fiscally conservative nature of Clark County and our local government ... we have had the resources to continue during this really challenging time and to bridge the gap.
We’re also looking at how we can use the federal CARES Act dollars to really stimulate our economy. As an example, instead of using a dollar to help one person, how could we be using a dollar to help three?
One specific way that we do that is in the grants that we’ve offered to our small businesses. These are businesses with fewer than 20 employees. We’ve helped them bridge this gap, which has also helped their landlord in many cases and also help their employees put food on the table.
On what constituents are saying about what is important to them?
I continue to reach constituents in every part of my district from the I-15 and Flamingo Road to Laughlin, Nevada and everywhere in between.
I’ve done that really by offering services. It’s what I feel my time can best be utilized. How can I figure out what a specific neighborhood or a specific community in my district needs, and then, how can I be delivering the services?
An example of that is just last week I was in Anthem delivering curbside care. It’s a series of events that we’ve branded that way to really help people take advantage of the services they need out of the comfort and safety of their car.
Last week, we were offering flu shots. We were offering secure shredding, electronic recycling, medication disposal. It’s a partnership that I have with law enforcement and so many stakeholders, like Opportunity Village and the Blind Center of Nevada, to make sure that we are – while it might be harder to communicate with people, we need to make sure we don’t stop communicating with residents and that we’re meeting their needs.
On a potential crisis in homelessness:
The Guinn Center has estimated upwards of 160,000 people will be housing-insecure because of COVID-19. We have always prioritized this. Clark County is the social services provider for our community. Last year, we had dedicated the local revenue from the marijuana sales tax in the county to help address this problem.
I think what’s really important is to connect the dots, and we stop this cycle that too many in our community fall in. Where you go from being apprehended into the state’s largest mental health facility, the Clark County Detention Center, then you go to UMC, the county hospital, then you’re back on the streets. How can we intervene to make sure people’s needs are being met for the long term?
It is safer for our community. It’s the more humane thing to do and in the long run, it is certainly cheaper.
We’ve utilized CARES Act funding in the short term. We know right now we have until the end of the year to use those funds. But we’ve tried to develop programs that will really benefit our community in the long run that’s really been the focus. We’re fortunate to have Kevin Schiller at the helm, as our assistant county manager, who oversees all of our social service work. He’s done some incredibly innovative things, and he has really made himself available to the non-profits in our community who serve so many in need.
On affordable housing solutions:
Not only are home prices and home values skyrocketing, but it is also the rental market. It’s hard to find even a one-bedroom in parts of my district for under $1,800 a month.
Affordable housing is a problem. What I’m really cognizant of and want to make sure we’re all being aware of is that we don’t repeat the mistake of the past. A lot of that came out of the things that the banks did – mortgages and lending practices that were inappropriate – and we’re not seeing that on a large scale right now.
I think the county has to be aware of and cognizant of: How long can these home prices continue to stay at these high rates? I think you’ll continue to see it as we continue to have such low-interest rates on mortgages, which lends itself to these opportunities for high home values.
We need to make sure that we continue to work with all of the stakeholders that is everything from the apartment association and realtors to individuals who are really facing the problem head-on of housing insecurity and the challenges that come out of a high cost of living.
If you are re-elected, what is going to be your number one priority going forward?
In some ways, the county was behind the times with being accessible and approachable. Things like our website that hadn’t been updated in 15 years. We were able in this last year to launch a brand new clarkcountynv.gov, which is really built with the user in mind. Finally, you can access the website from your cellphone.
So much that the county does individuals may never be aware of or might not utilize those services, but when they do need those services or when it is something you might need, we want to make sure it is easy for them to come across.
That’s why I’ve really found my priority to be connecting people with the services that we provide. People shouldn’t have to run downtown to go into the government building to simply get a form or a piece of paper to fill out. We have to make sure that we’re moving with the times and that we’re making government easy, more friendly and more approachable.”
When it comes down to it, I consider my job to be one of customer service and I think that’s how government employees should view their role.
Michael Thomas
Two years ago, you ran for school board but ended up losing to Danielle Ford. What made you jump from school to county commission?
The reason I ran for education initially is I had finished my law enforcement career with the Clark County School District Police Department. I was pretty familiar with the school district, having been president of the School Police Officers’ Association and working budgets and sitting in on negotiations and bargaining. It just seemed to be a natural progression.
I did run at the end of 2015/2016 for Clark County commissioner previously against Steve Sisolak, and I didn’t think I did too bad without any resources. I thought I would throw my hat in the arena again.
What should we be doing about the wave of assaults and shootings on the Las Vegas Strip?
I think what we need to do is we need to support our law enforcement. I think we need to have targeted patrols within the Strip corridor. If people don’t feel safe walking the Strip, day or night, they’re not going to come to Las Vegas. It’s bad enough that we’re dealing with a pandemic.
One thing when I was with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department that worked really well was the increase of bike patrols, targeting offenders and things of that nature. I think something similar could be done on the Las Vegas Strip, working hand-in-hand with the private security at the casinos and the resorts.
On his termination from the North Las Vegas Police Department:
When I was with the North Las Vegas Police Department, I was a decorated deputy sheriff. I had left Los Angeles County, moved my family Nevada, to Clark County and I went to work as a lateral police officer with the North Las Vegas Police Department.
And I quickly found out that the North Las Vegas Police Department in the late '90s was basically controlled by the union. I was one of two officers that were not union members and because of that, I was targeted. I’m proud of my time with North Las Vegas.
I saw corruption – without a doubt. And ultimately, my case wound it's way up to the Nevada Supreme Court, but the reason I lost at the Nevada Supreme Court is, I didn’t ask for any money. I just asked for reinstatement
And the direct result of me exposing what was going on in North Las Vegas – chief of police lost his job. He was forced to retire. The union president was forced to retire. The city manager was terminated. They had to reform and because of me bringing forth these issues in my lawsuit against the North Las Vegas Police Department, the union had to be broken up. The chief of police, the supervisors, were in the same union as the rank-and-file. That’s now changed.
On support from local law enforcement:
I fully get support from local law enforcement. People call me every day and tell me they support me.
It’s funny because my opponent has all the endorsements – he says – of local law enforcement, but he wants to defund the police and use the money for social reform.
I don’t. I disagree. I think a better thing is community outreach. Educate the public about what the police do and go back to a system we had in the late '80s, early '90s, called Community Oriented Policing, where officers work in certain communities. They know those communities and there’s a trust that’s built between the officers and the communities in which they’re policing.
On the possibility of additional cuts to the county budget:
We need to get people back to work. We need to reopen what we can, when we can. That would be reopening businesses safely, responsibly.
If you look at the shutdown, we’ve to got suicide rates are up. Alcoholism is up. Drug addiction is up. We’ve shut down the entire economy for a virus that 99 percent of the people are going to survive unless you have an underlying medical condition.
I think the best way to get revenue back to Las Vegas and Clark County is to reopen.
What would you recommend the county do in response to the homelessness issue, which is expected to increase because of the economic fallout from the pandemic?
I already know that the county spends tens of millions of dollars a year addressing the homeless. If you give somebody a place to live and attack homelessness that way, you’re creating housing, you’re creating slums. I think what needs to be done is there needs to be a coordinated effort with non-profit groups, advocacy groups because homelessness itself is a problem but there is a reason people are homeless, and I think that needs to be addressed as well because if you don’t address those issues and money isn’t spent on those things, all you are doing is allowing homeless people to have a place to live and you’re not addressing the underlying issues that led them to be homeless.
In what ways would you like the county to change direction?
I would like the county to streamline the process for construction and building. Several developers I talk to, they say there are multi-layers of getting approval for construction, even for residents.
They talk to somebody from the county who wants them to do A, B, and C before you can even break ground on a development or a project. ‘We need you to fulfill these things,’ and then they do it, then it gets handed off to another person, who comes back and says, ‘We know we told you we wanted A, B, and C, but now we want you to do D, E, and F.’ Developers want to know why they aren’t told that in the beginning. It delays the building. It delays the construction.
These are places that aren’t developed because they can’t even break ground because they can’t get approval from the commission to get these things done.
One of the things that I find very interesting is that my opponent, Mr. Naft, takes a lot of money from special interests. Since October of last year, he has collected over $1 million [in] special interest [money].
If he’s going to spend that much time collecting money from special interest groups, how is he really doing the work of the people? I find that disconcerting.
On compromise with the other commissioners:
Obviously, public safety, getting us back work, getting Las Vegas where it needs to be. It’s hard to be the entertainment capital of the world if there is no entertainment. I think we could find common ground there. [We could find common ground] with transportation, water conservation, these are all things as Nevadans that we’re all interested in. I think that’s something where we can find common ground.
Clarification: Commissioner Mike Naft has not said he wanted to defund police, as Thomas charged. Naft has said he would like a review of police spending.
Michael Naft, commissioner, Clark County Commission; Michael Thomas, Republican candidate, Clark County Commission
