Henderson council divided over bill draft requests to the Legislature

Henderson seeks to make major changes to its charter despite a heated City Council debate last week.

The city plans to send two bills for consideration in the 83rd Nevada Legislative Session in 2025.

One of the bills would change the city’s charter to give 60 days for the city to appoint a “qualified person” in the event an elected position becomes vacant. This change wouldn’t go into effect unless the state Legislature approves it in 2025.

The city has another option for filling a vacant elected seat. The city can call for a special election and that election must occur within 90 days of the council announcing it.

During the Tuesday council meeting, Councilwoman Carrie Cox expressed concerns and reiterated her belief that if a person were to hold a position on the council then that person must be voted in by the public.

“The people deserve a special election every time … I will never be supportive for an appointment, unless it was some extreme situation that we needed to do something shortly,” Cox said.

If a separate special election were to occur during an election season, it would be confusing for voters, she noted.

“It’s expensive to do a special election. So if there were a vacancy, then it would be important to piggyback on the current race, the current election,” Cox said.

Cox also said that running a campaign in 90 days as the bill presents would be too difficult for the candidates.

Mayor Michelle Romero interrupted Cox, saying, “Let’s just vote. Let’s just vote.”

Cox motioned to amend the bill, so that if a vacancy were to occur close to an election, then the ballot for the vacant office would be included alongside a primary or general election ballot.

Her motion was shot down, with council members Dan Shaw, Jim Seebock, and Romero voting against it. Councilman Dan Stewart asked for his vote to be recorded as absent, and Cox was the only one who voted for it.

Seebock made another motion to pass the bill without Cox’s amendment, which passed 3-1 with council members Seebock, Shaw and Mayor Romero voting in favor. Stewart’s vote was recorded as absent and Cox voted against it.

The second recommendation called for amending state law to allow the city to repair private water or sewer water facilities.

The proposed bill would allow the city to create districts to be classified as a Neighborhood Improvement District, according to David Cherry, the city’s government affairs manager.

“This bill is narrowly tailored to meet a very specific need because there is a safety issue involved, meaning that residents will be displaced from their homes if there is no water or sewer service,” Cherry said.

Contact Annie Vong at avong@reviewjournal.com.