‘A lot more to be done:’ Commissioner Naft faces challenger concerned about county’s direction

Concerned that no one had stepped up to challenge Commissioner Michael Naft in his re-election bid, Republican Ryan Hamilton was decided to do it himself.

“It wasn’t acceptable to me that all of these metrics in the valley were heading in the wrong way, and he was just gonna get right back into office,” said Hamilton.

Four of the seven all-Democratic commission seats are up for grabs when county residents cast their ballots in November.

Naft represents District A — which includes the south Strip and booming unincorporated Enterprise — since 2019 when he was appointed to the seat. He won re-election in 2020 and is part of the commission that steered the county through the pandemic.

Hamilton holds political science and journalism degrees, served as managing editor for the Minority Business Entrepreneur magazine, and he worked as a business analyst for Vegas Chamber. He also worked at Vegas Stronger, a nonprofit focused on homelessness issues.

He defeated the only other candidate in June’s Republican primary.

Michael Naft

Naft said he’s proud of his five-year stint in the commission, “but there’s a lot more to be done.”

He said he has championed transportation issues and was instrumental in the creation of the county’s Office of Traffic Safety. Earlier this year, he sponsored an initiative that added 84 crossing guards at middle schools.

“We will, over time, reduce the number of fatalities and serious injuries,” Naft said.

Naft said he has pushed private ambulance companies to comply with their contractually-obligated response times.

He said COVID-19 put projects in the back burner.

“While you’re still seeing some of the hangovers of the pandemic that changed so much with how people conduct themselves in Southern Nevada, we’re well-beyond on the road to recovery.”

The county is facing a critical shortage of affordable housing units, and a daylong census earlier this year showed 20 percent year-over-year increases in the homeless population, which included sheltered and unsheltered people, the highest figure in a decade.

“The county has taken an all encompassing approach,” Naft said. “There is no doubt that Clark County has done more to address affordable housing in the last five years than in our entire history.”

He said he would continue to advocate for methodical solutions, and he touted an increase of rapid re-housing units and social services.

Naft said the $100 million the Legislature set aside to combat homelessness, with a pledged match by the private sector, provides “a unique and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a sustainable facility that offers services and helps move people up the pipeline.

Naft has advocated for professional sports, and said the industry and expansion of the Las Vegas Convention Center helped “buffer” the pandemic-related losses.

He said he would push to attract tech companies that are fleeing California, which has a more punishing tax base.

Ryan Hamilton

A graduate of Chaparral High School, Hamilton was born and raised in the Las Vegas Valley.

He said he’s concerned about traffic and airport delays, and he takes issue with how the county handles the homelessness issues.

Hamilton said he would explore eliminating red tape in permitting housing developments, and he said he would be open to rent control proposals if prices don’t come down.

To address homelessness, Hamilton said he would propose an overhaul on how the population’s intakes and outtakes are counted, and he would work on a regional plan with established yearly goals.

“We have a low-functioning organization struggling with basic tasks of identifying what the purpose of spending should be,” he said.

The Metropolitan Police Department, which the county partially funds, functions appropriately with what they have, Hamilton said.

However, Hamilton said, he would push state lawmakers to strengthen penalties related to theft, fentanyl possession and DUI.

Hamilton touted Elon Musk’s Boring Co.’s footprint in the county, which he said is “well positioned” to attract other tech companies, such as drone technology industries.

“I would like Nevada to become a center for water resources,” said Hamilton, adding that he would propose seating a panel of water experts and establishing a research institute to explore how to bring new sources of water to the county.

“Soon, we’re going to be a valley where natural grass is very rare, and I think that’s going to cause all kinds of problems,” he said.

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.