Victoria Seaman pushes to recall Las Vegas councilman Steve Seroka
Las Vegas City Councilman Steve Seroka is facing a recall effort as organizers on Monday castigated the policymaker for anti-development stances, while former Assemblywoman Victoria Seaman said she will run against him if proponents can force an election.
Seaman, a one-term Republican state lawmaker who bowed out of a bid for Congress this year, said Seroka represented narrow interests, and she criticized his role in the contentious fight over the proposal to develop homes on the Badlands golf course.
Seaman, who was endorsed for Congress by Councilwoman Michele Fiore, was one of three people who signed the notice of intent to circulate a recall petition received by the City Clerk’s office Monday. Fiore also is a Republican; Seroka is a Democrat. City Council seats are nonpartisan.
“It seems like he’s not representing Ward 2, the taxpayers or the city,” Seaman said. “It seems like he’s representing the few people in Queensridge.”
Seroka has been a staunch opponent of the plan to build on the golf course in the Queensridge community, which is subject to lawsuits, and the three-year battle marked much of the rhetoric in the heated race that saw Seroka get elected in 2017.
He also sponsored the city’s recent open-space ordinance, which precludes developers from repurposing open spaces without first investigating impacts to schools, traffic, utility infrastructure and more.
On Monday, Seroka said he would not back down from defending property values and quality of life in the city, adding that he is “confident” the recall effort would fail.
“I intend to continue honoring the rights of property owners of every size of property,” he said.
A Las Vegas construction union that supported Seroka as a candidate is lending its influence to the effort to jettison him, according to Tommy White, business manager and secretary/treasurer of Local 872, which maintains roughly 3,000 members.
“We look at it as, he’s going to restrict us from building,” White said, suggesting that the councilman had shunned his platform of economic growth to “go against the working-class people.”
Jace Radke, city spokesman, confirmed that recall notice was received Monday by a Washington, D.C.-based “Committee to Recall Steve Seroka.”
To launch a recall election, organizers must now collect 1,850 signatures by March 11 from registered voters who cast a ballot in Ward 2 during the June 2017 general election, when Seroka was elected.
Contact Shea Johnson at sjohnson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272. Follow @Shea_LVRJ on Twitter.
