DEVELOPMENT OCCURRING ALL OVER NORTH LAS VEGAS

(like) having a bunch of starts and stops with bringing infrastructure out there. The twophase approach we adopted in January is taking a look at Apex as a northern and southern section, and looking at the best ways to quickly bring utilities to those two areas. You would think you’d need to bring water from the south to get to the north, but in reality, there are groundwater options. So you could have water in the north by drilling wells.

There are grand plans to remake downtown. How is the development manifesting?

Some people are even surprised to know there’s a downtown in North Las Vegas. There are several things we’ve done there. We have a few things that are anchoring downtown; for example, we have a hospital ... and that was one of the first things we identified in the first few months of coming into the city, that the hospital needed room to expand. We are also expanding for a library in the downtown area, and it’s going to be a really unique library. It’s going to provide a focus on what a library typically focuses on, but also focus on workforce and job creation. Downtown is exciting because one thing we’ve worked on in North Las Vegas is embracing who we are.

How is the city expanding the tax base and attracting new job opportunities?

That’s really a challenge that governments face everywhere, and one thing that’s been professionally rewarding about working in North Las Vegas is that now there are people who are replicating or attempting to replicate what we’ve done. We’ve had cities throughout the country that have contacted us, and think tanks and college professors. In fact, we have a city from Mexico coming to meet with us to identify how we were able to turn the corner. Aside from things that they can’t replicate, like we have a tremendous staff and a visionary mayor and council, we were able to go out and attract businesses to come and develop in North Las Vegas. We didn’t just wait for them to call us. We put together a team that was capable and experienced with going out and bringing businesses in. To me, that’s exciting that we’re becoming a model of good governance.

What else should people know about you?

I think there is a lot that people don’t know. For example, I’m fluent in Spanish. I lived in South America and served a full-time mission for my church for two years. That language ability and cultural understanding helps me connect with large groups of our population in North Las Vegas.