Preparing to turn over the reigns

Mayor Bob Ferraro reflects on 31 years in public office

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As far as speeches go, many would have considered Boulder City Mayor Bob Ferraro's State of the City address Jan. 31 a comprehensive review of what the city has accomplished in 2006, but it took on added significance as the man who has served the city for 31 of its 47 years of municipal existence delivered his last hurrah.

The 70-year-old mayor, during his time as a public servant saw the administration of six city managers and a host of mayors come and go.

"First it was Heber Tobler, Roger's dad, then Ken Andree, Bob Boston, Jon Porter, Eric Lundgaard and Iris Bletsch, and the rest was my reign, eight years," he said during an interview in his home the day after his last annual speech. "This is my sixth term as mayor."

Ferraro was first appointed in 1976 to replace Morgan Sweeney, who wanted to resign and tried to recruit Ferraro, an American Pacific Corp. engineer, as his replacement.

"He told me to put my name in so I said I'd think about it, but I didn't think about it," he said. "Morgan asked me if I had thought about it and I said yes and I'm not going to do it. A little while later, Dr. Otto Ravenholt (the former director of the Clark County Health District as it was known then) got a hold of me and asked me to put my name in and then two or three more came around and asked, so I broke down and put my name in. There were eight names in the hat. I still remember that meeting that night, because it was the night they picked me."

In the next few years, there were a couple of issues that proved to be public lightning rods, which Ferraro remembers well.

"There was a big problem that faced the city and that was the golf course ordinance in 1979," he recalled. "A lot of people were not in favor of that, but it passed and in my opinion that was a good thing for Boulder City. The other issue came up at a council meeting where the people were out in the hallway, down the steps and out in the street. Eric Lundgaard had proposed gun legislation, and boy did that stir up a hornet's nest. It got defeated, though."

Now, nearly three decades later, Ferraro is facing two new issues on the June ballot that he said are just as important as the golf course and the gun legislation.

"Namely, they are the sale of a portion of Dutchman Pass (to Clark County) to get the money to purchase the land from (Larry) Canarelli and the second is to sell the land at Bristlecone and Adams to fund the third intake," he said. "There are very serious issues and our voters need to give them their full consideration. In my opinion, if we allow (residential) development in Eldorado Canyon it will change the character of Boulder City forever and ever. And if we don't sell the land (at Bristlecone and Adams) I don't know where we'll come up with the money (to pay the Southern Nevada Water Authority)."

During the early days, long before the passing of the state's Open Meeting Law that requires public noticing and nothing short of voting in public, Ferraro said the meeting process was different.

"When I first started on the council, long before the meeting began, we would sit down and decide how to vote on things," he said. "It was not an open meeting back then."

With four candidates seeking to replace Ferraro -- Councilmen Mike Pacini and Roger Tobler, Roger Harris and Gary Kallam -- in the April primary and June general elections, the man with the gavel who's not afraid to use it has some advice for whoever it might be.

"Be a good listener, take into consideration what a person has to advance, be fair and advise them there are times when you're going to have to be stern," he said.

The mayor said his happiest moments on the council were the construction of all the parks, the Cascata lease, which during the first five years brought in $75,000 a year for local charitable causes, and the construction of the Eldorado Energy plant.

As for his disappointments, Ferraro said the voting down twice of the original golf course and the land sale around Boulder Creek were his two biggest letdowns in the 31 years.

The mayor knows he will leave a legacy.

"I'd like to be remembered for keeping Boulder City on a path toward developing into an admirable place to live, for people being pleased with the services provided and that we have a very viable community," he said. "One of my hallmarks has always been to take a position to be responsive to the public. I may not agree with your concerns, but at least they get a hearing and are heard."

Ferraro and his wife, Connie, who were married in 1994 in a Las Vegas chapel, of which neither one of them can remember the name, celebrated their 12th wedding anniversary Dec. 10.

Connie Ferraro is known not only for being the mayor's wife, but also for her murals that colorfully adorn the many exterior walls of businesses in Boulder City.

She also helped play a role in his 1995, 1999 and 2003 campaigns (and his recall elections, too), but it was a limited performance for the one-time Broadway dancer.

"I walked all over town for him and to go along with that I got a great tan and lost some weight," Connie said. "The recalls were very hectic and I'd go up and down emotionally because I wanted him to win. I'd get hyper sometimes."

So what is the soon-to-be ex-mayor going to do when his successor is sworn in as the city's 15th mayor on June 26?

"That will be the second meeting in June and after I open the meeting and the council is seated, that will be it," Ferraro said. "I'll probably leave right after that."

He said he has no plans to come to future council meetings and sit in the audience -- he claims to have missed no more than five meetings in 31 years -- though he may watch the council on BCTV once in a while.

He does have plans, though, for what will now be his free time.

"I'll be very pleased to do some of my own things and not worry about going to City Hall and not going to all these meetings and not running into Vegas two or three times a week," he said. "I plan to expand my hobbies," which include antique bottle collecting."

After 31 years, it would be easy to pick up and leave all of this behind, but that won't be in the Ferraros' future.

"Connie and I have no intent to leave Boulder City," he said. "We may not stay here all 12 months of the year, but we'll be residents. I've been to all 50 states except two, North and South Dakota, and I'd like to see Mount Rushmore."