What's your plan of action for your first few months in office?ELECTIONS CONTINUED FROM PAGE AA

The View asked the candidates to share, in their own words, their strategies if elected

Advertisement

Stephanie Smith

My top priority is to protect the progress that our city has made, even while we cope with difficult financial times. We must keep close tabs on our revenues and expenses to continue delivery of services to our residents while protecting our public safety budget at all costs. We need to take a common sense approach to our budget, and use fiscal prudence when making decisions. I also will implement a business-friendly plan to encourage even more appropriate industrial growth, creating new jobs while maintaining the quality of life that North Las Vegas residents expect. I will promote a more open, transparent government. The door to my city council office is always unlocked and open, and I will work on a low-cost solution to put our City Council meetings on the Internet so that all residents can be a part of an open, honest and ethical city government.

John 3:16 Cook

Right off the bat, I want to set up workshops to entice grocers from California to come here. We have had four supermarkets closed in this town recently. There are no good grocers here. We should entice people to move their businesses into shopping centers we already have. We need to rehab this place and give city hall a good physical.

William Robinson

Dealing with the economic crisis we face is my top priority. The city needs experienced stewardship now more than ever. I have always held the line on city budgets and am the most qualified candidate to make the tough cuts we face in the coming years.

My opponents have consistently voted to expand our government and increase our spending. I pledge to make the necessary cuts to our city budget while maintaining all vital services and our great quality of life.

Shari Buck

These are times in which many in our community feel helpless and hopeless due to our economic situation. They wonder what a mayor can do to solve these problems. A mayor has the ability and responsibility to lead our city through these difficult times. As your mayor, I intend to use every resource available to me to address the dire issues facing North Las Vegas residents. I will seek out and use incentives to recruit new businesses that will provide jobs. I will work with our state and federal delegations to promote policies and appropriations to help keep people in their homes. The voters can and should expect me to be an activist mayor who will be aggressive in protecting their well-being. As mayor, public safety will also be at the top of my list of concerns. My goal is that our residents not only "feel safe" but actually are safe. I will add 70 more patrol officers to the streets in the next three years. I will foster community policing programs and increase patrols.

Ned Thomas

My plan of action for the first few months in the mayor's office will include:

1. Meet one-on-one with members of the City Council to discuss priorities and how we will work together to move our community forward in tough economic times.

2. Establish open lines of communication with the city manager and meet with key city staff to discuss priorities and how we will work together to establish open, effective, and transparent management of local government.

3. Direct staff to create a moderated "Town Hall" blog that will allow citizens to provide input on a variety of topics and make suggestions to the City Council and staff.

4. Establish a task force comprised of knowledgeable people from banking, real estate and finance to provide expert advice to the City Council on meaningful actions that we can take to address the foreclosure crisis in our own community.

5. Meet with the mayors of Las Vegas and Henderson and the chairman of the Clark County Board of Commissioners to discuss areas of common concern and regional economic development.

6. Create a volunteer Citizen's Advocacy Office to help residents and businesses navigate City Hall and obtain equal access to municipal services.

Rolando Cruz

I will work on developing relationships with the rest of council. I will also work on developing deep roots with the community as a whole. I will host town halls with the residents between Lake Mead Boulevard and Owens and Pecos and Civic Center to discuss slowing their traffic down and avoid a tragedy. The residents of Ward 1 will have a council person dedicated to fixing their problems hands on.

Jeffrey Eggeman

The first thing that I will do is get Losee Road fixed. It has been under construction for a very long time. It is a straight road. If it had curves in it, I would understand, but it is a straight road. Also, getting rid of those "temporary traffic lights" and installing permanent ones. I would come up with ways of increasing property values. Preventing local casinos from being built in your backyard. Court businesses to locate to North Las Vegas that will provide jobs and an economic future. Talk to other government leaders on how to get the most benefits from the huge economic stimulus package. Work with the North Las Vegas Police and with neighborhoods on crime prevention. I will set up a green energy policy that will save the city money. I will have a policy on fixing the foreclosure problem. I will listen to the people of North Las Vegas and hear their problems and solutions. I very much like problem solving. I have great leadership skills. If elected, I will make North Las Vegas a better place to work, raise children, and overall a better place to live.

Robert Eliason

We need to take a strong hard look at the budget and salaries without hurting the current level of services.

Felix Acevedo Jr.

My plan of action will include:

-- Meeting with city stakeholders to understand the challenges they are facing in achieving critical goals.

-- Hosting a series of town hall meetings to com-municate how we can address the issues I am hearing on the campaign trail.

-- Identify projects that promote development and bolster job creation.

Angelo Carvalho

I am going to Disneyland!!!!!

Jack Kelso

Ward 3 is a truly unique area, predominately residential in character with easily accessed neighborhood retail and service businesses. The future development areas to the north and infill parcels require residential sensitive planning as well as city-wide services. My initial effort as Ward 3 council representative will be to establish an effective committee of HOA representatives, neighborhood representatives and concerned citizens to review all new planning initiatives and I pledge to support the wishes of this committee on all matters important to the citizens of Ward 3.

Michael Little

Immediately focus on bringing up-tic industry and manufacturing opportunities in both research and development to North Las Vegas. Seek to partner with our higher education system to joint collaborate in emerging technology development in the areas of renewable future, alternative energy and fuels and conservation. To pursue and attract private and public funding by green grant requests and to make North Las Vegas the model city it has the potential to be.

Kim McKinney

I plan to listen to my constituents, research their concerns and see if resolutions can be reached. Being new to the arena, I know I will need to do a lot of researching and homework to make the best decisions for my constituents.

Anita Wood

What I have learned from years of community organizing here in North Las Vegas is the most important thing in being a representative is to listen carefully. I will start by holding a series of open town hall meetings in Ward 3 where neighbors are invited to come and express their ideas.

I created a Web site and listed my home address and home phone number for a reason -- I want people to get in touch with me. I will modify my Web site at my own expense to make it easy for Ward 3 residents to contact me about specific problems and issues.

I'll also open up one-on-one discussions with the other members of the North Las Vegas City Council on the most pressing issues based on my neighborhood discussions. The City Council must work together, and that begins with reaching out to the other members and building consensus.

Finally, while I'm familiar with many of our agencies through my volunteer work and community activism, I want to spend time in as many departments as I can to listen to the suggestions of those who work there. They are on the front line daily, and I want their perspective.