Charter review commission has inaugural meeting

The Clark County Charter Review Commission had its first meeting Jan. 7, where a discussion about diversity and inclusion training led to the addition of that potential process being part of the group’s work toward coming up with recommendations on changes to the county’s governing document.

The 15-member commission convened remotely Jan. 7 for the first of a series of meetings where changes to the Clark County Charter will be considered. The meeting was largely organizational, as the commission voted unanimously to defer any major action until their next meeting scheduled for Jan. 27.

Apart from discussions on matters such as a meeting schedule and public records training, the commission also considered the potential for including diversity and inclusion training as part of its work. District 1 Commissioner Kim Harless brought forth the idea, saying she wanted to bring up the discussion to see what resources were available at the county level to conduct some level of training, adding it was important to do so toward the start of the review process to have the training in place while considering changes. She said bias training for county employees could be a potential guide for what the commission’s own program would be.

District 1 Commissioner Chris Goodwin agreed with Harless, saying that diversity and inclusion considerations were “relevant to every aspect of the charter.”

“Some folks might not see how it relates (to the charter),” Goodwin noted, adding that relation would be covered in the training. He pointed to a resolution made by Clark County Council in June condemning systemic racism as an example of county government recognizing the issue, though he acknowledged the review commission and council were distinct entities.

District 3 Commissioner Maureen Winningham said the kind of training proposed was standard in corporate settings, explaining that “everybody has unconscious bias.”

“The only way to overcome unconscious bias … is through process,” Winningham remarked, adding she believed including some sort of training would be “a very good thing” for the commission.

At-large commissioner and acting chair Eric Holt said he believed such training would help guide commissioners in making decisions on charter changes and how they would affect the community

“I do believe that this is somewhat pertinent to the task we have ahead of us,” Holt said. 

The decision to add discussion of diversity training was approved 12-3 by the commission, with At-large Commissioner Doug Lasher and District 4 commissioners John Latta and Liz Pike voting against it. Both Lasher and Pike had concerns over the potential training overtaking what they said were clear goals set forth for the review commission.

“This charter review commission has a very specific task that’s outlined in the charter, and that’s to come up with recommendations to the voters on how they want to add or subtract from the current charter,” Pike said. “That’s a big task in and of itself, and I think we should focus on the job at hand which is the charter itself, and not allow ourselves to get sideways on all kinds of quite likely partisan issues,”

“We’re supposed to be focusing on the structure of the county organization, and I realize having some sensitivity about diversity and all that, but I … struggle … to see where in this process that we’re going (into) that we need to be focusing on diversity,” Lasher said. He added that time may be a constraint for the commission should they undertake the added training, mentioning that the commission should be more or less done with its work in May.

“I got a hunch that the 13 weeks is going to go by very quickly before we get a product that has to be submitted to the auditor and then on the ballot,” Lasher said. He suggested having a process that would allow commissioners to undertake the training on their own time. 

Interim County Manager Kathleen Otto said that although the training for county employees was done live they were recorded, so there was potential to use those recordings for the commission’s own process.

Though Holt acted as commission chair for the first meeting due to receiving the most votes in the November election, the commission will vote on a permanent chair during their Jan. 27 meeting. The commission will also consider whether to undertake the diversity training during that meeting as well.

Both Lasher and Pike had experience working on or under Clark County’s charter — Lasher spent more than 30 years as Clark County Treasurer, which he noted included times working under the charter as a part of county government following the charter’s approval by voters in 2014

Pike mentioned she was one of the original freeholders who worked to draft the charter, and asked for commissioners, including herself, to “moderate slightly in order to work together and get some things done that the public will agree with.”

“Whatever we adopt, the public has to buy into it,” Pike remarked.