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Transcript of interview with Rory Reid by Stefani Evans and Claytee White, July 13, 2017

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2017-07-13

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Rory Reid works in the Downtown Las Vegas building fully tattooed with a mural depicting a hand holding a bouquet of flowers of which the glowing central bloom is half brain and half heart. The story behind the mural is essential to understanding why the oldest of Landra and Harry Reid’s five children loves coming to work. Born in Alexandria, Virginia, he arrived in Las Vegas as a six-month-old with his parents and led a story-book life in the Reid house on Gretel Circle, down the street from Hansel Circle and right off Lilliput Lane. After attending Doris Hancock Elementary School, James Cashman Junior High School, and Ed W. Clark High School, he served a church mission in Argentina and studied international relations and Spanish and then law at Brigham Young University before returning to Las Vegas and joining Lionel Sawyer and Collins law firm. In this interview, Reid talks about administrative law, about leaving the firm to become an executive with Lady Luck Gaming Corporation, serving as Nevada Democratic Party chair for two years, and returning to Lionel Sawyer and Collins in 2000, where he remained until 2014. He shares his motivations for running for the District G seat on the Clark County Commission in 2002, and talks about the political climate in which he took office in 2003, a few months before fellow Commissioners Dario Herrera; Lance Malone; Erin Kenny, and chair Mary Kincaid Chauncey were indicted on federal charges following Operation G Sting. Following these highly public arrests, Reid focused on restoring faith in local government. In 2010, after two terms as Clark County Commissioner and Commission chair, Reid ran for Governor of Nevada as the Democratic nominee against Brian Sandoval. In that election, as Reid puts it, "the voters told me to do something else with my life," and he returned to his law practice. However, in June of 2014, his dear friend Jim Rogers passed away. The day after Rogers died Reid discovered that he was named co-trustee of Rogers's estate, along with his widow, Beverly. Reid and Beverly Rogers together founded The Rogers Foundation to be the primary advocate for public education in Nevada. The Rogers Foundation is housed in Downtown Las Vegas in the building tattooed with the bouquet. The mural-the Wall of Understanding-is The Rogers Foundation's answer to political calls for "building a wall" and a show of solidarity with the students they serve, many of whom are undocumented immigrants or have undocumented immigrant family members. For the man who helped restore the reputation of Clark County government and who emphatically declines to run for further public office, fulfilling the mission and the work of The Rogers Foundation is one of his greatest joys-along with his family; his beagle, Oakey; and watching Liverpool compete in the English Premier League (especially when Liverpool plays his brother's favorite team, Manchester United).

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    Reid, Rory Interview, 2017 July 13. OH-03200. [Transcript.] Oral History Research Center, Special Collections & Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.

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    i AN INTERVIEW WITH RORY REID An Oral History Conducted by Stefani Evans and Claytee D. White The Building Las Vegas Oral History Project Oral History Research Center at UNLV University Libraries University of Nevada Las Vegas ii ©The Building Las Vegas Oral History Project University of Nevada Las Vegas, 2017 Produced by: The Oral History Research Center at UNLV University Libraries Director: Claytee D. White Editor: Stefani Evans Transcribers: Kristin Hicks, Frances Smith Interviewers: Stefani Evans and Claytee D. White Project Manager: Stefani Evans iii The recorded interview and transcript have been made possible through the generosity of the UNLV University Libraries. The Oral History Research Center enables students and staff to work together with community members to generate this selection of first-person narratives. The participants in this project thank the university for the support given that allowed an idea and the opportunity to flourish. The transcript received minimal editing that includes the elimination of fragments, false starts, and repetitions in order to enhance the reader’s understanding of the material. All measures have been taken to preserve the style and language of the narrator. In several cases photographic sources accompany the individual interviews. The following interview is part of a series of interviews conducted under the auspices of the Building Las Vegas Oral History Project. Claytee D. White Director, Oral History Research Center University Libraries University Nevada, Las Vegas iv PREFACE Rory Reid works in the Downtown Las Vegas building fully tattooed with a mural depicting a hand holding a bouquet of flowers of which the glowing central bloom is half brain and half heart. The story behind the mural is essential to understanding why the oldest of Landra and Harry Reid’s five children loves coming to work. Born in Alexandria, Virginia, he arrived in Las Vegas as a six-month-old with his parents and led a story-book life in the Reid house on Gretel Circle, down the street from Hansel Circle and right off Lilliput Lane. After attending Doris Hancock Elementary School, James Cashman Junior High School, and Ed W. Clark High School, he served a church mission in Argentina and studied international relations and Spanish and then law at Brigham Young University before returning to Las Vegas and joining Lionel Sawyer and Collins law firm. In this interview, Reid talks about administrative law, about leaving the firm to become an executive with Lady Luck Gaming Corporation, serving as Nevada Democratic Party chair for v two years, and returning to Lionel Sawyer and Collins in 2000, where he remained until 2014. He shares his motivations for running for the District G seat on the Clark County Commission in 2002, and talks about the political climate in which he took office in 2003, a few months before fellow Commissioners Dario Herrera; Lance Malone; Erin Kenny, and chair Mary Kincaid Chauncey were indicted on federal charges following Operation G Sting. Following these highly public arrests, Reid focused on restoring faith in local government. In 2010, after two terms as Clark County Commissioner and Commission chair, Reid ran for Governor of Nevada as the Democratic nominee against Brian Sandoval. In that election, as Reid puts it, "the voters told me to do something else with my life," and he returned to his law practice. However, in June of 2014, his dear friend Jim Rogers passed away. The day after Rogers died Reid discovered that he was named co-trustee of Rogers's estate, along with his widow, Beverly. Reid and Beverly Rogers together founded The Rogers Foundation to be the primary advocate for public education in Nevada. The Rogers Foundation is housed in Downtown Las Vegas in the building tattooed with the bouquet. The mural—the Wall of Understanding—is The Rogers Foundation's answer to political calls for "building a wall" and a show of solidarity with the students they serve, many of whom are undocumented immigrants or have undocumented immigrant family members. For the man who helped restore the reputation of Clark County government and who emphatically declines to run for further public office, fulfilling the mission and the work of The Rogers Foundation is one of his greatest joys—along with his family; his beagle, Oakey; and watching Liverpool compete in the English Premier League (especially when Liverpool plays his brother's favorite team, Manchester United). vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Interview with Rory Reid July 13, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada Conducted by Stefani Evans and Claytee D. White Preface………………………………………………………………………………..…………..iv Discusses family, neighborhoods, and childhood in Las Vegas and attendance at Doris Hancock Elementary School, James Cashman Junior High School, and Ed W. Clark High School. Recalls undergraduate study and law school at Brigham Young University (BYU); Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints mission to Argentina, and joining Lionel Sawyer and Collins law firm of Las Vegas, where he practiced administrative law and was mentored by Bob Faiss and Governor Grant Sawyer.……………………………………………...…………………………………………. 1–9 Remembers leaving Lionel Sawyer and Collins to become senior vice president and general counsel for Andy Tompkins at Lady Luck Gaming Corporation until running for Nevada Democratic Party chair in about 1997, a post he held for two years. Talks about returning to Lionel Sawyer and Collins in 2000 (and remaining until 2014) and thinking about running for the District G seat on the Clark County Commission. Shares motivations for running; describes the District, and talks about taking office in 2003, shortly before fellow Commissioners Dario Herrera; Lance Malone; Erin Kenny; and chair Mary Kincaid Chauncey were indicted on federal charges following Operation G Sting. Talks of becoming commission chair, restoring faith in local government, managing growth and master planning, changing the zoning process to privilege neighbors as well as developers…………………...…………………………………………. 9–19 Describes becoming Commission chair and creating task forces—i.e., ethics and University Medical Center—to restore the reputation of Clark County government; explains power gap in state politics between Northern and Southern Nevada, and speaks of his desire to avoid future elected office. Recalls James "Jim" Rogers with fondness and describes the mission and work of The Rogers Foundation to support public education, Nevada State College, the Beverly Rogers and the Carol C. Harter Black Mountain Institute..…………………………………………. 19–28 Tells of television career on Jim Rogers’s KSNV-TV, Channel 3; elaborates on the ways The Rogers Foundation supports Core Academy, and talks about the reasons for, the creation of, and the meaning of the Wall of Understanding mural by Artist-in-Residence Michael Dodson that decorates the front of the Foundation………...………………………..……………………. 28–34 vii 1 Good morning. Good morning. This is Stefani Evans and Claytee White and we're here with Rory Reid. It is July 13th, 2017. Mr. Reid, may I ask you to please spell your first and last names? On one condition. Yes? If you call me Rory. I will do that, Rory. My first name is Rory, R-O-R-Y. My last name is Reid, R-E-I-D. Are you named after someone? No. My parents just liked the name Rory. The only one they knew is Rory Calhoun, the old western film actor who they never met, but they liked the name and they liked alliteration. So that's why I'm Rory Reid. So do your brothers and sisters all have— Strange names? No. R names, names starting with R. No, they just have strange names, but no alliteration. I have a sister named Lana. That's not that weird. Then I have a brother named Leif, L-E-I-F. As in Erikson? I don't know where that came from, Leif. Then a brother named Josh, not Joshua, just Josh. And then my youngest brother's name is Key, and that's after Key Pittman, who was a Nevada senator long ago. So they didn't run to the Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John kind of thing. 2 No. They marched to the beat of their own drummer with names. So why don't you tell us about you and your siblings growing up; where that happened, and what you liked to do. And tell us about your parents. My parents are Harry and Landra Reid, great parents. They met in Henderson, Nevada. I don't need to tell you their story; it's been written about. But they met in high school. Their parents were Nevadans. So for Nevada that's a pretty long history. I grew up in Las Vegas. I wasn't born in Nevada. My father was in law school in Washington, D.C., so I was actually born in Alexandria, Virginia. But when I was about six months old, I think, they moved back here, and I spent my entire childhood in Las Vegas. It was a much different city than it is now. I spent the first thirteen years of my life in the StoryBook Homes right off Arville [Street] and Pennwood [Avenue], over by [Ed W.] Clark High School. I lived on Gretel Circle, which is right down the street from Hansel Circle, right off Lilliput [Lane]. So I had a story book childhood, whether or not I believed it at times. I don't have much to complain about. It was a good life. I'm spoiled in about every way. I had parents that paid attention to me, siblings that loved me, a very close family. I never wanted for much. I was and always have been fortunate. I am the fortunate son, I guess you could say. 3 Who were your friends on Gretel Circle and who did you play with? What games did you play? Kids I went to school with, kids that lived in the area. I remained close to some; I've totally lost contact with others. I'll leave their names out to protect the innocent. I did what kids do. I was really into sports, both watching them and participating. I wasn't a very good athlete, but I enjoyed being on a team. So I played baseball, basketball, and football in youth leagues. Then when I got to high school, I focused on football. I played football for four years at Clark High School, thirty pounds ago. What position? Defensive end, strangely. When you say thirty pounds ago, do you mean...? I weighed thirty pounds more than I do, yes. I was hoping that that's what... It was not the kind of defensive end that people are used to now. I was more of an outside linebacker, but I was still smallish for that. I was really committed to football. I loved it. My friends were on the team, a lot of them. I spent a lot of time training and practicing. I chose football because it was the sport where there were a lot of people on the team, you could find a place despite your athletic shortcomings, and I enjoyed it. It was my whole life during my high school years. CLAYTEE: So what do you think about the Raiders? I think it's great for the town. I don't know if I would have voted to use public money for the stadium. In fact, throughout my career as a politician I preached against using public money for professional sports facilities, and I am part of the reason why that kind of effort didn't happen 4 before. But I see the value in it. I think the town is excited about it. I think it will attract other economic diversification opportunities, but I question if Nevada had $750 million to spend on something, whether it should have been the NFL; I still question that. But people don't care what I think anymore. We care. We're here with a tape recorder. So before Clark High School, which was your elementary school? I went to Doris Hancock Elementary School. Young Rory Reid fishing with his dad. 5 So for your first thirteen years you were in a StoryBook Home. Right, I was in a StoryBook Home and then we moved to Lacy Lane, which is right off of Alta [Drive]. It backs up to where the Springs Preserve is now. So I would hop over that fence in the day and hunt for lizards and whatever else I could catch. What was your address on Lacy Lane? [We lived at] 313 Lacy Lane, another idyllic place. I went to Doris Hancock Elementary, then I went to Cashman Middle School when I lived on Gretel Circle. Then when I moved to Lacy Lane, I moved further away from Clark High School, but I was still zoned for Clark. So I went to the same high school I had been living down the street from all those years. So you were reunited with your StoryBook friends. I never lost them. Yes, we always went to the same schools despite the fact that I moved. Then I stayed on Lacy Lane until I went away to college. Where did you go to college? Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, a hotbed of political and social assent. I went to BYU for a year. Then I went on a mission. I was a Mormon missionary [for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] in Argentina. Tell me how a mission works. You're assigned. You complete an application and then you're assigned. You don't pick where you go. So I was assigned to Argentina, happily. I loved it there. It's a beautiful country with wonderful people. I learned Spanish; I really value that. Have you maintained your fluency? I can defend myself. It's been thirtysomething years since I'm home. I'm not nearly as good as I used to be, but I can have a conversation if need be. It's easier to understand than it is to speak. 6 Then after I got back from my mission, I went back to school. Back to BYU? Yes. I got a degree in international relations with a minor in Spanish. Then I went to law school at BYU, and then I came back to Vegas. Childhood complete. So after coming back to Las Vegas, how did you get re-involved in the community? Well, professionally I joined a law firm that no longer exists, sadly, called Lionel Sawyer and Collins. The largest, yes. It was a great institution. In fact, that's where I always wanted to be. It's the only interview I gave after law school. Well, during law school you serve as a law clerk. So after my second year at law school I interviewed with them, and they offered me a job, and I stayed there. I really enjoyed it. There were historic Nevadans in that firm. Grant Sawyer was still alive, former governor. John Collins, who was a [Nevada State] Supreme Court Justice, was still alive when I joined the firm. And Sam Lionel, who is ninety-four, I believe, now, was there. And there were people like [Robert] "Bob" Faiss, who I believe was the greatest gaming attorney in Nevada history and was a mentor of mine. Anyway, it was a great place to be, a lot of history in that firm. Is that what drew you to it, that it was the only place you wanted to work? Yes. I've always been achievement oriented, competitive, and I wanted to go to the best law firm. That's what everybody thought of that place, so I wanted to go there. What year was this that you came back? Nineteen eighty-seven, a long time ago. So you said that in the firm Bob Faiss was mostly your mentor there? 7 Yes, Bob and Governor Sawyer. What type of law were you drawn to? Administrative law. I didn't enjoy litigation. It felt like it was overly combative and “underly” constructive; people weren't trying to necessarily do the right thing; they were just trying to win at whatever cost, it felt like. I'm sure some litigators would dispute that characterization, but that's how I felt about it. Administrative law was gaming, regulatory work, licensing, and local government. If you needed something from a local government or a state government, that's what administrative law involves, and I enjoyed that. It just felt like it was more constructive and efficient. Give me an idea of a case that you're allowed to talk about to show what you were doing. As an example, I represented the Maloof family when they were licensed to own and operate the Palms. That was later in my career. I did some gaming licensing. But mostly I did local government work, which was representing a client that was in front of a local government to get a zoning approval or gaming and liquor licensing approval. So for zoning approval, do people typically go to a land use attorney for something like that? Yes. Land use is another way to say the same thing. Can you talk about some of the zoning changes? Matters I worked on? Yes. I remember the first one I worked on. I won't tell you who because he is a prominent Las Vegan who passed away. He wanted to increase the height of his backyard wall. It sounds pretty mundane, but it was in an area of town where people are used to getting what they want and it 8 became a very controversial matter. I remember it was in front of the Las Vegas City Council and I stood up and made my speech. I made my presentation not realizing how many neighbors were in the audience. In presenting it, I, in the neighbors' view, minimized the impact of it on them, and for that reason they were pretty enraged. I don't know if you've ever attended a local zoning hearing, but it is a place where there's a lot of emotion because you're talking about somebody's property, and somebody believes intensely that they're doing something that's for the betterment of the neighborhood, and somebody else feels just as strongly that it's self-interest and is going to ruin them. So that was my introduction to how careful you have to be when you describe what you're proposing to do, and you have to be respectful of the impact that you're going to have on other people, especially when you're standing in front of them and they get to speak next. How did that go? I don't even remember, frankly. All I remember is the vitriol from the neighbors and how personal it was and how it was long-lasting. The negative relationship between my client and his neighbors persisted because of three feet of additional height on his wall. Do you remember why your client wanted to raise the wall? Privacy. I don't remember, frankly, why the neighbors were so upset about it. It could have been that there was some history, which there often is when neighbors interact. I'm not sure that they were there because they were angry about the additional three feet on his wall. It might have been because of a number of other things. My client may not have told me everything that had gone on in the past. They tell you what you need to know. What they think you need to know. Or it's just based on their perception. Maybe they didn't 9 believe that they were what the neighbor—I'm sure they didn't believe that they were what the neighbors thought they were. So tell us about getting into politics. When I was younger I really enjoyed Lionel Sawyer and I was very familiar with what politics did to a family. It's not a comfortable way to live your life in a lot of ways. You're very public and the subject of a lot of criticism. So I always told myself that I had no interest; that I was never going to run for anything, and I believed it. Then I was at Lionel Sawyer for five years, and I had a client come to me and offer me a job. He wanted me to be his general counsel, his in-house lawyer. I said no several times, but at a certain point it didn't make any sense to say no anymore, because it was a really good financial opportunity. So I left Lionel Sawyer and I was senior vice president and general counsel of Lady Luck Gaming Corporation. Andy Tompkins was the owner of the company. The reason he came to me is because... It was the early 1990s, and gaming was exploding across the country. For a long time Nevada and New Jersey were the only states with large-scale gaming, but for whatever reason, a number of different states were becoming involved. Nevada operators had the financial wherewithal and the experience to be the people that proposed new gaming operations in these states that were opening up their economies to gaming. Andy had a vision of being one of those people, and he had gone around and leased locations all over the country, and he wanted me to help. I was thirty years old; didn't know what I was doing, but it was exciting. He was thinking about taking his company public, which he ultimately did, and it was a very wild ride, and I was there for seven years in that capacity. Near the end of my tenure there it became apparent that he was going to sell the company 10 and I was going to need something else to do. I think I was bored and unexcited by the practice of law and I got interested in politics. I was always interested. I always followed it very closely. I was always involved in my father's campaigns and the campaigns of other people. I knew Nevada politicians because I had spent a lot of time around them and their families. It's like probably any business; if you're in it you get to know other people that are in it and their families. So I knew a lot of people. I convinced myself that, notwithstanding the fact that it would be difficult, that it was important to do, and I thought I could do it well, and there it was; I changed my mind. So who was the first person you talked to about it? My dad. How did that conversation go? I don't remember. I remember other conversations. I don't remember that one. He was always supportive. Like any father, he told me why I shouldn't do it to make sure that I understood what I was getting into. The first thing I did was run to be chairman of the Nevada Democratic Party, which is a terrible job. To be chair of a political party in a state is asking for trouble. It was a pretty Republican state at the time, was it not? Actually, no. Nevada was a historically Democratic state, and then it kind of went through different phases. You're right. A Democrat hadn't won in Nevada probably since the sixties. So if you look at presidential politics, it was a red state. What year was this? When I started talking about running for state chair, it was probably 1997. So by then this state had... Bill Clinton had won Nevada twice. The registration was probably pretty even. In the sixties and seventies I imagine that it was a predominately Democratic state in terms of voter 11 registration numbers, but pretty conservative. It's always been a pretty conservative state politically. Because Grant Sawyer was 1960... Early. He was probably governor in the late fifties and early sixties, yes. So anyway, the state party was a mess and sounded fun. Nobody else wanted to do it. So that tells you how much fun it was probably going to be. Well, fun in my way of thinking. I thought I could become involved and play a key role in reorganizing it and reinvigorating it. It was an exciting time. It was the Bush versus Gore election when I was chair, so I was the chair of the Nevada State Delegation to the National Convention, and everybody knows how that election went; it was a hard-fought, controversial election that never ended. It was difficult, because the people that spend a lot of time in a political organization like that are very passionate and ideological and not prone to compromise, and I was just this young kid that didn't know anything. I just had the job because of who my father was, in their view, which was a fair assessment, frankly. Had I been named anything else, if my last name were different, it would have been much more difficult for me to win the election. I didn't know much about partisan political organizations. But I think I tried hard and did a good job and it was a good experience. So that's how my political career started. And how long were you Democratic Party Chair? Two years, plenty of time. That's enough. Then I left; Lady Luck was sold, and I went back to Lionel Sawyer and Collins. In '99? In 2000. And for how long were you there? 12 Until 2014. I went back as a partner in the firm and went back to my practice. But, again, with all due respect to my lawyer friends, I got bored again and wanted something more exciting to do. Lionel Sawyer at the time had a policy that none of its partners could be involved in partisan political activities, which is part of why I left chairmanship of the Nevada state Democratic Party—because I was going to go back to Lionel Sawyer. I was also kind of exhausted with it. So I went back to Lionel Sawyer. I liked what I did, but it wasn't enough. I like to be active and I work a lot. So the county commissioner at the time, in an adjoining district that was about to have its boundaries redrawn, was a guy named Dario Herrera. The word was that he was going to run for Congress. So I started thinking that that might be an opportunity for me, because I knew what the Clark County Commission was; I understood that it's a very important job, and it has more to do with what somebody's day is like every day they wake up in Southern Nevada than people realize. I decided that's what I wanted to do. It's a part-time job, so I could keep my law practice, sort of. The problem was Lionel Sawyer's policy. So I went and saw my partners and said, "This is what I'm going to do," hoping that they would say okay, but I didn't ask for permission. I just said, I'm going to do this and I hoped that they would change their policy; if they didn't, I would leave. And they changed the policy. There you go. One problem I had was that Dina Titus, who was the [Nevada State] senate minority leader at the time, also was rumored to be running. For the county commission? Yes. She would have beat me in a primary, I believe. I was still a young punk and hadn't done much politically, never been elected to elected office. But I went and talked to her and told her I 13 wanted to run. Again, I didn't ask for permission; I just told her I was running, frankly hoping that she wouldn't, and she didn't. So I won relatively easily; it was a Democratic district and whoever won the primary was going to win. So which district? G. So where is that? About 40 percent of it was—it's changed since I served in the district. But at that time it was about 40 percent of the City of Henderson, and then it went through the middle of town, included the airport, and then... It's hard to describe. You'd have to see it. It was a chunk of southeastern and northwestern Clark County. So it goes right through, because I know where D is. So it cuts right through the middle, then. Yes, including near UNLV, where Dina lived, the Royal Crest area. As most political lines are, it wasn't drawn with any recognition of neighborhoods, communities, or anything else. It was just, for whatever reason, a chunk that had areas that the incumbent commissioner wanted. More Democrats there; I'll take that, thank you. Yes, you're right. So the incumbent commissioner, who was Herrera, was going to be leaving office regardless? So it was an open seat. It wasn't very often that there were open county commission seats, because it's a plum political job. Further, I lived in a very Republican area. I lived in the suburbs of Green Valley. My assemblyman, my state senator, my congressional district I lived in—it was a very Republican area, except for the county commission district happened to be very 14 Democratic. Interesting. Is it still that way? Yes. What is that district now? District G. It's still District G. It's just that— The boundaries have changed somewhat, but it's still similar. So what year was that that you ran? Two thousand two, elected in November of 2002, and sworn in, in January of 2003. 15 How many terms did you serve? Two. I was re-elected in 2006. In 2010 I ran for a different office and the voters told me to do something else with my life, and here I am. I want to know about some of the issues you remember being on the commission. This is a project about building Las Vegas, the built environment. I want to talk about developments, issues that you worked on that would lend itself to a project like this. I think context is important here. Understand that I was elected in November of 2002, sworn in in January of 2003, and six months thereafter a quorum of current and former commissioners were indicted as a result of what's become known as Operation G-Sting [Ed Note: Operation G-Sting was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation]. Dario Herrera was indicted; Lance Malone; Erin Kenny; and Mary Kincaid-Chauncey. Mary Kincaid-Chauncey happened to be the chair of the Clark County Commission when she was indicted. So that created a difficult political environment, to say the least. People had very little faith in Clark County government for valid 16 reasons. So I thought that the first thing that had to happen was that we needed to change the way we did business, and that we needed to involve the community more in the decisions we made; otherwise, they'd be sitting at home watching Eyewitness News thinking we were a bunch of crooks. If they were involved and participated in our process, they would see how it worked, they would feel like their voice had been heard, and we would instill through those actions more faith in a government that was questioned. I'm getting to your question. Oh, yes, I like the way you're doing it. So one of the first things we did, we had what we called the Growth Task Force. The reason we did that is because a lot of the allegations that led to the indictments were the result of questions about how commissioners interacted with developers and other business owners in the community; there was a sense that the commissioners were captive to the development community and did their bidding, and because of that we were growing too fast, and because of that people's quality of life had deteriorated. If these commissioners would just do the right thing, people thought, then developers wouldn't build so much stuff; we wouldn't have all these traffic and air pollution and water resource issues, and life would be good. So in order to address that perception, one of the first things we did is have this Growth Task Force, and it was comprised of a broad spectrum of community leaders. We had representatives from the Sierra Club on the Growth Task Force and we had developers on the Growth Task Force. Can you remember who some of the developers were? I don't. I don't remember. We had everything in between. We had people that were neighborhood activists. We had people from the gaming companies. There were fourteen or fifteen people that we appointed. They met over a series of months, and I think they came to realize that it was more 17 complicated than that. These were public meetings and we took testimony. I think they concluded what I believed before: that it's not like this growth-control room that somebody can go in and say, ah, we grew at 7.8 percent last month; that's too much; let's grow at 3 percent this month, and you turn some dial so that the growth slows down. That's not how it works. Growth is connected to employment and... Who knew it was so complicated? Yes, I don't think people appreciated it fully. The result of that was that the Growth Task Force made recommendations, many of which we followed, which comprehensively changed the process for development in the community. For example, a master plan is a document that envisions how an area of Clark County will grow over a number of years, and we have a number of master plans in Clark County. They're done geographically by township. Paradise Township has a master plan. Winchester has a master plan. One of the perceptions that drove the feeling that developers ruled the roost was that nobody paid any attention to the master plan. You'd come in, have a non-conforming zone change, a zone change that didn't conform to the master plan, and the vast majority of those non-conforming zone changes were approved. That wasn't just because developers owned the commissioners. A lot of the time it was because the town grew so fast that the master plan had become irrelevant by the time the zone change was requested. But we changed the process so that the master plans would be updated in a very public way on a periodic basis so that they would be evergreen; that they would be updated at least every five years and that there was more public input. We also changed the process by which non-conforming zone changes were requested. For example, there was a requirement that any developer requesting a non-conforming zone 18 change would conduct a neighborhood meeting and invited people from the neighborhood so that they could provide their input. And there are a number of other things we did. So I think to answer your question in a very long-winded way— And I appreciate this. This is perfect. —I think one of the fundamental things, and one of the things I'm most proud of for my tenure on the commission, is that we changed the way zoning decisions were made in Clark County. We involved people and we made neighbors, I think, feel like they were part of the process. Develo