Who Would Make A Good Mayor

During an enjoyable discussion of local politics last week, a friend asked who I thought would be a good mayor for the city of Mesquite.

It was an excellent question, and it caught me short.  Since I've been out of the news game for the last year, and there's no local election until next April, I hadn't really thought about who should be leading our town.

It's much easier to identify who shouldn't be at the helm, a list that starts and ends with anyone who was a member of the city's previous regime.

Former mayor Susan Holecheck is on the political prowl again, plucking a juicy high-profile job at Mesa View Regional Hospital recently.  Well-founded rumors have already started which claim that she will be running for Al Litman's city council seat in 2013. 

I can think of few catastrophes short of earthquakes and volcanoes that would hurt this town's recovery more than her return to the city council.

Ditto for her chief henchman, Karl Gustaveson.  He was originally appointed to the council in an underhanded way, and is the lone remnant from a horrendous lineup of municipal legislators.  Because of his powerful position as the head of the Virgin Valley Water District board, his name has been bounced around as a possible mayoral candidate, mostly by those who crave the "good old days" of Holecheck-style secrecy and heavy-handed Gestapo tactics. 

Then you have the old Chuck Horne crowd waiting in the wings.  Given a battle between Horne and Holecheck, I'd have to go with Horne.  A battle between Horne and just about anybody else?  Vote for "just about anybody else."

While discussing former mayors, the name Bill Nicholes is sure to come up.  You know, the mayor who was in charge when Mesquite was enjoying explosive growth, budget surpluses, and national attention for all the right reasons.  For those who remember the bloody election of 2007, you'll be happy to hear that Nicholes didn't go to jail as a result of all those accusations involving the FBI.  In fact, he wasn't even charged.  Why?  Because there was nothing to it.  His reputation, and that of his amazing and kind wife, were savaged merely for political gain.  Lies were spread about him that cost him the election.  So how's that working out for us?  Not very well. 

It's hard to tell if Nicholes would be a good mayor today.  The economy and the dynamics of the city have changed.  We'll never know if our prosperity from 2004 to 2007 was a result of his vision and extraordinary ability to get people fired up about Mesquite, or if he happened to be in the captain's chair during a calm sea.  Also, he made some bad decisions to go along with his good ones, like the despised medians along Mesquite and Sandhill Boulevards that Nicholes demanded, and the fact that he was the guy who hired Tim Hacker.

Speaking of Hacker, we can thank our lucky stars that he has moved on to create his patented version of despotism in North Las Vegas, where his answer to their problems is to declare the city a disaster area because they seem ignorant of basic addition and subtraction at budget time.  If he still lived here, he would be emotionally unable to stay out of city politics, and could very well have made a charge for the top seat in search of some political payback, if for no other reason.

So who would be a good mayor, other than possibly Nicholes?

I'll catch heat for this, but I actually believe Theron Jensen would be a good choice.  While he comes off as an easygoing good old boy, he's actually extremely sharp, and very charismatic.  He's a visionary, which is something this town desperately needs as it seems completely incapable of picking a direction.  Are we a casino town?  A golfing town?  A retirement community?  An average, boring town with a mundane mix of industries?  Jensen could balance the city's history with its future.  Unfortunately, it's that "good old boy" rap that would probably doom him at the polls, along with his religious affiliation.  Mesquite seems insistent upon re-enacting our own version of the Civil War, with the battle lines drawn between members of the LDS church and those who aren't.  I believe Jensen could very well be the Abraham Lincoln who ends that divisive battle and points us in a new, harmonious direction.  But after his most recent loss in a run for Justice of the Peace, along with his narrow defeat for mayor in 2003, it's pretty unlikely anyone will be able to talk him into running for anything in the future.

You can't discount current mayor Mark Wier.  He has been one of the quietest mayors this city has ever seen.  He doesn't get tangled up in controversy, doesn't let his ego dictate his direction, and has done a superb job of opening the city and making it more accessible to its people.  He has been quietly undoing all of the damage caused in the previous four years by a mayor that did the exact opposite.  And, most surprising of all, he has managed to remain an honest, decent human being.  Unfortunately, his quiet leadership is being seen by some as "no leadership."  He has yet to express his vision for the city or to steer the ship in a particular direction, so we STILL don't know what Mesquite wants to be when it grows up.

He also seems to be timid about personnel matters, which means we still have serious problems with upper level staff that must be addressed if this town is to move forward.  The longer those cancers remain, the more dire the prognosis.

All that said, he would still be a good choice to continue caretaking this city as it heals.  Hopefully, once the scars have started to mend, he can finally pick a direction and lead us toward a new prosperity, and it would be nice to fall in line behind an honest man.

As for my answer to my friend last week?

It only took me 60 seconds to come up with the best answer:

Greg Lee.

Lee is the head of the Eureka Casino.  He is one of the five smartest men I've ever known, but doesn't get distracted by ego or a drive for personal power.  He is a true visionary, a man who can actually see 20 years down the road, and is brilliant enough to formulate a plan for getting there.  He is articulate, and has the ability to get people to line up behind him.  And, as proven by his devotion to the Wounded Warrior project and the recent Fourth of July fireworks celebration he funded last week, he cares about his fellow man and this community.

Sadly, like most truly great men in this era, he won't run for political office.  He has a multi-million dollar casino to run, a family fortune to safeguard, and gets enough challenges in the business world to satisfy his intellectual hunger. 

He won't run, so he makes a safe and easy answer.  But it's nice to dream.