Senate Bill No. 38-Senator Neal

January 29, 1997
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Referred to Committee on Government Affairs

SUMMARY--Amends charter of City of Las Vegas to authorize increase or decrease in number of wards. (BDR S-146)

FISCAL NOTE: Effect on Local Government: No.
Effect on the State or on Industrial Insurance: No.

EXPLANATION - Matter in italics is new; matter in brackets [ ] is material to be omitted.

AN ACT relating to the charter of the City of Las Vegas; authorizing the City of Las Vegas to increase or decrease the number of wards in the city; and providing other matters properly relating thereto.

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEVADA, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEMBLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

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Section 1 Section 1.130 of the charter of the City of Las Vegas, being chapter 517, Statutes of Nevada 1983, at page 1393, is hereby amended to read as follows:
Sec. 1.130 Wards: Creation; boundaries.
1. The city [must] may be divided into [four wards, which] as many wards as the city council determines are necessary. The wards must be as nearly equal in population as can conveniently be provided, and the territory which compromises each ward must be contiguous.
2. The boundaries of the wards must be established and changed by ordinance. The [boundary] boundaries of the wards must be changed whenever the population, as determined by the last preceding national census of the Bureau of the Census of the United States Department of Commerce, in any ward exceeds the population in any other ward by more than 5 percent. The boundaries of the wards may be changed to include territory which has been annexed and whenever the population in any ward exceeds the population in any other ward by more than 5 percent by any measure which is found reliable by the city council.
Sec. 2. Section 1.140 of the charter of the City of Las Vegas, being chapter 517, Statutes of Nevada 1983, at page 1393, is hereby amended to read as follows:
Sec. 1.140 Elective offices.
1. The elective officers of the city consist of:
(a) A mayor.
(b) [Four councilmen.] One councilman from each ward.
(c) Municipal judges.
2. The terms of office of the mayor, councilmen and, except as is otherwise provided in subsection 3 of section 4.010 of this charter, municipal judges are 4 years.

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