Former U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley and Las Vegas City Councilwoman Victoria Seaman.
Former U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley and Las Vegas Councilwoman Victoria Seaman are in a contentious race for the top spot on the City Council. Berkley garnered just under 36% of the vote in the crowded 14-candidate primary election in June, compared with 29% for Seaman.
The new mayor will take the reins of a city that is on the hook to developer Yohan Lowie for judgments and interest of more than $235 million resulting from the council’s refusal to permit Lowie to build housing on the Badlands Golf Course. The case has been appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court, which found in Lowie’s favor, and agreed the city’s actions amounted to a land taking.
The controversy was central to Seaman’s campaign for city council in 2019. Following her election, she led the effort to repeal the city’s open space ordinance, which required developers desiring to build on golf courses to take extra measures to consult with residents.
“It’s just been an ongoing fight with the Badlands thing in the private briefings where I was continually mocked,” Seaman said during an interview, adding her colleagues “were listening to our former city attorneys, and I was urging them to have common sense and come to the table and settle.”
Berkley, who lives in Queensridge, the luxury development adjacent to the golf course, has criticized Seaman’s inability to forge a settlement over the suits and insists that if elected, she will resolve the issue.
She says she has intentionally not spoken with Lowie about the suits to avoid the perception that her decision “might be tainted. So I’m trying to be as chaste as Caesar’s wife, but this will be my number one priority. The budget depends on it. What service the city can provide its citizens depends on it, and this could have dire ramifications.”
Berkley, a Democrat who served seven terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, has been out of politics since she lost a race for U.S. Senate in 2012 to then-Sen. Dean Heller. Her candidacy was burdened by a House ethics panel determination that she used her office to help her husband’s medical practice in Las Vegas.
She began her political career as student body president of the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and won election to the State Assembly and Board of Regents before running for national office.
Along with the Badlands litigation, public safety, homelessness, and affordable housing would be her priorities as mayor.
Berkley leads the money race with contributions totalling more than $1.6 million reported in July, and $500,000 on hand. Seaman raised more than $1.1 million as of July and had $270,000 on hand.
Seaman, a Republican, served one term in the Nevada Assembly in 2015. She lost a race for state senate to Nicole Cannizzaro in 2016. In 2018, she filed in the Republican primary for Congressional District 3, but dropped out after Danny Tarkanian entered the race. Tarkanian subsequently lost to Susie Lee, a Democrat. Seaman was elected in a special election to the Las Vegas City Council in 2019 to fill a vacancy. She was later elected for a full term that ends in 2026.
Seaman says her priority, should she be elected mayor, is to “streamline how we’re doing business in the City of Las Vegas.” She says she frequently hears from small business owners who complain their plans are delayed by a variety of inspections or other approvals. “It’s really important to streamline and make sure we’re doing everything we can to make sure that the process goes quickly for these people who are the job creators and the bread and butter of our economy.”
Seaman says she is the “law and order” candidate. She has endorsements from a variety of law enforcement organizations throughout the state. None of Seaman’s colleagues on the council have endorsed her. Cedric Crear, who came in third in the primary race for mayor, endorsed Berkley, as did Olivia Diaz, Nancy Brune, and Brian Knudsen. Mayor Carolyn Goodman and Councilwoman Francis Allen-Palenske have not endorsed a candidate.
Berkley is endorsed by labor unions, minority groups, veterans organizations, the National Organization for Women (NOW), the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Las Vegas Sun.
Homelessness
Southern Nevada’s homeless population is on the rise, especially in the City of Las Vegas, where the bulk of resources for the unhoused are located.
“This is a serious problem from the humanitarian angle all the way to the economic angle,” Berkley says, adding, “homeowners are afraid to let their children go out and play because there are homeless sleeping on their lawn and then they use their garden hose to clean up in the morning. Business people downtown are fit to be tied. If you are a mom and pop business, and you’ve got homeless sleeping in front of your entrance, it inhibits customers from coming in. You’ve got your life savings tied up in this business and you can’t get customers in the door.”
Both women support the city’s “camping ban,” which is designed to keep the unhoused from sleeping on the street. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld similar bans in June.
Seaman blames the “liberal policies” of the county and neighboring municipalities for the proliferation of homelessness.
“They put Band-Aids on the problem,” she says. “Like when they have encampments, they put in a Porta Potty, or they take up these hotel rooms and just put people in that really should have treatment rather than just giving them a place to live that now they don’t care about.”
Seaman takes exception to the suggestion that the city’s Courtyard of Hope itself offers little more than Band-Aids. Of more than 7,000 clients who sought shelter at the Courtyard last year, the facility, which is designed to help place people in housing, directly placed three people into housing.
Under LV homelessness tracking, permanent housing mostly means bus tickets out of town
She says the Nevada Behavioral Health Systems, which has been operating the Courtyard since 2023, has connected more than 3,700 individuals with services for substance abuse and mental health issues.
“We want to give people the services they need. I know that not every person is going to take them but the more we offer them and the more we continue to bring them, eventually, those folks will take services,” Seaman says, adding the Couryard’s clients “aren’t sleeping on someone else’s private property.”
Berkley and Seaman support a proposal from the resort industry to build a homeless facility that would provide mental health services and transitional housing. The project would be financed by the resort industry, with a $100 million infusion from the Governor’s Office of Economic Development.
“The governor’s project is replicating what we do at the Courtyard and it would be a huge step in the right direction,” Seaman says of the proposal, which is spearheaded by Wynn Resorts.
Berkley would prefer the project not be near downtown.
“Let us do a wraparound service away from downtown Las Vegas that’s fully enclosed and is fully self-contained,” Berkley says. “it can’t be so remote that it would impede clients from finding and keeping work. I think they know it can’t be in Timbuktu.”
Berkley says the resort industry’s involvement in the effort is critical to providing employment.
“We’re providing not only life skills, but job training skills, so that they get a job at one of the hotels,” Berkley said. “One of the things I bring to the table, I believe, is I know everyone in town. I can call anyone and they will return my calls, and we should all be working together.”
Development
Berkley and Seaman are united in their support of Gov. Joe Lombardo’s effort to secure more federal land for development in Southern Nevada via an expedited appraisal process. Neither views the southwest’s drought as an impediment to more development.
“I am pro-growth.” Berkley said. “I do believe that the Water Authority will continue to manage our water resources. I know they work closely with the Israelis who have technology because they’re in a desert environment with very limited water resources.”
Seaman says she expects Nevada’s congressional delegation will renegotiate the Colorado River Compact, which allocates the river’s waters among southwest states and Mexico. A deal designed to keep the river flowing expires in 2026. Renegotiation of the longstanding pact could occur then, say some experts.
Southern Nevada’s housing market is a hotbed for venture capital investment, which has helped increase the cost of buying and renting a home.
Nevada one of the most at-risk states for ‘legal looting’ by private equity firms
Wall Street investors own more than 13,000 homes in Clark County, compared to fewer than 8,000 in 2019, according to a Rutgers University analysis of property records.
“These corporate owners that are buying up single family houses and jacking up the price, they’ve got no relationship to Las Vegas,” Berkley told the Current. “They don’t live here. They never will live here and they are making a substantial profit on the backs of our citizens and our working families.”
Berkley says she doesn’t know if the city can address the issue via an ordinance. “But it is very important for us to look at that. If we have the legal authority to limit that sort of purchase, I would be in favor of that. If this is a legislative issue, we should go to the Legislature and ask for some relief.”
Last year, Lombardo vetoed Senate Bill 395, a measure that would have tracked investor purchases, and limited corporations and LLCs to buying 1,000 properties a year. The measure will return to the 2025 legislative session because lawmakers had no opportunity to vote to override the veto.
Seaman says “any resolution to ban corporate-owned housing would have to come from state legislators or from Congress.”
While they oppose rent control, both Berkley and Seaman support inclusionary zoning – a process that requires developers to include low-income or affordable workforce housing in their projects, or pay into a fund that would assist the city in providing housing at lower price points.
Seaman says she prefers incentives for mixed use projects, which she says help to disguise a lower-income component.
“I love mixed use, because you’re putting buildings wherever and you’re not knowing that some of them are workforce,” she says.
Berkley says she expects to encounter NIMBY, the “not in my backyard” syndrome, on the road to providing affordable housing.
“A number of people that I’ve spoken to are not enthused about having more housing projects in their neighborhood,” says Berkley. “And I think it would be important to help educate the public that we are talking about very nice housing that is going to provide a solution for a number of their fellow citizens.”
She says she respects the desires of residents in rural areas to protect their neighborhoods from development.
Wrong side of the tracks
Efforts to revitalize blighted areas in Las Vegas during the Oscar and Carolyn Goodman era have been focused almost exclusively on downtown.
In 2019, the Current reported that Mrs. Goodman’s administration had spent $187 million on redevelopment projects, $163.6 million of it downtown and $22 million in the blighted Westside, which lacks necessities such as grocery stores.
The Current’s review in 2021 of Clark County Assessor’s records revealed the city owned at least 25 vacant lots on the blocks bordered by Interstate 15 to the east, Van Buren Avenue to the north, Martin Luther King Boulevard to the west, and Washington Avenue to the south.
“I did a cleanup there last year. And I’m going to tell you, it has been neglected,” Seaman says of the Historic Westside. “There’s so much opportunity in the historic Westside, and we need to really have that town hall with all of the community, and find out what they want and what they need, give incentives and bring the developers in.”
“That area is ripe for development, and it is high time,” Berkley said, stressing the need to “show the positive economic possibilities that are there. The community wants development, but they want to have great pride in their neighborhoods.”
Berkley says she intends to meet with legislative representatives of the area to determine its needs and how the city and Legislature can work together to ensure development.
Animal crisis
Seaman prides herself on bringing the council’s attention to the animal overpopulation issue and the failings of the Animal Foundation (TAF), which were highlighted last year in government audits. TAF is funded in part by Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, and Clark County.
But Seaman’s desire to replace the Animal Foundation fell flat when the organization submitted the only application in response to the city’s request for proposals.
Animal Foundation to resume open admissions in exchange for funding, officials say
Her hope for the city to operate its own shelter has been dashed. “If not for the Badlands case, we could have opened our own,” she said, noting the city now lacks the funds. But Seaman says her efforts to reform the shelter were not in vain.
“We got the three jurisdictions to realize that there were problems. Every municipality has an oversight committee now. We bought back the building, which gives us control,” she says, adding TAF’s contract, which allowed the shelter to turn away animals, would have been renewed without revision absent her efforts to bring attention to the provisions. It will now require TAF to operate as an open shelter and take in all animals, as needed, she said. “A lot has been changed, and the contracts that they will be signing will look nothing like the contract that happened before.”
Berkley, a longtime friend of Animal Foundation board member and former Las Vegas mayor Jan Jones, says rather than building a city-run shelter, as Seaman has proposed, “we need to adequately fund the Animal Foundation that currently exists and make sure they can afford to take care of our four legged friends.”
Berkley says she would prohibit the sale of pets in stores, support an increase in fines for illegal breeders, and “absolutely” support a moratorium on government-issued animal breeding licenses.
Seaman opposes a ban on the sale of dogs, cats, and rabbits from pet stores, a measure passed by Clark County and Henderson to help get a handle on overpopulation. She says a ban on sales would increase illegal breeding, as would a moratorium on new breeding licenses.
The city has also increased illegal breeding fines and penalties to include two days in jail upon a second offense and ten days behind bars for a third offense.
“We did this because we cannot wrap our hands around illegal breeding with the manpower we have now,” Seaman said.
Early voting begins Oct. 19 and Election Day is Nov. 5.