Never Walked In High Heels

Written for the Las Vegas Review Journal September 3, 2009

              I was very frustrated when I read the LVRJ article this morning on yesterday’s county commissioners’ meeting. It stated that there was a “compromised reached” between the residents and developers at Mountain’s Edge regarding the building of future parks in the area. This is simply not true. The only compromise which was reached was pre-established between Commissioner Brager and the Focus Developers. Meanwhile, the Las Vegas Review Journal seemed to miss the even bigger story, that democracy has become relative in Las Vegas.

              Brager stated during the hearing “I am willing to go against my constituents to do what I think is right.” Since when has this ever been the role of an elected official? Her job is to represent us and our wishes, not single handedly alter and mold her district into her visions of what it should be, no matter how noble her intentions are. Out of those of us that spoke at the meeting, there was only one man who agreed with her proposal, constituting less than five percent of the opinions heard. The other ninety five percent were in stark opposition. Commissioner Brager continued to insist that the majority were “wrong,” “foolish,” and even “unsympathetic” when we are no longer promised the parks we were guaranteed upon investing in our homes.

              For the past year Commissioner Brager has consistently treated her electorate like children, while doing everything possible to allow big business to squirm out of obligations to residents. Behind closed doors she agreed with Focus Developers to a scaled down version of the parks we were promised. The proposed plans at the meeting were ones we had never seen before, nor were there enough printed yesterday by Focus to allow ten people to examine the changes, let alone the 150+ who had to take time off from work to advocate for their homes.

            Commissioner Brager chooses to appease big business rather than advocate for the citizens she works for. To her, democracy is a relative term as is the word guarantee. Brager chooses to be a democratic leader only as long as her voters agree with what she thinks is best, otherwise she will become patronizing. She says she can’t understand why we would reject the parks the commission is giving us for free. What she fails to acknowledge is that we here at Mountain’s Edge aren’t asking for anything to be given, we are asking for her to help in ensuring we receive the parks we were guaranteed by Focus when we took out our home loans. In a commissioner, we don’t need a nursemaid, we need an advocate.

            Brager’s actions yesterday illustrated just how relative democracy has become these days. Her behavior is indicative of the feelings of superiority and expertise which has crept into every corner of our government. Brager was elected to be a civil servant, not to insult our intelligence with fallacies and back room deals. Her job is to express the will of her constituents, not chastise them. Failure to understand this, as many on the federal, state, and local level, now refuse to do, means that people like Commissioner Brager, may soon be out of a job.