Your City Your Way Initiative

A message from the Mayor Text | Video

Town Hall Schedule All Town Hall Meetings will be held from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Date Location Ward 01/11 Summerlin Library and Performing Arts Center  ~ 1771 Inner Circle Drive 4 01/19 City Council Chambers ~ 400 Stewart Ave. 5 01/25 YMCA Durango Hills  ~ 3521 N. Durango Drive 4 01/27 East Las Vegas Community / Senior Center  ~ 250 N. Eastern Ave. 3 02/09 Centennial Hills Community Center   ~ Community Room  6601 N. Buffalo LV, NV 89131 6 02/16 Veterans Memorial   ~ 101 S. Pavilion Center Drive 2 02/18 Northwest Career and Technical Academy ~ 8200 W. Tropical Parkway 6 02/22 Minker Sports Center Gym    ~ 275 N. Mojave  Road  3 02/24 Southern Nevada Health District ~ Clemens Room ~ 625 Shadow Lane 5 02/26 YMCA Meadow Lane ~ 4141 Meadows Lane 1 03/01 Sahara West Library ~9600 W. Sahara Ave. 2 03/04 Charleston Heights Arts Center ~ 800 S. Brush St. 1

The Your City Your Way Initiative seeks to understand residents’ attitudes about the city and its programs and services, so the city can better respond to citizen needs.

Tell us what is important to you by taking our five-minute survey and receive 50 percent off a recreational class. Take The Survey

About The Your City Your Way Initiative

We plan on learning more about our community through the following methods:

• A phone survey conducted by the Cannon Survey Center . Watch the Nov. 4, 2009 presentation given by the Cannon Survey Center to the City Council.
• Focus groups facilitated by UNLV
• A series of town hall meetings

As a result of this initiative:

• The city will be better able to respond to citizen needs
• Citizens can better understand the issues facing the city

We hope you will take the time to tell us how you think the city of Las Vegas should be responding to your needs. We appreciate any feedback that will help us improve the city’s services as we move forward in very financially difficult times.

To successfully engage the citizens, we have partnered with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Department of Sociology to help facilitate the focus panels and record data at the town hall meetings.  To reach out to those who cannot participate, KNPR will be airing edited versions of the focus panels and town hall meetings.

We expect that the Cannon Survey Center will present the City Council with the results of the Community Survey in October and that the Department of Sociology will present the results of the focus panels and town hall meetings to the City Council in March 2010. At that point, the city manager will be able to use the data to make some recommendations to the City Council supported by meaningful data from the community.

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Message From The Mayor

The city of Las Vegas is going through extraordinary and challenging times as is nearly every other city, county and state government.  The city of Las Vegas has done a great deal to ensure the budget is balanced while critical city services are maintained. 

The future of the organization is dependent upon the choices this City Council makes today.  Fewer resources and greater demands mean that this City Council will have to make some very difficult decisions.  Your feedback, through the Your City Your Way Initiative, will be used as a tool to help the Las Vegas City Council make the decisions that are right for this community at this time, as well as, prepare the organization for the needs of future generations. 

Your participation and engagement in the City Council’s decision making process is critical.  I truly appreciate your time and energy in making this city the greatest city in the world.  In the end, each of us is responsible to make this city enduring and special.  Your actions today through participation in the survey, focus groups and/or town hall meetings will help us fill our end of the agreement by telling us what you expect.  Please take the time to complete the survey.  I also encourage you to participate in the town hall meetings closest to your home.

Fundamental Service Review

In March 2009, the City Council directed the city manager to conduct a fundamental review of all city programs and services to ensure they were consistent with the expectations of the City Council. Since that time period, the management team has been reviewing every department and making adjustments through organizational efficiencies, organizational restructuring and strategic service changes. Since October, when the council accepted the recommendations of the city manager, the city has saved or deferred nearly $5 million and eliminated over 300 positions.

The review of programs and services is an ongoing effort and we are now working on the second phase of the review. It is projected that the city will have a nearly $240 million budget shortfall over the next five years and we are working hard to make sure that critical city services are maintained in a manner that is acceptable to the citizens we serve. The city manager has provided three guiding principles for the review that are considered in every action taken. Those guiding principles include:

• Maintain Critical Services: To ensure residents and visitors have essential services
• Ensure fiscal integrity: To avoid budget shortfalls and, at worst case, bankruptcy
• Preserve city jobs: To ensure there is staff available to provide critical services and not to add to an already high unemployment rate