Oakland Raiders Power Struggle Causes Las Vegas Stadium Authority Special Meeting To Be Cancelled
Originally, Steve Hill, President of The Las Vegas Stadium Authority (LVSA), had added an extra meeting in January to help move along the process of approval of the 14 primary documents associated with the development of the Oakland Raiders, Las Vegas UNLV NFL Stadium. That January 25th meeting agenda called for the introduction of the first draft of the Stadium Development Agreement – the main document outlining what kind of facilitiy the Las Vegas Stadium Authority would expect to see built. It also would signal that the process toward getting all of the documents signed and done before the May 16th 2018 dealine was on track.
Well, a major political power struggle based on race has emerged to cause that meeting to be cancelled. As part of the community benefits agreement that’s within the Southern Nevada Tourism and Investment Act that gave life to the Raiders / UNLV Stadium process, a “Benefits Oversight Committee” was to be formed. As of now, that group consists of two appointments by Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval (one of them he gave to Senate Majority Leader Arron Ford), one by the Stadium Authority, and three by the Oakland Raiders. The committee would be ran by a chairperson – and who fills that seat is where the nasty racial politics have bubbled up to the surface and caused the January 25th meeting to not only be cancelled, but the web page associated with it completely deleted, along with its links to documents on who’s eligible to be a candidate for the mantle of committee chairperson.
The effort of staffing the community benefits committee has been politically challenged from the start. For example, the original list of committee and chairperson candidates did not include Latino Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Peter Guzman. Then, a letter advocating that his name be put in for consideration was submitted by Tommy White, Laborers Union Local 872 Representative and LVSA Board Member – and was on the agenda for the January 11th meeting, until it was removed from the same agenda. Then, Mr. Guzman’s name was added to the list.
At the January 11th meeting the subject of who should be the chairperson came up, and it became clear that Nevada Contractors Association Executive Director Sean Stewart, said by my sources to be aligned with Mr. White, emerged as the front runner. The underlying feeling among people of color involved with the LVSA as board members and as observers is that the overseer should be someone of color. Sean Stewart is white.
The existence of this problem, and the perception of a number of the same people of color invloved wth the LVSA, is that the Raiders are on the side of Tommy White, and that White backs Stewart and Guzman to be on, and in charge of, the committee. Meanwhile, Las Vegas Urban League Executive Director and LVSA Board Member Keith Evans is also a candidate for the chairperson position, but is not favored by Tommy White. Thus, in truth, with that and some other factors I’m not at liberty to share, the Oakland Raiders are seen by some in Las Vegas’ contractor communities of color as not fully supportive of an agenda that favors jobs for their community.
The end result is the LVSA action to form the “Benefits Oversight Committee” has been postponed, and it’s not clear if these issues will be resolved by the next meeting set for February 25th. Moreover, all of the documents that are outstanding remain that, with no extra meeting scheduled to wrap up review – that not only includes the development agreement but the still not LVSA-approved Raiders – UNLV Stadium Joint-Use Agreement.
Meanwhile, Mr. Hill told the Las Vegas Review Journal that the Stadium Development Agreement, which no one has seen the draft of and was not posted on the website, will be presented March 1st – just two month and 16 days before the May 16th deadline.
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