Two Political Newcomers Running For LV City Council Ward 6

By Jeniffer Solis, Nevada Current

October 13, 2022

Term limits for an incumbent on the Las Vegas City Council have opened the race for political newcomers looking to score a four-year term on the board. Nancy Brune and Ray Spencer are seeking to replace term-limited Michele Fiore, who is running as the Republican nominee for Nevada State Treasurer.

Nancy Brune

As the founder and former executive director of the Guinn Center—a nonpartisan data-driven policy center — Nancy Brune says she is a proven problem solver.

After the worst of the pandemic passed, Brune said she left the policy center to take a more active role in local non-partisan government. She realized many of Nevada’s most pressing issues could be solved on the county and city level.

“We have some really big challenges,” Brune said. “In the face of these problems our local government is not doing its job. We have some politicians that spend more time playing to partisan allegiances than actually coming up with a plan.”

Brune, a registered Democrat, said she has a track record of working across the ideological spectrum to find solutions that work for Nevadans as a researcher and policy expert.

“I seek to govern the same way I led the Guinn Center which is identifying the problems we’re trying to solve by looking at the data and research that exists to find solutions,” Brune said.

Housing and public health are some of her top priorities, said Brune, adding that if elected she would push to represent the council on the Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority and the Southern Nevada Health District.

Brune supports public-private partnerships, which use public funds to minimize risk to private investors and encourage them to invest in low-income communities.

If elected, Brune said she would take the lead on bringing Community Development Corporations into the city, a non-profit community-based organization dedicated to revitalizing underserved communities. Various similar sized cities have used such corporations to develop affordable housing in blighted neighborhoods, said Brune.

Bringing more dollars into the city through federal grants is another priority, said Brune. Nevada ranks 46th for federal grants per capita. The city must improve its ability to successfully pull in federal dollars, said Brune. Over the last couple of years, Brune said she has written grants that brought in $20 million dollars to Nevada to fund college and career pathways for struggling residents.

Residents of Ward 6 have expressed concern over water availability as the city grows. Brune said there are common sense solutions to conserve water on the local level. She proposed performing a water audit for every large public and private project so residents know up front what the water usage will be and how it could affect water availability.

Research also shows denser development—like condominiums and townhouses— saves water, Brune said, arguing that the city needs to have a serious conversation about finding the right place for such developments.

Brune said Ward 6 residents should vote for her over her opponent Ray Spencer, a former Las Vegas Metro Police sergeant, because she has the expertise to create solutions.

“My opponent has a very deep history in one area which is law enforcement, but I would argue that city council members deal with a whole host of issues: housing, land use, education, law enforcement. I have worked and done research in all of those areas, including law enforcement.”

“The other difference, sadly, is that even though this is a non-partisan race he is playing to partisan politics,” Brune said, adding that residents have grown tired of partisan bickering. “There’s a choice between electing someone who will bring you more of the same, because he’s doing it on the campaign trail, versus someone who truly wants to put good policy and people over politics.”

Ray Spencer

After repeated interview requests, Ray Spencer, a former Las Vegas Metro Police sergeant, agreed to an interview, but could not be reached in time for publication. “I will reach out in the coming days,” Spencer said in a text, but he did not.

On social media Spencer said public safety was his top priority and vowed to use city city funding to place more police officers in Ward 6 neighborhoods.

Spencer, a registered Republican and political newcomer, referred to himself as “the public safety candidate in the race for Las Vegas City Council Ward 6.” Spencer said he will use his 25 years of experience in law enforcement to improve community safety.

In May, during an interview on Nevada Week Spencer said he believes there is a trend of officials “going soft on crime,” which he argued is leading to an increase in crime.

Prior to running for city council, Spencer was the commander of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Department’s homicide section. Spencer said his solvability percentage was 93% in 2020.

“The police can only do so much,” Spencer said about criminal reoffending. “The criminal justice system in all honesty is bursting at the seams.”

Spencer was the incident commander for the Route 91 shooting, the deadliest U.S. mass shooting in modern history for which he was awarded the “Medal of Valor” by the LVMPD.

While Spencer’s campaign page is mostly dedicated to public safety and crime, he has also expressed support for small businesses, responsible development, and protecting Floyd Lamb Park.

On his campaign site, Spencer also noted that education and transparent government are among his top policy priorities and vowed to improve those issues if elected to the seat.

Nevada Current, a nonprofit, online source of political news and commentary, documents the policies, institutions and systems that affect Nevadans’ daily lives. The Current is part of States Newsroom, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by grants and a coalition of donors and readers.