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THE INTERVIEW Chris Giunchigliani, UNDERDOG by Steve Green | photography by Christopher DeVargas I 24 f anyone understands politics and government in Nevada, it’s Chris Giunchigliani. ¶ The candidate for mayor of Las Vegas served eight terms as a state legislator beginning in 1990—before some of today’s voters were born. She’s in her second term on the powerful Clark County Commission and has worked in Las Vegas as a teacher and as president of the influential Clark County Education Association [teachers union] as well as the Nevada State Education Association. ¶ Giunchigliani recently spoke with VEGAS INC about her relationship with the business community and her agenda for jobs and economic development. Let’s clear up how you pronounce your name. It’s actually the month of June. There is no “k’ in Italian, so the “c-h’’ is the “k’’ sound. “June-kill-ee-on-ee.’’ What’s your basic pitch to businesses? I have a program to, number one, build the community one neighborhood at a time. In order to do that you have to have economic diversification as well as promoting our smaller businesses that have been here and we’ve tended to ignore as we tried to recruit new businesses. Number two is revitalizing neighborhoods because if you want people to buy products, goods and services you have to have a strong neighborhood surrounding it. The third I think is re-thinking government, that is I want one form, one fee for your general business licenses. I’m already trying to bring all four jurisdictions into a regional business license program. We haven’t really had a focus in the city or the county of true customer service. Instead of saying, “You have to run up to zoning and then you have to run over here,’’ why don’t we facilitate that for folks? And in this day and age of technology, a lot of forms should be available online. My fourth tier is about education. If you really want people to locate here or stay here, you want a quality kindergarten-higher education system. It’s not the mayor’s job, it’s everybody’s job. My platform calls on the 114 public schools located in the city of Las Vegas to be linked to businesses and have them adopt a school so the kids can actually see what’s expected in the world of work. And the world of work sees what’s going on in our public schools. There may be efficiencies they can suggest to the administration with their outside perspective. It also provides a role model for our kids. A lot of our children—like it or not—are babies of babies and they don’t have a strong role model let alone a strong male role model. It’s a way to integrate volunteerism into the curriculum. We know you’re not running against Oscar Goodman, but how would you portray Las Vegas to the world as mayor vs. him with his martini and showgirls? It’s a different persona. I’ve got a pretty good personality, I’m not bad to look at. But it’s no longer going to be about me. We can be the cleanest, greenest, most customer-friendly city in the United CONTINUES ON PAGE 30 | 23 MAY 2011 |