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In Nevada, it’s not uncommon for mayors to deliver an annual state of the city speech at a luncheon hosted by the local chamber of commerce, as pointed out in this story in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Sometimes there’s a charge to attend, because the event includes lunch. The Review-Journal story notes it cost $45 in Henderson, $40 in North Las Vegas. Carson City’s state of the city speech was a $17 lunch.
Does that violate the state’s Open Meeting Law? I think not, because it could probably be argued such speeches are a ‘social event’ at which no deliberating took place, even when a quorum of city council members are present.
Just because a mayor gives a speech — could be a fund-raiser, could be the Elks Club program chairman ran out of ideas — doesn’t necessarily make it a meeting under the law.
Still, it’s bad form for a public official to hold an event to talk about public topics with any kind of fee attached to it.
The chambers of commerce are to be commended for organizing the events, because they help draw attention. The president, the governor, the mayor of Las Vegas apparently don’t need a buffet to boost attendance or media coverage. Down the line, though, the allure of a ‘state of … ‘ speech begins to fall off dramatically.
Clearly, the best practice is to make the speech available online and on TV, and to set aside seats at the venue for people who don’t want lunch.
The Review-Journal story raises the question of whether mayors are kowtowing to business interests because of the chamber connection. The answer is yes. I wouldn’t expect anything else.
These speeches are ceremonial, relentlessly upbeat and often self-serving. After a horrible year, the theme is always going to be optimism, growth and a bright future on the horizon. And if it’s been a great year, the theme is going to be more optimism, more growth and an even brighter future.
No mayor is going to use that particular speech to say “Crime is up, the economy is down. Expect more of the same as long as I’m in office.”
Maybe they can schedule that speech in the summer months. Combine it with a dunk tank. That’ll make money.
Update: I forgot that last year North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee made up a word for his speech: “skeptimistic.” He gets points for that. This year’s word is “grownomics.” Points deducted.