Strategic Plan to Address Growth in Southern Nevada

3. Organization of the Southern Nevada Strategic Planning Authority

The Authority’s organizational structure is based on a set of Bylaws adopted by the Authority in March 1998. The Bylaws reiterate the purpose of the Authority based on the legislative mandate, and detail the membership of the full Authority, committees and subcommittees. Structural issues such as voting rights, vacancies, compensation, roles and responsibilities are delineated. Further, operating rules for meetings, meeting structure, funding requirements and decision making are established.

Most important to point out are the “Principles of Participation” and “Tenets of Collaborative Problem Solving” which form the basis for ground rules of behavior each Authority member has been expected to follow at each meeting.

The Authority’s decision making process was unique for a group of this size, structure, and composition. The primary vehicle for decision making was the “consensus process”, which required the Authority to make each of its decisions through collaborative problem solving. The Authority members took considerable time and effort to arrive at solutions that everyone at the table could accept, and to make a commitment to achieve fairness and balance with respect to each decision made by the group.

In order to accomplish the deliverable mandates specified in Senate Bill No. 383, the Authority organized a committee structure. All Authority members accepted roles on at least one of the working committees. Each committee would pass its finding to the next committee while meeting the deliverable mandates as specified in Senate Bill No. 383. The committees are summarized as follows:

Committee		Role
Executive Council		Manage committee assignments and provide administrative oversight
Master Plan and Capital Improvement Plan Review		Assess Southern Nevada service provider Master and Capital Improvement Plans
Needs Assessment		Identify 20 year growth related needs of Southern Nevada
Infrastructure Financing		Match revenue sources to needs assessments and identify gaps
Strategic Plan		Develop Strategic Plan to address growth needs
Legislative		Develop Legislative recommendations
Technical Committee (Cities and County Managers)		Provide technical and staff support
Finance Subcommittee (Cities and County Finance Directors)		Provide technical and staff support