Speaker numbers apply only to this recording. Names come from transcript evidence. “Possibly” marks uncertain attribution.
The meeting convened at 9:05 AM on November 3, 2026, at the Clark County Government Center. The agenda included recognition of the new Poet Laureate, public comments, a consent agenda, public hearings on short-term rental regulations and airport bond financing, introduction of an ordinance, business items, and a closed session. Key actions included approval of the short-term rental ordinance with amendments to address court-ordered process improvements, approval of up to $50 million in airport special facility revenue bonds, introduction of an ordinance to shorten the appeal period for business license decisions, and appointment of justices of the peace pro tempore.
Good morning. Welcome to the Board of County Commissioners meeting for Tuesday, November third, twenty twenty-six. We will begin with opening ceremonies. Uh, Mr. Schiller. Good morning, Chairman and Commissioners. Your first item is to recognize and receive a presentation from Ellie Hope for being selected as a new Clark County Poet Laureate. Every two years. And so I assume it's L. Yes. And then she will serve. She's been picked, and she will serve for two years. Uh she came to us from Arizona, but came here to college and stayed here, loves Las Vegas, loves the desert, and loves poetry. So yeah. Congratulations on being picked, but also I wanted you to um if you want to say a couple of words with me, then you're going to read a poem, right? Yes. Thank you so much, and thank you so much to all the commissioners. Um hi, everyone. My name is Elle Hope. It's truly an honor to be here. Thank you so much, Clark County, for selecting me to be your next poet laureate. Um, I'm truly thrilled for this next two years to serve our local community through different poetry pathways, um, including writing workshops, performance opportunities, as well as just community engagement and getting to know the beautiful landscape of Clark County that we have out here. Um, just talking about the program in general. There are many projects that I'm really excited to bring to life with Clark County, one of them being an anthology project where we will write poems uh by doing different site visits uh by different uh Clark County locations, including Clark County wetlands. Um love to visit the historic West Side and so many other locations to bring together our local voices and put them in one body of collection. Um, with that being said, the poem I'm gonna read today is actually from a collections of poems that I put together called Young Gifted in Black. Um, and this was a project I did early on in my poetry career to help platform uh black voices. Um as many of y'all know in the publishing world. Um it's not really open to marginalized voices, as we like to say, at least with the big five publishing houses, and I wanted to take that activism and bring it to my local community and make sure we had a space to platform these stories to platform our heartbreak, to platform our joys. So the poem I'm gonna be reading today is a poem that is inspired by my ancestors in their hometown out in Carthage, Texas, which if you know where that is, it's at the border of East Texas and Louisiana, so it's very country. Um, but it's very beautiful. Um, and I wanted to honor them today because I wouldn't be standing here without my beautiful family lineage. So many people fought uh for us to have the freedom to do so many things, including vote today. So I just hope to remind everyone to get to the polls. Exercise your voice if it's not in poetry, make sure it's in a ballot today. So, with that being said, I would like to read my poem Evergreen Hymns. My roots begin in the woods, where my great grandmother's bare feet memorize the duff, a seed maturing in a diverse forest, all rooted together as one, with the town's branches intertwining lineages of household of hot comb and grease of the iron flattening crease of Rosetta, Fanny, and Aretha on repeat. There's a different kind of photosynthesis here, where plants take in the sun, water, and hymns. I put my ear to a branch, and I hear wood floors with feet haunted by jubilation, the wood cracked, still holds firm. A congregation leans into each other, for this is preservation. Generations running home before the sun turns red, before the crow turns into murder, before the debt of the harvest mirrors the tree's gradual loss of branches, being engulfed by grief is like ivy reclaiming its territory, slowly and relentlessly creeping into every corner of an emotional landscape. But the roots, stoic guardians built resistance to withstand the storm. Tears opened up the soil. So our story grows deeper every day when we plant, we dream, we invest, we pray, we forgive, we fight, we dance, we embrace, we sing, we remember, we survive, we survive, we survive, we survive together, like the Evergreen.