First Inaugural Meeting of the Southern Nevada Council of Governments - February 24, 2026
First Inaugural Meeting of the Southern Nevada Council of Governments
The Southern Nevada Council of Governments (SNCOG) held its first inaugural meeting on February 24, 2026. The meeting was called to order, a quorum was established, and compliance with open meeting law was confirmed. Members introduced themselves representing Clark County, Las Vegas, Boulder City, North Las Vegas, and Henderson. The council elected a chair and vice chair, appointed an executive director, received an overview of the COG's purpose and operations, conducted an icebreaker to discuss potential regional priorities, and approved a zero budget and meeting schedule for the upcoming year.
Discussion Items
- Election of Chair and Vice Chair: A motion was made and passed unanimously to elect the chair. (The transcript indicates a motion and vote, but the names of the chair and vice chair were not explicitly recorded in the provided text.)
- Appointment of Executive Director: Seth Floyd was appointed as the executive director of the SNCOG by unanimous vote. Mr. Floyd will be housed within the City of Las Vegas City Manager’s office for the initial year.
- Overview of the Council of Governments: Mr. Floyd presented the purpose of the COG to serve as a forum for regional collaboration on issues that transcend jurisdictional boundaries such as air quality, conservation, population forecasting, and infrastructure. He highlighted the region’s growth, economy (gaming and tourism, ~2.5 million population), and the flexibility the COG provides compared to the previous Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition (SNRPC).
- Icebreaker: Topic Selection for First Year: Board members were asked: “If money was no object and boundaries were not a barrier, what’s the number one thing you would change or address in southern Nevada?” Responses included: safer streets (especially school zone traffic safety), education (K-12 and higher), attainable/workforce housing, diversification of the economy, public transit, homelessness and permanent supportive housing, senior fraud prevention, youth investment (mentorship, prevention of trafficking), modernizing the tax structure, and increased interjurisdictional cooperation. No topic was selected; a facilitated discussion to pick one topic will occur at the next meeting on March 31, 2026.
- Staff Standing Committee: A motion passed to establish an informal jurisdictional staff committee that will meet between quarterly meetings to prepare topics and materials.
- Budget for Fiscal Year 2026-2027: The council approved a zero-dollar budget for FY26-27. Staff time and expenses will be tracked and reported to the board.
- 2026 Meeting Schedule: The council approved a schedule of quarterly meetings: March 31, May 26, August 25, and December 1, 2026, all to be hosted at the City of Las Vegas.
Key Outcomes
- Unanimous election of chair and vice chair (specific names not captured in transcript).
- Unanimous appointment of Seth Floyd as executive director.
- Unanimous approval of a zero budget for FY26-27 with tracking of city staff resources.
- Unanimous approval of the 2026 meeting schedule.
- Unanimous authorization to continue jurisdictional staff meetings in preparation for future meetings.
- Next meeting set for March 31, 2026, to select a regional topic for the first year.
Public Comments
No members of the public provided comments during either the agenda-specific public comment period or the general citizen participation portion at the end of the meeting.
Meeting Transcript
Good afternoon. We are in our first inaugural meeting of the Southern Nevada Council of Governments, and I will officially call us to order and ask for a roll call. And I I will say that uh Mayor Pratem Black is on his way. He'll be a few minutes late. Councilman Knutson. I'm here. Councilwoman Alan Polinski. Commissioner Jones. Commissioner McCurdy. Present. Commissioner Councilman Stewart. Councilwoman Larson. Excuse Councilman Churchill. Councilman Black. Excuse Councilwoman Ashurst. Yeah. You have a quorum. Thank you very much. And I'm assuming we're in compliance with the open meeting law. We are. Thank you. And I am bringing us to item number three, which is public comment. Comment during this portion of the agenda must be limited to matters on the agenda for action. If you wish to be heard, please step forward now. Hearing and seeing none, we'll close the public comment period. And number four is intro introduction of the Southern Nevada Council of Government Members. So Mayor Pratem, Seth Floyd for the record. What I thought you might want to do here is just have everyone introduce themselves and the jurisdiction they're with. I will start. Justin Jones, Clark County Commission. William McCurdy, Clark County Commission. Francis Polensky, Las Vegas, City Council. Denise Basford, Volta City. Richard Churchill, City of North Las Vegas. Dan Stewart, City of Henderson. And we are now on to item number five, discussion for possible action regarding the election of chair and vice chair. I will take the chair. Thank you. Okay, there's a motion on the table. Please cast your votes. Aye. That motion passes. Thank you, Mr. Floyd. So for the those of you who weren't participating in the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition, we had a discussion around staffing within the city of Las Vegas. We built into the city manager's office the potential for that appointment with Mr. Floyd serving as the executive director, if that's the will of this board. Um and if you have any questions or comments, but we did build in to the structure within the city manager's office within the city of Las Vegas to staff this for the initial inaugural real year to see kind of how it goes and if we need to make any adjustments throughout that year. Um, unless there's any questions, objections, comments, then I would move for Mr. Floyd to serve as the executive director of the South Southern Nevada Council of Governments.
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