AN INTERVIEW WITH BRUCE L. WOODBURY An Oral History Conducted by Stefani Evans The Building Las Vegas Oral History Project Oral History Research Center at UNLV University Libraries University of Nevada Las Vegas i ©The Building Las Vegas Oral History Project University of Nevada Las Vegas, 2016 Produced by: The Oral History Research Center at UNLV University Libraries Director: Claytee D. White Editor: Stefani Evans Transcribers: Kristin Hicks, Frances Smith Interviewers: Stefani Evans and Claytee D. White Project Manager: Stefani Evans ii The recorded interview and transcript have been made possible through the generosity of the UNLV University Libraries. The Oral History Research Center enables students and staff to work together with community members to generate this selection of first-person narratives. The participants in this project thank the university for the support given that allowed an idea and the opportunity to flourish. The transcript received minimal editing that includes the elimination of fragments, false starts, and repetitions in order to enhance the reader’s understanding of the material. All measures have been taken to preserve the style and language of the narrator. In several cases photographic sources accompany the individual interviews. The following interview is part of a series of interviews conducted under the auspices of the Building Las Vegas Oral History Project. Claytee D. White Director, Oral History Research Center University Libraries University Nevada, Las Vegas iii PREFACE Personal collection of Rose and Bruce Woodbury "Should I be congratulated for the basic minimum that you should expect from any public servant—not taking bribes, being honest?" As Bruce Woodbury reflects on his twenty-eight years as Clark County's longest-serving County commissioner (1981–2009) he recalls serving with about thirty different commissioners. Surprisingly, "only seven of us got major jail sentences." He ruminates how Federal Bureau of Investigation probes Operation Yobo in the early 1980s and G Sting in the early 2000s exposed several Clark County politicians who succumbed to greed. While Woodbury considers honesty in office a given, his values were not held by all of his colleagues. One Operation Yobo recording caught a fellow commissioner responding to the query, "How about Woodbury?" with, "No, you can't touch him with a ten foot pole." Woodbury remembers his "campaign guys really liked that." Apparently the voters did as well, as he consistently won re-election. iv The Las Vegas native, who was raised in the John S. Park neighborhood and attended Las Vegas schools, earned his Bachelor's degree at the University of Utah and his Juris Doctorate at Stanford University. He had the good fortune of forming and joining law firms with good friends; he has been with only two firms in his career, joining his current firm in 1984. He speaks of the progressive hearing impairment that eventually kept him out of the courtroom professionally and of the cochlear implants that allowed his brain to learn a new way of hearing. In this interview Woodbury puts his county commission service into historical perspective and into the Building Las Vegas initiative by highlighting his four priorities while in office— transportation, flood control, clean air, and planning and zoning—and the ways he was able to establish infrastructure to mitigate problems in these areas. He points to transportation accomplishments such as the CC-215 Bruce Woodbury Beltway, the Desert Inn Super Arterial, and the Monorail. He pushed the 1985 Flood Control District legislation and served as the District's first chairman. His service on the Environmental Quality Advisory Committee gave him a platform to combat Clark County smog by creating the Clean Air Action Plan. His effort to require a super majority on the commission to overrule the master plan was struck down by the Nevada Supreme Court as unauthorized by state law; however, he became known for his commitment to compatibility with existing neighborhoods and for working with town advisory boards and citizen groups. In 1980, when Clark County commissioner Bob Broadbent resigned to take a position with the Federal Bureau of Reclamation, he created a vacancy to be filled by gubernatorial appointment. Broadbent recommended Woodbury to Governor Robert List, who then appointed the young attorney. Broadbent and List each have their own lists of accomplishments. To their lists we can add Woodbury's 1981 appointment to the Clark County commission—Clark County residents have benefited greatly from Woodbury's twenty-eight years in that position. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Interview with Bruce L. Woodbury September 29, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada Conducted by Stefani Evans Preface………………………………………………………………………………..…………..iv Childhood in John S. Park neighborhood, marriage at nineteen, University of Utah, 1966 B.S., magna cum laude; and Stanford University 1969 J.D. One-year clerkship Judge Howard Babcock; 1971 law practice with Jim Rogers, Tom Lea, and Doug Whitney and later Earl Monsey. 1984 joined law firm of boyhood friends and current partners R. Gardner Jolley and William R. Urga. Bob Broadbent, Robert List, Clark County Commission 1981–2009. Transportation, flood control, air quality, and planning and zoning. Environmental Quality Advisory Committee and Clean Air Action Plan. Early 1980s floods, 1985 Flood Control District legislation, and first chairman. 1989 proposed master transportation plan for beltway, improved roads, and transit system; legislature passing tax package on gasoline, sales, hotel/motel rooms, developers, and motor vehicles ………………………………………………………………………………….….…………. 1–10 Maryland Parkway corridor transit; Las Vegas Monorail and Chapter 11 bankruptcy, three convention centers, and McCarran International Airport; logistics, locations for elevated pedestrian crossings; competition and ego; progressive hearing loss, hearing aids, and cochlear implants; CC-215 Bruce Woodbury Beltway and construction, local money, and attractive interchanges. Clark County commission, compatible zoning, and developers Richard Plaster, Robert Lewis, Mark Fine, and land-use attorney Chris Kaempfer; 1988 explosions in Henderson of Pacific Engineering and Production Company of Nevada (PEPCON), Kerr-McGee, and Kidd & Company marshmallow factory ……………………………………………....…………. 10–20 River Mountains Loop Trail System; Boulder City's Hemenway Park and bighorn sheep; master- planned communities; Operation Yobo, Operation G-Sting, and the Clark County Commission; accomplishments on the commission, and fellow commissioners Don Schlesinger, Thalia Dondero. Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump; Las Vegas stadium ………. 20–31 vi vii Good afternoon. I'm Stefani Evans, [it’s July 27, 2016,] and I'm sitting in the conference room at Bruce Woodbury's office. Mr. Woodbury, would you pronounce and spell your first and last names for the tape, please? My name is Bruce Woodbury; B-R-U-C-E, W-O-O-D-B-U-R-Y. Thank you. Why don't we begin by you telling us a little bit about your early life; where you were born and grew up, and tell us about your family? Well, I was born in Las Vegas, 1944. I don't remember 1944, but growing up in the forties and the fifties, it was a pretty small town and it was a very nice small town. We had our problems, of course. My father was Howard Woodbury. When I was born he was a dentist. He went back to professional graduate school and became an oral surgeon a few years after that. He was the only oral surgeon in Southern Nevada until just before he died in 1961, and he was also an anesthesiologist, which they taught in oral surgery school back at the University of Pennsylvania and a residency at one of the big hospitals in Boston when I was a tiny, little boy. My mother was Elma Lund Woodbury. They both grew up in the Southern Utah area and got married young; I think my mother was eighteen, my father was twenty-one. They went to dental school together at USC. My mother went through business college and then became a secretary to help put him through dental school. He was a drummer, played in a dance band during dental school to help pay his way as well. He was a dentist, oral surgeon, he was in all kinds of community activities. But one that he loved was is that he was in the Helldorado marching band and they also played at the Helldorado Rodeo, they'd march in the parades and play at the rodeos. That was fun to tag along with him. 1 So our home was in the Huntridge area. It's also called, I think, the John S. Park Historic area, on Norman Street. Then we moved when I was about six down to the corner of Seventh [Street] and Franklin [Avenue], just down the street from the John S. Park School and the church where I went. The neighborhood was just filled with kids. The parents let us kind of run free, it seemed like at the time, to ride our bikes everywhere and walk everywhere without being too worried about us. I played all kinds of sports at the Huntridge central park there, Circle Park. Anyway, with a few exceptions that every kid has, my memories are pretty fond of my childhood. How many siblings do you have? I have one older brother and two younger sisters. My brother is Frank Woodbury; he's a CPA [Certified Public Accountant] here in Las Vegas. My sister Cindy lives here in Las Vegas also and my sister Pam lives in Park City, Utah. We were pretty close as a family. Did any of you inherit your father's musical talent? I did not. In school I got good grades except I got bad grades in penmanship, art, and music. I can't draw. I enjoy music, but I can't carry a tune. We had a little band in elementary school with the flutophone, these little flutes, and I would just have to pretend because I couldn't follow the music, notes, and all that for some reason.