Candidate profile: Tanya Vece

Tanya Vece

Age: 41

Marital status: Single

Family: My mother emigrated from Ukraine.

Education: Self-made

Occupation: Former owner of Gossip Media & Events. I work as a contract business development and marketing specialist for senior living and physician care endeavors in Nevada, and a luxury line of car and jet rentals in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Burbank, California. I also ghostwrite books, have published my own, and work as a freelance writer for a variety of publications.

Length of Boulder City residency: 10 years.

Previous experience serving Boulder City (appointed, elected or volunteer positions): Volunteer Boulder City Chamber of Commerce 2017-2019 which included helping out with wine walks, new business ribbon cuttings, and Trunk or Treat; marketing think tank committee member via chamber of commerce ; Volunteer turned paid position as the publicist for the Dam Short Film Festival 2017 and 2018; hosted the community Easter egg hunt 2017, 2018; developed and delivered the 2017 Homestead Art Festival; hosted a pet adoption at The Homestead for the local shelter in 2017; served on the board of the Boulder City Museum and Historical Association; contributed a special Throwback Thursday column for Boulder City Review highlighting Hollywood ties to our city’s history; former host for Monster Museum News for Tom Devlin’s Monster Museum; hosted various free events, including a senior prom, at the Senior Center of Boulder City; worked for the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act program in Boulder City as the program’s liaison for the Breaking the Cycle program and redevelopment of adults in transition training program

Previous experience serving other governmental agencies (appointed, elected or volunteer positions): I currently serve on the city’s allotment committee.

Club/organization affiliations: California Writers Club

Honors/awards/special qualifications: In 2008 I received a light bulb in my honor on the famed Welcome to Las Vegas sign for my work generating business as the most profitable event planner in Las Vegas; I was the winner of the 2017 Goldie Begley Award from the Boulder City Chamber of Commerce.

What is your vision for Boulder City in 10 years, taking into account the ongoing drought and efforts to boost historic preservation?

My vision for Boulder City in 10 years is to lean into our history using innovation. I’m troubled by the lip service provided to residents about where we are headed. The current mayor’s response to Henderson’s very real and legal inchworming into our backyard, via his State of the City address, is “Nope” and our chamber (of commerce) keeps hosting the same events as businesses continue to close.

The Historic Preservation Committee and the city have yet to close the 45-day demolition loophole that currently exists for properties within the historic district. I know the committee wants to protect our history but since the demolition of the old hospital, what has really changed?

I don’t think we need any more tract homes. We need action, not the same old answers or events. The only way we can save our history and our town from becoming an extension of Henderson is to find a way to embrace change and create real visibility opportunities — not more committees — for struggling busiOVERSET FOLLOWS:nesses. I would like to see Boulder City navigate the way as a destination in Southern Nevada, not just a stop on the way to Las Vegas or Arizona and to do this we are going to need new blood in City Hall and in positions of influence. Nope is not good enough.

City Council passed a resolution to put a question on the ballot asking voters if they would approve the sale of 16.3 acres of land southeast of Boulder City Parkway and Veterans Memorial Drive to develop a grocery store and associated retail shops. What are your thoughts on this proposal?

I don’t think Resolution 7404 should even be up for a ballot question. I agree with the current mayor on his single vote to “neh” it. I understand at the City Council meeting on March 2 that the current mayor was against it going to the ballot because of how the money from the sale will be specifically spent should it pass.

For me, I don’t think we should be selling the land period. Isn’t it ironic that someone who ran on the platform for slow growth brought up Resolution 7404 in the first place? Now we are considering bringing a shopping mall/grocery store here when many small businesses are struggling and where the old Haggen market is looking destitute and is underutilized. But, perhaps, this new grocery center — if passed by voters — can cater to Henderson enveloping Boulder City since nothing was done by various leaders to prevent this from happening.

Our city hasn’t been proactive at all and this is why I am running. Aren’t the people becoming more and more disenfranchised with local government lip service? Are we really going to put another older white affluent male into office?Maybe the current council thinks this proposed sale may be a good idea because more CIP funds are needed to offset the cost of the frivolous lawsuits we are in right now.

Our town has done little to protect its history because any proactive and preventative measures are weak or unenforceable. Instead, Henderson creeps into our city and leadership relies upon incestuous relationships and stale ideas to keep us complacent. The idea of this land sale being proposed is idiotic at this time.

If the voters don’t really seek out change from someone who means it and isn’t pandering to only their own group of like-minded voters or their own special real estate interests, then who we are as a community will be in trouble.