Neighbors: Foray into local politics has been challenging

For a man whose career has been spent behind the scenes in the relative privacy of company board rooms, the main proponent behind the Carson City Center Project, Steve Neighbors, said his foray into local politics has proven to be a challenge.

It's been a little more than a year since Neighbors went public with his intentions of taking the money from the Mae B. Adams Trust and using it to build an $84.2 million development behind the Carson Nugget.

As the sole trustee, Neighbors has spent the subsequent months explaining and defending the proposal, which will use a combination of public and private funds and could include a new library, digital media lab, business incubator, events center, hotel, parking garage, office space and retail shopping in downtown Carson City. Right now, it's estimated the city would cover $31.9 million.

Neighbors' day job is working as a "turn-around specialist" at his Boise, Idaho-based firm, Strategic & Operational Solutions Inc. His forte is going into a company, taking the helm and pulling it out of financial oblivion. It's a long-time skill set he's trying to use in Carson City even though the experience here is a new one.

It has meant battling and shaping public perception of the project in op-ed pieces, breakfast meetings and numerous public events. He also had the political environment of the 2010 election and the Carson City Board of Supervisors race, which featured the City Center Project as a contentious campaign issue.

"And public impression is never correct, in a small company it's never correct," Neighbors said. "Nobody ever really understands it."

The battle in Boise

The project's genesis goes back to mid-2007 when Neighbors was hired by Mae Adams, a former co-owner of the Carson Nugget, to help the casino get back on solid financial footing.

Neighbors eventually became Mae Adams' conservator and went to court on her behalf in July 2008 after Adams' daughter, Betty Adams, died at the age of 70 and left behind a hand-written will.

That will, obtained by the Nevada Appeal, left $8.6 million, sports cars and properties to several relatives, the John Hagee Ministry in Texas and the Migdal Ohr Orphanage in Israel, including $2 million and two cars, a Jaguar and Lincoln, to her mother.

What resulted was an 18-month legal battle over Betty Adams' fortune - Neighbors said Mae Adams was outraged over the situation. The money ultimately wound up in the Mae B. Adams Trust, which is now controlled by Neighbors and is slated to be used for the downtown project.

Before she died in October 2009, Neighbors said he was directed by Mae Adams to take that money and reinvest it back into Carson City.

"I'll answer to her eventually," Neighbors said. "How I take her resources with an optimum impact to Carson City is what I'm accountable for."

The political debate

It's been just over a year since the initial details of the downtown project went public and there are plenty more to come.

In hindsight, though, Neighbors said if he were to do it all over again, "I would have done it behind the scenes. I thought I had to be really open, but that had people filling in the gaps and filling them in wrong."

Rob Hooper, the vice chairman of the citizens advisory committee for the City Center Project, said even though the project has been in the public eye for more than a year, there still is distorted views of the project in the public.

"It got caught up in the supervisor elections, it became of political debate," Hooper said. "In that discourse, it got a little bit overzealous. It was not a good venue to vet this whole project. This is a big deal and it needs a lot of careful planning."

Project consultant Mark Lewis said any project has its challenges, especially in a down economy. And reflecting on his experience as a city manager in Stockton, Calif., and redevelopment director in Reno, he's no stranger to contentious public debate - a fact that Neighbors said he liked when he hired Lewis.

"It's a tough concept, and it was bound to be a little controversial," Lewis said. "The other thing that is really unique is you've got this foundation. For decades the Nugget, the business, took millions of dollars out of Northern Nevada and Carson, and then, all of a sudden it's been recreated to bring that money back and reinvest it into the community. It's a very unusual thing to happen."

For now, Neighbors said he spends every other week in Carson City, visiting the Carson Nugget and meeting with developers.

"You have to keep a wary eye on it," Neighbors said of P3 Development, the company planning the project. "They're in it to make money on it eventually. You don't mind them making money, you just want to make sure it's done right."