NORTH LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Nevada's first Black mayor, Pamela Goynes-Brown, is preparing to wrap up her tenure at the helm of the City of North Las Vegas later this year. She's reached her term limit, and voters will head to the polls soon to decide who will take her place.
I sat down with her to talk about her term, what's next for her, and who she'd like to pass the baton to. I also got to take a couple of your questions straight to the top.
"What has it been like for you to be able to serve as mayor of the city that means so much to you — the place where you grew up?" I asked the mayor.
"For me to serve the city that raised me, it's surreal. I've seen the city when I was a child and to what it is today, and the growth and the transformation has just been phenomenal — and I'm a part of this," she said.
Throughout her tenure, from 2022 to now, you've heard Goynes-Brown talk about making North Las Vegas a "complete city" — transforming it from a place where people only live to a community where you can live, work and play.
"Where do you think we are in achieving that as you near the end of your term?" I asked her.
"We are getting there. Right now, we are very durable. We are making headway. You can see shovels in the ground, you can see buildings going vertical," she said.
She pointed to several projects underway, including the Nevada State University campus set to break ground in late April as part of a new vision for downtown, the new civic building planned for the old city hall site, as well as the highly anticipated mixed-use development called Hylo Park at the former site of the Fiesta Rancho and Texas Station casinos.
She also highlighted new developments at Apex Industrial Park, including significant investments from Switch and Novva Data Centers. The city has offered incentives to lure big business to Apex, and one Channel 13 viewer wanted to know if the mayor thinks that will continue even after her term is over.
"I'm hoping those incentives can continue even after I'm gone because that is growing our tax base. It's bringing thousands of jobs to our community that people will be able to work one job because they'll be higher-paying jobs, they'll be able to sustain their families," she said.
She told me she felt the transformation of the city over the last few years is what she'd consider her biggest accomplishment as mayor.
"Especially since the downturn and the financial struggles we were going through, to rebound from that, it just shows the work and dedication that was put in," she said, thanking city staff and leadership.
Another Channel 13 viewer said they don't believe the same strides are being made when it comes to crime, though.
"There are people here who still feel like crime is a serious problem that they see every day in and around their neighborhoods. What's your response to that, and what are you doing to make the city safer?" I asked her.
"Well, crime statistically overall has shown a decrease, and we are tackling that problem by, we just graduated one of our largest police academies with over 34 officers. We have another 94 budgeted positions, and hopefully we'll start another academy in the fall. So we're doing our best to increase officers' presence out in our neighborhoods and on the streets," she said.
I wanted to dive deeper into where crime stands in North Las Vegas, so I requested data from the city and learned that between from 2024 to 2025, homicides decreased by 6%, traffic fatalities decreased by 40%, robbery was down 15%, simple assault was down 4%, aggravated assault went down 6%, burglary was down 34%, and motor vehicle theft went down 26%. Shoplifting did see an increase by 6%.
The city credits the improvements to successful recruitment efforts, increased Traffic Division staffing, stricter enforcement directives across patrol, and targeted DUI enforcement, all while maintaining a focus on community-centered policing.
Public safety is a big campaign focus of the two expected frontrunners in this year's mayoral race: former corrections officer and assemblymember Daniele Monroe-Moreno and Mayor Pro Tempore Scott Black.
"Are you throwing your support behind any candidate in particular?" I asked her.
"I am throwing my support around my current Mayor Pro Tem Councilman Scott Black, who represents Ward 3," she told me.
I also asked the mayor what's next for her — if she's considering staying in politics in some other capacity or going back to education.
"The first thing I'm going to do is learn how to relax, and after that, I have really not made a decision, because I've been so laser-focused on the work that we still need to work on right now," she said.
She said she's going to enjoy time with her grandbabies and take it one day at a time.
She's not done just yet though — her time in office will be up at the end of 2026. I asked her what she's hoping to get done before then.
"Right now, before my term is over, our downtown project is just paramount that we get as much of that accomplished as we can, because it's revitalizing, it's reimagining our downtown core and that's so super exciting," she said.