Two unlikely allies — the Nevada Resort Association and Culinary Workers Union Local 226 — are pushing for an amendment to Gov. Joe Lombardo’s criminal justice bill (SB457) that would allow judges to ban people convicted of misdemeanor crimes from a tourism corridor for up to a year.

The proposal comes as Democratic lawmakers have put forward a new provision to Lombardo’s bill that would allow Clark County to reestablish a specialty court focused on crimes committed in a tourism corridor — widely considered to be the Strip —  and the amendment from the Culinary Union and Resorts Association would step up penalties for repeat offenders.

In a last-minute joint letter to Gov. Joe Lombardo and members of the Legislature obtained by The Nevada Independent, Resort Association President and CEO Virginia Valentine and Culinary Secretary-Treasurer Ted Pappageorge urged lawmakers to adopt the proposal reestablishing the court with powers to ban people from the region. The courts, which began operating in 2023 and created a single judicial department that assigned all criminal cases where the alleged offense was committed within the Strip, ceased operating last year.

“We are imploring you to enact meaningful safeguards to prevent the escalation of crimes senselessly perpetrated against our tourists and resort employees,” the letter stated.

It cited several examples of security guards and hotel employees who were attacked by patrons who had trespassed multiple times on gaming properties, with one example being a man who trespassed 700 times and another of a female who trespassed 21 times and battered the face and neck of a security officer.

“To be clear, there are just too many incidents like this to list,” the letter said.

The letter noted that “without swift and decisive action,” resort employees and tourists are facing daily threats to their well-being, and the industry is left without the ability to counter them. It noted that the number of people barred from the Strip dropped from 2,560 in July to 402 now.

Lombardo’s crime bill passed out of the Senate Monday with a vote of 20-1. Sen. James Ohrenschall (D-Las Vegas) was the lone opposition vote.

Sen. Melanie Scheible (D-Las Vegas), who brokered the original compromise to the crime bill in a broad amendment released Sunday, said during an Assembly Judiciary Committee hearing on the bill Monday that when the corridor court was implemented in Clark County there were no guidelines or structure, which proved challenging for attorneys and judges. 

Asked why the court was disbanded, Scheible said it was likely because it didn’t have the desired outcomes because of overwhelming caseloads.

“That’s why I worked with the Nevada Resort Association on this language to respond to requests for the corridor court to be reestablished,” she told the committee during the hearing. “But to put these guidelines into place so that hopefully we’ll be more successful this time.”

Scheible’s amendment would also establish harsher penalties for individuals who commit crimes against hospitality workers. It would also require counties with a population exceeding 700,000 (currently only Clark County) to designate areas with a high concentration of tourists and employees as a special corridor — such as the Strip.

However, the amendment stipulates that it would leave it up to justice courts whether to establish the specialty program. 

Matt Griffin, who spoke on behalf of the Resort Association, brought forward the friendly amendment referred to in the letter obtained by The Nevada Independent. That amendment would specifically bar someone from the tourism corridor for up to a year if they committed any criminal offense within the area, with an escalating penalty. 

Griffin clarified that a provision in the amendment that would have made it a gross misdemeanor to commit additional offenses on the Strip was a “misprint.”

“It is just a must order-out for a period of one year — for a second, fifth, twentieth, whatever,” he said, noting that the judges could establish exemptions allowing criminal defendants to physically enter the corridor for specific purposes.

“We’re not here to actually pass criminal laws,” Walker said. “Our goal is strictly to solve a problem.”