Scene In Passing: Take-no-prisoners politics passes scene

Marv is dead. Long live Marvelous Marv, both in memory and as a beacon of rough-hewn political aplomb.

Marv Teixeira, three-term mayor of Carson City, was a player. Unabashed in his throwback ways of taking a pop or following the ponies, he put it all on the pass line of life when he believed in whatever captured his fancy. This columnist could regale you with tales of Marv’s musings and schmoozings despite having known the larger-than-life character for just six years.

I’ll leave such regaling to others who knew him longer, unless you want to buttonhole me and hear an anecdote or two. Everyone, meanwhile, has paid respect at his passing.

“He truly loved this community,” said Robert Crowell, the city’s current mayor. “We’ve lost a pillar of this community with the passing of Marv.”

Marv’s exit saddened me in the core of my humanity, but even more where humanity recedes and reporter/columnist takes over. He gave good counsel, told great anecdotes and his telephone number was on my list of contacts for historic perspective or background color. Our only difference was he preferred to work on the QT, from the background, but you can’t fault a guy for preferring privacy to Monday-morning-quarterback status.

So I resisted the temptation to call him awhile back to ask his take on the city’s Nevada 150 Fair and a Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) stonewall. NDOT has balked on allowing parking of 1,000 cars for that July 30-Aug. 3 event near the fair site, which is at Fuji Park and Fairgrounds. City officials want parking at and shuttling from the unfinished and fallow dirt work site of I-580’s end point near Spooner Junction.

Crowell is trying to change NDOT’s recalcitrance, but Deputy City Manager Marena Works told me recently the stonewall still looked like it was an impasse without end. She said the latest incarnation of NDOT’s counter-proposal was allowing parking for fewer cars, with circuitous shuttling, at a state-owned staging point up U.S. Highway 50 on the way to South Lake Tahoe.

By not calling Marv, I never learned if he supported the fair. But when he was mayor, had such a fair been his baby he could have left no stone unturned to get the best parking. As colleague Geoff Dornan’s story last week about Teixeira’s life and death noted, the late IBM representative and politician was relentless in promoting the V&T Railway revival, the I-580 bypass and Carson City itself. Relentless is the word.

Crowell, as current mayor, will work his magic on NDOT by using diplomacy and lobbying skills. Perhaps successfully. Marv, on the other hand, would have tried if necessary to work his magic in rougher-hewn fashion.

Teixeira would have smiled while taking no prisoners.

John Barrette covers Carson City government and business. He can be reached at jbarrette@nevadaappeal.com.