Commissioner on brothel payroll

Tuesday, Sept. 3, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

VIRGINIA CITY -- Storey County Commissioner Shirley Colletti has been paid $120,000 since January 1995 by owners of a brothel where she was general manager and is now a consultant.

Storey County regulates and licenses the bordellos, but Colletti said Sunday there has never been any conflict of interest. During the 18 months of the payments, she said a prostitution-related vote has never arisen.

A.G.E. Enterprises, which owns the Mustang Ranch brothel, paid Colletti $10,000 a month in the first six months of 1995. She said she was general manager of the bordello. After that, she has received $5,000 a month as a consultant. Colletti describes herself as a "troubleshooter."

The payments were made public by her Democratic opponent, Joe Haynes, who works as a part-time maintenance man at the Mustang. Voters choose today between Colletti and Haynes in the primary election.

This has been a topsy-turvy campaign, which, among other things, involves ties to Southern Nevada.

Colletti says former Nevada bordello kingpin Joe Conforte, now a fugitive in hiding overseas, is out to defeat her. She believes Conforte still may own part of the Mustang, which is about 20 miles east of Reno.

"Joe's got a vendetta," Colletti said. "Joe still wants to run Storey County."

Haynes, in a flier sent to Storey County Democrats, enclosed copies of the monthly checks from January 1995 to July 1996, showing the payments by A.G.E. Enterprises to Colletti. It's no secret that she was being paid by the Mustang, Colletti says. But she charges that the owners of A.G.E. Enterprises leaked the checks to embarrass her.

Asked why the owners of A.G.E. would want to defeat her in the election and at the same time keep her on the payroll, Colletti declined to comment, saying that will come out later.

George Flint, the legislative lobbyist for A.G.E., said he did not know anything about the inner workings of the Mustang, and other officials of A.G.E. could not be contacted for comment.

Haynes, a retired Army sergeant, says Colletti quit as general manager of the brothel when income tax returns were filed for the Mustang showing hundreds of thousands of dollars unaccounted for.

According to Haynes, Colletti moved to Las Vegas in mid-1995 to live with Jim Miltenberger, operator of Sheri's Ranch brothel in Pahrump.

Haynes said Colletti demanded her salary from the Mustang continue when she moved away and pledged "total war" if not paid.

"The new ranch management, considering her powerful position as one of three Storey County commissioners, accepted this demand of semi-extortion rather than the 'total war' threatened by Commissioner Colletti," Haynes said.

Colletti says the allegation is "a bunch of crap," and she intends to sue. She says she will "start at the top," including officials of A.G.E., and "go all the way down" in naming defendants.

She said A.G.E. put a "stop payment" on her last check for August but then decided to honor it. She said she has now quit as a consultant to Mustang.

Colletti herself is facing a suit and a court hearing Friday on the question of her residency. A suit has been filed by W.B. "Bill" Hollis, claiming that Colletti is no longer a resident of Storey County and lives in Las Vegas.

According to the suit, Colletti flies from Las Vegas to Reno the night before the County Commission meetings and then drives to Virginia City the next day. She then flies back to Las Vegas. Hollis works at the gift shop at the Mustang Ranch.

If Colletti loses in the primary election, the suit becomes moot.

Haynes has also attacked Colletti for her absences and has produced a document from O'Brien's Moving and Storage of Reno that shows she moved her belongings to Las Vegas July 18, 1995.

Colletti, who is seeking a third term, said the law does not prevent her from traveling. She says she has missed only a few meetings during the last four years. Haynes said she was absent for two months of meetings when she took a cruise.

But Colletti says during that cruise, she flew back twice at her own expense from the Cayman Islands and from Mexico to attend the commission meetings.

She says she still has two homes in Storey County, her car is registered there and she maintains her bank account in nearby Sparks.

Her troubles began, she said, with her efforts to attract new major industry to Storey County. She said she has been able to help bring in several new plants. But she said she got the "word" from Conforte to put a moratorium on new plants and factories.

The houses of prostitution in Storey County used to be the largest taxpayers, accounting for 12 percent of the budget, but their percentage has waned as the new businesses have arrived.

Haynes believes Colletti is trying to create a "straw man" by raising the Conforte issue. Haynes says he has never met or spoken with Conforte, who has been gone from the area for five years.

Conforte and his former attorney were indicted by a federal grand jury in Reno in June on charges of fraud in an alleged scheme to buy the Mustang Ranch in a 1990 bankruptcy action. Conforte is living at an unknown location outside the United States.