Columnist Jeff German: United County Commission stands up to Strip casinos

Thursday, April 17, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

TALK THAT the County Commission has been too divided to accomplish anything was tossed aside this week.

Your seven commissioners voted unanimously to shelve a proposal to build costly pedestrian tunnels at Flamingo Road and Las Vegas Boulevard.

They actually bucked the Big Boys on the Strip, who were fighting among themselves, and did the right thing for the taxpayers.

Instead of planning for tunnels, the commission voted to build less costly bridges across the busy, world-famous intersection.

The tab for the bridges -- picked up by the casinos, the county and the state -- is $17.6 million compared with $28.5 million for the tunnels.

Casino bosses aren't happy about the vote.

They say the commissioners compounded a problem they created in the first place that led to the conflict between the warring Strip giants.

Prior to the vote, Bally's and Caesars Palace had pulled out of the tunnel project because of a dispute over monorail air rights with The Mirage. Caesars has accused the commission of currying favor with The Mirage over other Strip properties.

But in the end, the casinos may have had no one but themselves to blame for the county's change in direction.

The commissioners, it seems, couldn't wait for the casinos to settle their differences. Gridlock at the intersection continues to worsen, making life uncomfortable for everyone, including tourists trying to cross the street.

So the commissioners took the cheaper bridge route and saved the taxpayers a hefty sum.

"It just doesn't make sense for us to move forward with the tunnels when you have two major players dropping out and you ask the question who's going to pay for it," commission Chairwoman Yvonne Atkinson Gates says.

Gates, however, is leaving the door open for the casinos to come back with another tunnel proposal if they can make up with each other.

In the meantime, it's refreshing to see the commission act on its own.

It takes political courage to stand up to the influential casinos, knowing they can make political trouble for you down the line.

But then we pay our elected officials to represent everyone, not just the special interests.

Three cheers for the commissioners. United at last.

* The mystery is heightening over a shadowy figure in the spy scandal at the Frontier hotel-casino.

Kirk Luethy, a 38-year-old former bodyguard for Frontier co-owner John Elardi, has written a fictional manuscript based on his days at the Strip resort during the height of the 5 1/2-year Culinary Union strike.

Luethy, who left the Frontier in April 1994, sent me a copy, which purports to provide leads about the darker side of the Elardi family.

But Luethy, who many believe can unlock some of the family's secrets, has ducked interviews from reporters, lawmen and attorneys suing the Frontier.

Now comes word that Luethy was summoned to meet with the Frontier's lawyers shortly after the scandal broke late last year.

In a sworn deposition made public this week, Elardi confirms that Richard Wright, the family's lead defense lawyer in the state and federal probes, was among those sitting down with Luethy.

Elardi said the meeting was arranged so Wright could question him about a reported job offer from the Culinary Union.

The union, Elardi charged, offered Luethy a swing-shift valet position at the labor-friendly Treasure Island or Mirage in return for damaging information about the Frontier, "whether it was truthful or not."

Union leaders say they never approached Luethy.

"That's an absolute, complete lie," said Culinary Staff Director D. Taylor.

The meeting with Wright, nevertheless, tends to confirm suspicions that Luethy, who now lives in Los Angeles, has cast aside his 191-page manuscript and gone back to the arms of the Elardi family.

Elardi, however, said in his deposition that he did not pay for Luethy's air fare to Las Vegas and that he has not been compensated in any way by the Frontier.