Bryan rips panel chief

Thursday, Aug. 21, 1997 | 10:52 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Richard Bryan today accused the chairwoman of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission of overstepping her authority.

"We have a chairwoman who has run amok," the Nevada Democrat said. "I have never in my more than 30 years of public life seen that kind of arrogance and abuse of power."

Bryan said Kay Cole James is running the nine-member panel as if it were her own "private fiefdom" and is using it to further the agenda of the Christian Coalition, which is against gambling.

He cited her proposal to take the commission to New Orleans to study gambling and political corruption during the controversy over a U.S. Senate race there. The Christian Coalition's candidate, Republican Woody Jenkins, lost to Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La, but has claimed voter fraud.

"The protest of Mr. Jenkins is on the verge of being dismissed," Bryan said. "It appears that Ms. James was part of a plan to revitalize that effort. It's a disgusting and arrogant abuse of taxpayer funds."

James, an administrator at Pat Robertson's Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va., gave up the idea of going to New Orleans after her fellow commissioners questioned the propriety of the trip during a contentious meeting of the panel Wednesday.

Commissioner John Wilhelm suggested going into New Orleans in the middle of the political mess there could be "catastrophic" to the panel.

Afterward, however, James denied she was trying to inject the commission into the Louisiana race.

"The only one playing partisan politics is Sen. Bryan," James said. "There was no attempt to do that. We have enough on our plate without having to address that issue."

James also said she now was willing to support a move to hold a hearing in Las Vegas, the gaming industry's biggest success story.

She had left Las Vegas off her list of proposed travel sites.

"Of course we're open to going to Las Vegas," James said. "How could you do a study on this issue without going to Nevada?"

Bryan, meanwhile, also accused James of acting in a condescending manner to her fellow panel members.

"She treats the other commissioners as if they are schoolchildren to be lectured and dictated to," Bryan said.

A couple of times during the hearing, which was aired live on C-SPAN, James said she had hoped the commissioners had "done their homework."

She used that phrase when presenting them with a 74-page analysis at the last minute of her view of the proposed rules governing the panel's work.

"Her arrogance and abuse of power are so great that my only hope is that she may be overplaying her hand," said Bryan, who testified before the commission Tuesday.

Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman Bill Bible, a member of the commission, shared some of Bryan's worries.

"I'm concerned by the manner in which the commission has started its work in that it's going to put a cloud of smoke over the integrity of the study," Bible said today.

"It was anticipated the study would be conducted in a fair and impartial manner, and early indications are that's not going to be the case."

Bible was irked at being given the 74-page rules document five minutes before Wednesday's meeting. He has proposed rules limiting the role of the chairwoman in the study, something James opposes.

Bible and Wilhelm were rankled that James has not provided commissioners with the names, resumes and salaries of several employees she has hired to work for the commission.

James concluded the hearing with a two-hour public comment period in which pro- and anti-gaming advocates each were allowed three minutes to speak.

Housewives, lawyers, ministers, elected officials, representatives from citizens groups and casino employees were among those who addressed the panel.