Details scope of hearing in January

Friday, Dec. 26, 1997 | 8:36 a.m.

A notice by the panel says the hearing will focus on two areas: whether Atkinson Gates used her position on the County Commission to win hotel-casino leases for her frozen daiquiri business, and whether she lied under oath while testifying about that business in September.

When Atkinson Gates failed to show up at her own ethics hearing in November, her lawyers argued they hadn't been given sufficient notice about the subject matter. Attorneys Kathleen England and Richard Segerblom pushed the Ethics Commission to specify the topic of her Jan. 22 ethics hearings.

Ethics Chairwoman Mary Boetsch said Wednesday her board did not release the notice "because they pressured us for it" or because "they're arguing she wasn't properly notified before." Rather, Boetsch said, the ethics panel has revamped its procedures by issuing formal, written hearing notices instead of verbal ones.

"I don't see that what we told her in this is any different than what we told her before. We just used more words," Boetsch said of the six-page notice.

Louis Ling, the deputy attorney general representing the six-member ethics board, said his office issued the special hearing notice "because there are so many issues, the commission felt they needed to define which ones would be addressed in January."

"There seemed to be some confusion about what the hearing would be about. Now the public can know," he said.

The Ethics Commission will wait until March to probe whether Atkinson Gates and county commissioners Lorraine Hunt, Lance Malone and Myrna Williams acted improperly by not disclosing their relationships with friends, business associates or family members of investment partners before awarding them concessions at the county-owned McCarran International Airport.

Atkinson Gates formed her daiquiri business with Ed Nigro, her friend and neighbor, in June 1996.

She filed a request with the Ethics Commission in May of this year asking whether she should vote on agenda items related to casinos in which she might open daiquiri shops. Her company signed a lease with the MGM Grand in August.

As a county commissioner, Atkinson Gates is responsible for deciding zoning, licensing and other matters pertaining to Strip resorts, including the MGM Grand.

In a letter to the ethics board, she wrote she has an arm's-length relationship with the MGM Grand. She testified under oath Sept. 26 that she is a silent partner and that Nigro handled everything relating to talks about a lease in the resort.

MGM Grand Inc. Chairman J. Terrence Lanni has said Atkinson Gates and Nigro met with him earlier this year. Atkinson Gates did not mention that meeting to the Ethics Commission.

Asked in September whether she discussed her business with other casinos, she told ethics commissioners, "Ed is doing all that."

Las Vegas Sands Inc. Chairman Sheldon Adelson has submitted sworn testimony saying Atkinson Gates approached him about a lease in his Venetian resort, which is under construction. Executives from three other casinos have said the commissioner also approached them about leases.

The ethics board will use the Jan. 22 hearing to determine whether Atkinson Gates violated state law by using her county position "to grant an unwarranted privilege, preference, exemption, or advantage" for herself, Nigro and their daiquiri business. The panel is expected to subpoena casino executives with whom she discussed possible leases.