Lawmaker fuming over charity event

Larry Henry and Cy Ryan

Friday, June 6, 1997 | 5:47 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A bill provision allowing neighborhoods to vote on whether they want a casino within 2,500 feet of schools, churches and homes is in jeopardy, based on opposition from the gaming industry and the Las Vegas City Council.

Councilman Matthew Callister, who lost a re-election bid this week but was in Carson City on Thursday testifying on the council's behalf, said a public vote "would create absolute bad planning."

Callister proposed a requirement that casinos can't be allowed in neighborhoods without a three-fourths vote of the council.

"As long as we have a Planning Commission and a City Council, those folks are supposed to make the decisions," he said.

That reasoning differs from testimony from Mayor Jan Laverty Jones on a different city issue.

Jones recently testified in Carson City against a bill requiring the City Council to expand from four to six wards.

She said the public should vote on giving the council two new seats. Those who oppose a public vote say it will keep minorities off the board. They say voters can be persuaded not to let the size of government grow.

Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, said during a recent floor speech that he doesn't understand why politicians want the public to vote on some things and not others.

He noted that the Legislature is probably going to pass a sales tax increase bill without putting it on the ballot.

The gaming industry, which is pushing the sales tax hike, opposes a public vote on that. They're afraid voters will reject a sales tax and turn to casinos to pay for growth instead.

Thin skin

The other day on an elevator in the legislative building, Assemblyman David Goldwater, D-Las Vegas, said he's not going to help raise money for a Las Vegas charity he wouldn't name.

Goldwater feels he was wronged in a SUN story about a charity basketball game for the Boys and Girls Club of Western Nevada.

The story explained that Goldwater and most of the legislators who participated in the game didn't pay the $1,000 they were supposed to have pledged as a condition of playing. Gov. Bob Miller didn't pay either and has no intention to do so, said press secretary Richard Urey.

Many who didn't pay privately say that Goldwater, who was captain of the Democrats, never made it clear that they were supposed to.

Goldwater was highlighted in the story because he gloated about the Democrats' two-point victory over a team of Republicans. Goldwater also displays a trophy on his desk in the Assembly chamber, although now the trophy seems to have lost a little of its luster.

After the story ran, Goldwater called two SUN reporters to his office and unloaded on them. He produced a contract that said players were "encouraged" to pay, not required. He didn't place any importance on a promotional flier saying players had to secure the money "to be eligible to play."

In his office, Goldwater said the incident taught him that he can't be nice, presumably a reference to charity organizations. He allegedly is upset that the Boys and Girls Club spoke to the SUN and didn't cover up for the nonpaying legislators, who were dubbed the Deadbeat Donors.

On the elevator the next day, Goldwater said a charity has since asked him to help but he declined. He also said he was through talking to the SUN reporters who wrote the story.

In the meantime, Goldwater has said he has commitments to make good on his original $1,000 pledge.

As this was going on, Assemblyman Pete Ernaut, R-Reno, who played in the basketball game and paid his $1,000 pledge right away, began coordinating a legislative softball game.

Ernaut is letting it be known that players don't have to pay anybody anything.