Commissioners mum on probe

Jeff Schweers

Thursday, Nov. 6, 1997 | 10:08 a.m.

Most Clark County commissioners aren't talking about inquiries by the FBI into how leases reserved for minorities and women were awarded for McCarran International Airport's new terminal.

County Manager Dale Askew notified commissioners Wednesday that a news report about the FBI's interviews with airport officials and the concession management company, Host Marriott, was to run in that afternoon's SUN.

"The FBI hasn't spoken to me about it," said Commissioner Lance Malone, the only commissioner contacted who would speak on the record. "All I heard was it was an inquiry more than an investigation."

Clark Sharpe, the head of minority programs for Host Marriott, was also interviewed last Thursday. Sharpe would not return repeated calls for several days.

"Because of the pending investigation, we can't comment," Host Marriott public relations manager Robin Criste said this morning. "The only thing I can tell you is we can't comment on anything."

Aviation Director Randy Walker said Wednesday agents were attracted by recent media attention about 12 leases approved by the commission on Aug. 19 for the satellite D terminal.

"They came in saying, 'Hey, we've been reading about this in the press and media and we'd like to chat about the process,"' Walker said, downplaying the interview as low key and nonspecific.

"They didn't ask any specific questions on any specific commissioners or any specific concessionaires."

Two agents from the FBI's white-collar crime program, investigating political corruption, questioned Walker about the procedures used when selecting food concessionaires at the satellite D gates now under construction, he said.

Walker explained the disadvantaged business enterprise program to the agents -- how a business gets certified and the selection process used by the airport and concession managers to come up with recommendations to the commission.

"I also corrected some of the misconceptions reported in the newspapers, the conception that you have to be poor, for example," Walker said. "Like it or not, that's not what the program is all about."

People who had lost concessions complained that the process was rigged, noting that several concessionaires were friends or business partners or had done campaign work for a commissioner.

A Las Vegas man has filed a complaint with the state Ethics Commission, alleging the county commissioners violated disclosure laws when they voted to approve the leases.

The commissioners cited were Chairwoman Yvonne Atkinson Gates, Myrna Williams, Lance Malone, Lorraine Hunt and Bruce Woodbury.

Malone has asked Askew to get a district attorney's opinion on whether the commission could legally reconsider the August vote without also wreaking havoc on the airport's plans to open the D gates by June.

That opinion has not been written, but Walker said those companies that have been awarded leases and have made investments in their concessions could sue the county. Also, a re-vote would mean the new gates would open with kiosks under construction, Walker said.

Askew also defended the process.

"I don't think there's any substance to some of the controversy that suggests there have been irregularities there," Askew said. "I think the process that the commissioners followed was one that had been in place for many years, and was not violated in any respect."