Gates calling for ‘better defined’ ethics guidelines

Jeff Schweers

Friday, Oct. 24, 1997 | 10:58 a.m.

A day after an ethics complaint was filed against five Clark County commissioners, commission Chairwoman Yvonne Atkinson Gates has asked the district attorney to draft a set of ethics guidelines.

"The law is too vague and the only time the state Ethics Commission deals with these issues is when a complaint is filed," Gates said Thursday. "There should be standards developed that are higher than state law, to strengthen what is already there."

Gates said she talked to County Manager Dale Askew and District Attorney Stewart Bell to draft some "clear, better defined standards."

Similar precedents were set when the County Commission approved a taxpayers' bill of rights and rules regulating the debt management committee that go beyond what state law requires.

Gates and four other commissioners were named in a complaint filed by a Las Vegas resident alleging ethical improprieties for not disclosing their relationships with individuals they awarded contracts to that were reserved for women and minorities.

The other commissioners named in the complaint are Myrna Williams, Bruce Woodbury, Lance Malone and Lorraine Hunt.

Malone has since asked the district attorney's office what legal ramifications could result if the board reconsidered those airport concession contracts. County attorneys have said there is no legal or ethical requirement to disclose friendships when voting on items before the board, only those relationships in which the commissioner has a financial interest.

Clark County Aviation Director Randy Walker said re-voting on the concessions could lead to lawsuits for breach of contract and make it impossible to have the concessions ready by the time the new satellite D gates open in June.

The Ethics Commission also has scheduled a hearing to discuss whether to pursue allegations that Gates acted improperly by asking several casino executives for information about leasing casino space for a frozen daiquiri business.

The board also is set to discuss whether Gates "made misrepresentations" during a confidential hearing Sept. 26 that she requested in order to clarify ethics law on disclosure should she enter into a lease agreement with the MGM Grand for the daiquiri venture.

The district attorney and Ethics Commission had advised Gates that she would have to abstain on matters related to the MGM Grand, but did not say such a business arrangement was improper. Nonetheless, Gates has since given up her interest in the daiquiri franchise to avoid further criticism.