Thursday, April 23, 1998 | 11:58 a.m.
SPARKS -- The Nevada Commission on Ethics Wednesday dismissed a complaint against Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones that stated she profited from the sale of the Main Street Station hotel-casino to the Boyd Gaming Group in 1993.
The complaint, filed by a citizen, Robert Rose, could not be supported with any evidence, the commission ruled.
"There is no evidence she (Jones) intended to benefit either herself or anyone else by what limited participation she may have had in the sale of the property...," the commission said in its ruling.
Roses's complaint stated that Jones was a board member with Bank of America at the time Main Street Station was sold, and that she influenced the sale to the Boyd Group at a deflated price.
Howard Epstein, senior vice president of the Bank of America, wrote to the commission that Jones was never involved in the Bank of America's disposal of the Main Street Station.
"She proactively removed herself from any discussions," Epstein wrote. "The property was sold to the highest offer of those property bidders."
Rose's complaint said Jones was a stockholder and member of the board of directors of Security Pacific Bank of Nevada, in the early 1990s when the bank provided the financing for the developer of Main Street Station. She was not mayor at the time. In 1992, when she was mayor, Jones became a board member with Bank of America when that bank purchased Security Pacific.
While on the board of directors at Security Pacific she voted against a loan to build the Main Street Station. In a letter sent to the commission, Jones said she had believed it to be a bad investment.
Rose alleged initially that Jones had stock in Boyd gaming that bought the property. But he later withdrew this allegation.
The commission also Wednesday dismissed a complaint that the city of Las Vegas improperly hired Marjorie Polly, a friend of Jones, as a consultant. Jones had said that the contract with Polly was entered into by City Manager Larry Barton and that she had no part in it.
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