Commissioner wants some ethics answers

Tuesday, Aug. 4, 1998 | 10:39 a.m.

Confusion among elected officials remains high amid recent Nevada Ethics Commission rulings that set higher standards for disclosing potential conflicts of interest.

One veteran of 17 years in office, Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, has decided to get some answers.

Woodbury on Monday sent the ethics panel a three-page letter asking it to explain the decisions that suggest elected officials now must disclose whether those coming before them on business have contributed to their campaigns.

"I feel compelled to express to you the concern and uncertainty, which virtually all elected officials in Nevada must now feel regarding this subject and to seek your detailed guidance if you choose to require any disclosure beyond that which is already required by the state campaign contribution and expenditure laws," Woodbury wrote.

"As a practical matter, such a requirement could well create a chaotic situation where the elected officials will have to spend much more time in determining if a matter under consideration somehow affects the interests of a contributor or someone connected to the contributor, than on the substantive merits of the issue being considered.

"If the door to this Pandora's box is opened, there will be no end to the complications and problems that will be presented."

In his case, Woodbury said, he has probably received thousands of campaign contributions since first being elected in 1981 and has voted on more than 100,000 agenda items as a member of a dozen different public boards.

He said it's nearly impossible for him to keep track of all of his contributors and their companies that come before the County Commission.

The confusion over public disclosure first surfaced in late June after the Ethics Commission found that County Commissioners Yvonne Atkinson Gates and Lance Malone had violated ethics laws in last summer's vote on lucrative D Gate concessions at McCarran International Airport.

Gates was cited for not revealing her relationships with Michael Chambliss, her campaign consultant, and Judy Klein, a well-connected political supporter, before voting to give them concessions.

Malone was called on the carpet for doing the same thing for Gay Reber, a longtime friend of his wife.

At a County Liquor and Gaming Licensing Board meeting two days after the ethics ruling, a rattled Gates and Commissioner Myrna Williams decided to make some voluntarily disclosures. Each revealed a long list of applicants on the agenda who had contributed to their campaigns.

"Until the Ethics Commission's recent actions in the Gates-Malone matter, I am not aware of such disclosures being made by the other county commissioners, city council members, state legislators, judges or any of the other state or local elected officials throughout Nevada," Woodbury wrote.

Late last month, the ethics panel added to the furor, when it put Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones and the four other members of the City Council on the hot seat.

The commission voted to hold an Aug. 14 hearing on whether all five violated ethics laws when they failed to disclose they had received campaign contributions from the Boyd Group before voting against a matter the gaming company had opposed.

Woodbury suggested there is no legal basis for forcing an elected official to make those kind of disclosures.

"Of course, if I am wrong in my analysis, it will certainly not be the first or last time," Woodbury said. "Therefore, if you disagree and determine that disclosure of campaign contributions will be required from now on, I am requesting your opinion, as detailed as possible, as to the circumstances under which it will be required."

Woodbury provided the ethics panel with a list of a dozen questions he said needed to be answered.