Jones’ ethics hearing begins

Friday, Aug. 14, 1998 | 10:56 a.m.

Las Vegas casino executive William Boyd said today that a phone conversation with Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones four days before Jones and the other members of the City Council voted against a restaurant that he opposed lasted just 24 seconds and that there was no effort made to peddle influence.

Boyd, chairman of Boyd Gaming, made his comments to the Nevada Ethics Commission, which was probing whether Jones committed misconduct by not disclosing possible business and political ties prior to the May 26 vote against the application for Nick's Fishmarket restaurant at Sahara Avenue and Paseo del Prado Street.

A key issue in the hearing, which was scheduled to last throughout the day, was the phone call Jones made to Boyd who was in San Francisco on May 22. By testifying that the conversation lasted less than half a minute, Boyd indicated that there was not a whole lot of time for either him to influence Jones or for her to offer him a political favor in exchange for a campaign contribution in her race for governor.

"At no time did Mayor Jones state or imply that her vote on Nick's Fishmarket might be affected by any campaign assistance I might provide, nor did I state or imply that any contribution I might make would be based on her vote on that matter," Boyd said in his affidavit, which he read into the record after his testimony.

"The entire conversation lasted 24 seconds, including my connection to her Las Vegas office, the transfer to San Francisco and our discussion about the governor's race."

Boyd said that according to the records of the hotel where he was staying, "The telephone call was registered as a 24-second call and was billed to me at my room."

Boyd testified that he brought up the subject of the restaurant to Jones.

"She immediately indicated that she knew about the matter, was opposed to the restaurant and did not want additional information -- the call then ended," Boyd said.

"I do not believe that this very brief mention of the restaurant should be referred as my having talked with Ms. Jones about my opposition to the restaurant," Boyd said. "In fact, I did not lobby her or any other member of the City Council prior to the May 26 vote."

Boyd told the board that Jones had made at least three or four calls to him before May 22 to ask about a campaign contribution.

After Boyd testified that Jones told him that she was opposed to the project because it was "not good for the community," Ethics Commission Chairman Mary Boetsch noted that, in those few words, Jones in effect told Boyd exactly what he wanted to hear. However, Boyd also testified that if Jones told him she was in favor of the project it would not have affected the decision to give her a contribution.

Boyd admitted that the timing of Jones' call and the vote on the Fishmarket was "very coincidental."

Also at issue was whether Jones voted the way she did because it would benefit her husband, Richard Schuetz, and his $4 million land deal with those who opposed the eatery.

"I never discussed the land transaction with Mayor Jones, Richard Schuetz, or any member of of the City Council prior to the vote on Nick's Fishmarket," Boyd said, noting that he did not know Schuetz had any interest in the land until after the May 26 council vote.

"Therefore I could not have disclosed -- and did not disclose -- to Mayor Jones that I was part-owner of the land being sold to a group in which her husband was participating," Boyd testified.

In related action, Boetsch said as the hearing got under way that she expected that the inquiry into why the four city councilmen -- Arnie Adamsen, Larry Brown, Michael McDonald and Gary Reese -- did not disclose before the vote that they had received campaign contributions from the Boyd Gaming Group would be dismissed.

Because that was not on the agenda, however, the panel could not dismiss the matter against them today.

Also, Ethics Commissioner Joni Wines, who had voted at a closed-door preliminary hearing in July to bring the matter forward for today's hearing, recused herself today, citing her friendship with former City Councilman Steve Miller, who once lost to Jones in a mayoral race and filed the ethics complaint against her.

On May 26, the council unanimously denied the application of Marc Gordon to build Nick's Fishmarket restaurant. BankWest, which would have been a neighboring tenant, opposed the project. Boyd was a founder of the bank and Perry Whitt was on its board of directors.

Boyd, Whitt and others were partners in the ownership of 80 acres near Floyd Lamb State Park. Schuetz and Circus Circus executives Clyde Turner and Dick Etter formed a company called TES, which purchased the land.

Jones has denied any wrongdoing and has said she never knew the full details of the business dealings of Schuetz, whom she has been married to for less than a year. Jones said she voted against the restaurant because it was too big for the parcel.

Jones and Schuetz have a prenuptial agreement and each have separate finances. Jones said she recalls only that Schuetz asked her whether it was all right to buy land in Las Vegas and that he may have mentioned the price.

Schuetz has since pulled out of the deal.

Jones has said she was aware of the formation of TES and the price of the property. But she also testified she never knew until after the vote on Nick's Fishmarket the identity of the sellers, who were owed about $3.6 million by the Schuetz-Turner-Etter group.

She disclosed the debt on her May 28 financial-disclosure statement as a candidate for governor.