Airport official: Concession list was troubling

Jeff Schweers

Thursday, June 25, 1998 | 11 a.m.

Weeks before the County Commission was to vote on airport concession leases for the D gates at McCarran International Airport last August, County Manager Dale Askew handed Aviation Director Randy Walker a list.

On that list were a dozen or so names that county commissioners had told Askew they wanted to see get the coveted and potentially lucrative contracts for food and gift concessions set aside for minorities and women.

"I don't know where the list came from, just that it was a list of names he said commissioners would support," Walker told the Ethics Commission Wednesday afternoon during the first of four days of hearings concerning alleged ethical improprieties by three county commissioners -- Yvonne Atkinson Gates, Lance Malone and Myrna Williams.

Not every commissioner got who they were rooting for, Walker said, but 10 names on that list wound up winning DBE concessions in the newly opened D gates, along with two other companies not on the list. Three of the names on the list are friends or associates of the county commissioners under investigation.

For example, when Commissioner Erin Kenny objected that someone she had wanted wasn't on the final list, Walker said he refused to change the list and told her to "get three other votes and change it at the meeting."

The ethics panel spent the first day hearing from Walker and two other airport officials about how companies were selected for airport concessions under the federally-run Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program.

They also asked why some people were selected over other, seemingly more qualified, candidates. For example, Ethics Chairwoman Mary Boetsch asked why Gay Reber, a friend of Commissioner Lance Malone's wife, won a lease for a coffee shop when there were more experienced coffee businesses who had applied.

Cynthia Cicero, the DBE liaison for the airport, said some people were not chosen because they didn't meet the federal guidelines for disadvantaged businesses. Reber is female and Hispanic, and also impressed the airport with her years of experience helping run a family appliance store, Cicero said.

The applicants ultimately chosen had to fit the development plans for the D gates submitted by Host Marriott and W.H. Smith, the two concession management firms that lease space from the airport to independent contractors, Walker said.

Walker said the list he got from Askew didn't affect the final recommendations since it came two weeks after the selection process had ended, but he still felt uncomfortable getting the list.

"It was contrary to the way we do things," Walker said. "It was a little awkward."

Chris Hilbus, the assistant director for business and administration at McCarran, testified that the process was somewhat political and had recommended to applicants that they make their presence known to commissioners who would have the final vote.

"It's just good business sense," Hilbus said.

The ethics panel is trying to determine whether Gates, Malone and Williams violated ethics code by not disclosing their ties to several people awarded concession leases.

The panel also is concerned whether the commissioners used their political influence to get their friends airport concessions at the D gates. Those people are:

-- Michael Chambliss, a city planner who has known Gates for 17 years and was paid $50,000 over three years for political consulting on her behalf, is part owner in a Jet Coyote gift shop and a Harlan Barbecue restaurant.

-- Judy Klein, a friend of Williams' and former assistant to lawyer and political fund-raiser Frank Schreck, is partners with Vicki Richardson in JV Ventures, which received two coffee shop locations.

-- Gay Reber, a friend of Malone's wife, is majority shareholder in GRR Group, which won two cart concessions -- one for food and one for gifts. Reber also is the daughter-in-law of a long-time business associate of Commissioner Lorraine Hunt, who had similar charges dismissed last month.

At the May 13 hearing, ethics commissioner Hal Smith disclosed that he was friends with Hunt and had worked on her campaign, but said he still could vote objectively on her case.

The commission also has raised questions about what role Malone played, if any, in helping Tammy Starring get a food and beverage kiosk in the C gates. Starring is a friend of Malone's brother Mark and sister-in-law Melody, who allegedly called a Salt Lake City-based fruit smoothie company asking for a franchise and boasting that she had an inside track to an airport location.

Don Campbell, the attorney for Lance Malone, objected to the commission taking testimony by telephone from Zuka Juice franchise managers Jeff Briggs and Jackie Enman from their Salt Lake City office.

The panel had no authority to swear in people over the telephone, and Salt Lake City was beyond their jurisdiction, Campbell said, objecting to Ethics Counsel Louis Ling subpoenaing Briggs and Enman via fax machine.

"What they had to say is not relevant," Campbell said of Briggs' and Enman's testimony. "We're here on Gay Reber. If you can tell me what any of that had to do with Gay Reber, tell me."