Ethics panel clears Hunt; Williams must wait

Jeff Schweers

Thursday, May 14, 1998 | 9:44 a.m.

Clark County Commissioner Lorraine Hunt is elated that an ethics complaint filed against her has been dismissed, especially in light of her campaign to run for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor.

But fellow Commissioner Myrna Williams, seeking a second term on the County Commission, is not so happy.

After questioning Williams for five hours behind closed doors Wednesday, the state Ethics Commission decided there was sufficient cause to hold a public hearing on the merits of the allegations and issue a public opinion.

Pete Bernhard, Williams' lawyer, said after the hearing that Ethics Chairwoman Mary Boetsch "made it clear there was not a violation by Williams, but they need to render an opinion on the process of awarding airport concession leases to the public."

Williams seemed to accept the ruling -- at first.

"They're going forward because they have questions about the process, even though there was no evidence against me," she said.

But her attitude changed when she heard that Hunt's case was dismissed.

"It is baffling. I don't understand it," Williams said.

Williams, who worked on ethics legislation while serving in the state Assembly prior to her County Commission election in 1994, added, "You heard what Pete said. I certainly heard what they said. I don't understand."

Both Williams and Hunt faced similar allegations, filed by Las Vegan Bob Rose, that they used their position to help their friends get airport concession leases at the new "D" gates at McCarran International Airport.

Rose claimed that Williams and Hunt did not disclose their relationship to Judy Klein before voting to award her an airport concession lease, and that Hunt did not disclose that another concessionaire, Gay Reber, was married to the son of longtime real estate partner Rodney Reber.

Commissioner Lance Malone faces a similar hearing May 27 because of his wife's friendship with Gay Reber. And Commission Chairwoman Yvonne Atkinson Gates is scheduled for a hearing in June on allegations that she helped Klein and former campaign worker Michael Chambliss get airport leases.

The new airport gates are due to open next month, along with several concession kiosks that were granted the leases last August, including those of Klein and Chambliss. Reber is not slated to open her business until January. Airport officials said the 12 concessionaires have been certified as disadvantaged businesses.

The hearings were scheduled to make a preliminary determination that the Ethics Commission had jurisdiction and that there was sufficient cause to render an opinion on the matter. Bernhard got Williams' hearing pushed back from March after arguing that she had not been properly notified. Hunt's case was initially dismissed in March, but the panel reversed itself two days later.

"They were very thorough and very detailed in their investigation," Bernhard said.

But the ethics panel questioned Hunt only for an hour and a half before unanimously deciding to dismiss Rose's complaint as having no merit.

"They went through everything for quite a long time and substantiated what I said was correct," Hunt said.

Hunt told the commission she stuck to her policy of not talking to prospective airport concessionaires, unlike other commissioners. She also said she didn't participate in putting names on a list being assembled by Gates.

"I thought that was very unprofessional," Hunt said. "I was the only commissioner that did not meet with anyone or lobby for anyone."

Williams took umbrage at Hunt's remark and said that she, too, had avoided the entire concessionaire process until it was time to vote on it in public.

Hunt had previously denied having a close relationship with Klein, who had invited Hunt to sing at her wedding. But Klein told the ethics panel that she and Hunt met in 1981 and had become friends over the years.

The panel also grilled Klein over her campaign activities, especially her fund-raising efforts for Williams.

"I touched checks," Klein said when commissioners asked whether she had raised money for Williams. When asked what she meant, Klein told the panel that she didn't collect money or solicit donations but counted the checks that her boss at the time, lawyer and political fund-raiser Frank Schreck, had raised on behalf of both Williams and Hunt.

"I didn't raise any money for her, never have," Klein said of Williams.

Klein, who now works for Aladdin hotel-casino owner Jack Sommer and has not worked for Schreck in more than a year, said, "Frank would make the phone calls and get the money. I was his assistant; I arranged the phone list."