Candidate blasts AG over McCarran airport contracts

Thursday, Oct. 22, 1998 | 2:46 a.m.

Independent American candidate Joel Hansen says Del Papa and Clark County District Attorney Stewart Bell should have voided "crony contracts" on the D-gate terminal that went to friends of Clark County Commissioners Yvonne Atkinson Gates and Lance Malone.

The state Ethics Commission ruled earlier this year that Atkinson Gates and Malone were unethical in allowing friends to acquire the airport contracts, but didn't sanction them for their behavior.

Del Papa said Sept. 17 that state law doesn't give her the authority to void Clark County contracts. Earlier the district attorney's office also rejected voiding the contracts, in part because of potential liability that the county could incur.

"The attorney general should have the gumption to make an attempt to void the contracts," Hansen said. "Let a court say you can't void the contracts."

In response, Del Papa said several of her staff attorneys researched the matter and concluded she lacks the legal authority to nullify a county contract.

"What Mr. Hansen suggests is reckless and smacks of disregard for the law and legal procedures and has a potential liability for the taxpayers," she said.

A Las Vegas lawyer, Hansen received just 6 percent of the vote when he ran against Democrat Del Papa and Republican Bill Maddox in the attorney general's race in 1994.

Unlike then, Hansen said he now has more than $20,000 to spend on advertisements and is a "real candidate" in the race.