Wednesday, Sept. 2, 1998 | 10:45 a.m.
After a year of positioning themselves to grab 163 acres along the Strip for a world-class golf course, three highly influential applicants pitched their projects Tuesday to the Clark County Commission.
And after listening carefully to each proposal, commissioners did what few expected: They cowered.
Haunted by recent Ethics Commission rulings, fearful of an upcoming vote on the Public Lands Management Act and concerned about neighboring property owners, the board tabled the issue indefinitely.
The next move belongs to the applicants -- the U.S. Grand Prix-Las Vegas, the Walters Group and Club Corporation of America -- which will have to resubmit their projects.
Before applicants could address commissioners, two board members abstained, citing a decision handed down last week by the state Ethics Commission.
The Ethics Commission's recent probes have mostly targeted county board members who failed to disclose relationships with applicants. Its vague ruling last week said elected officials must make decisions on a case-by-case basis.
Commissioner Bruce Woodbury abstained because he is friends with Sig Rogich, who heads the Grand Prix group. Mary Kincaid said she is friends with each applicant, including Andre Agassi, who is a close friend of her son. Agassi is involved with Club Corporation of America.
Kincaid asked to delay the decision until she could confer with the Ethics Commission, which prompted an agitated Chairwoman Yvonne Atkinson Gates to table the issue.
"This is a serious quandary for me," Kincaid said. "I don't want to be in a position where I have ethics charges against me, however frivolous they are."
Perhaps the most affected by the county's skittishness was the Grand Prix group, which had planned a 2.9-mile track that would snake through a plush 18-hole municipal golf course.
The group was hoping to bring the 17th race of the Formula One World Championship circuit to Las Vegas in 2000. However, after granting Rogich several extensions, Formula One said it needed a commitment by Tuesday.
"Everyone knows who we are and what we are," said Rogich, who was stunned by the commission's abrupt decision. "No one ever imagined this would happen. We need to regroup and beg for some more time."
Rogich said he respected the commissioners' decisions to abstain.
"Mary (Kincaid) said she should seek a safe harbor and that's what she had to do," he said. "There is a fear with public officials because of the wide barometer related to ethics."
Rogich indicated the Grand Prix group may have until Oct. 1, but Formula One is eying other cities including the racing mecca Indianapolis, San Francisco, Dallas and Atlanta.
Attorney Mark Fiorentino, who represents the Grand Prix group, said it could host races on the land leased to the county by the Bureau of Land Management despite earlier reports that it would be prohibited.
Rogich said a Formula One event in Las Vegas would attract between 135,000 and 150,000 people a day and the average ticket prices are about $400. The high-priced race, he added, would subsidize the golf course, allowing lower greens fees.
But by adding a Grand Prix track to the mix of golf course proposals, Rogich's group attracted the attention of protesters.
Circus-Circus Enterprises is finishing Mandalay Bay hotel-casino on the south end of the Strip near the sought-after acreage. When it completes its entire project adjacent to the resort, it will have invested $3 billion.
Representatives of Circus Circus said it is unfair to pour that kind of money into a project only to have revving engines pierce the peaceful environment they are striving to create.
Operators of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway feared the new track would take business away from their North Las Vegas facility.
Club Corporation of America proposed building an 18-hole golf course to be designed by Gary Player and eight tennis courts where Agassi would not only train, but offer youth clinics.
Agassi was a late-arriving partner to the group, prompting critics to claim his involvement is simply to gain local support.
The third proposal was introduced by the Walters Group. Billy Walters owns four other golf courses in Las Vegas, including Desert Pines and Stallion Mountain. He offered an affordable, high-class facility designed by the respected golf course architect Pete Dye.
"We are committed to a quality project," he said. "We understand the Las Vegas Strip is a very important part of the community and building an ordinary golf course will not do."
Gates and her fellow commissioners all agreed each project would benefit the county.
Hunt and Commissioner Erin Kenny expressed concern about how a proposed act -- which will determine whether the land should be operated under Bureau of Land Management or Clark County Department of Aviation guidelines -- may affect the county's negotiations. They leaned toward delaying a decision.
Gates, however, overrode a motion to postpone a decision and called for a vote to drop the issue. The vote passed 3-2 with one abstention cast by Woodbury. This act of tabling the issue means that it's dead unless the applicants request that it be put back on the agenda.
"I'm tired of all the lobbying and all the politicking and games being played," Gates said.
Rogich and Walters are active in local politics, however, and their connections with members of the county commission made "politicking" unavoidable where the land deal was concerned.
Rogich, an advertising executive who served as a media adviser to then-Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, is a close friend of Woodbury, and they have worked together for other candidates. Rogich also has raised campaign money for Kenny and Kincaid and is friendly with Commissioner Myrna Williams.
He also is a chief consultant to Republican gubernatorial candidate Kenny Guinn. Commissioner Lorraine Hunt, the GOP candidate for lieutenant governor, views herself as Guinn's ticket mate even though candidates for governor and lieutenant governor are not elected in tandem.
Walters also has held fund-raisers for Woodbury and Gates and employs a relative of Commissioner Lance Malone at one of his golf courses.
Las Vegas Sun staff writer Steve Kanigher contributed to this report.
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