Venetian allowed to probe LVCVA meeting procedures

Monday, Aug. 30, 1999 | 11:21 a.m.

Former Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones will be asked under oath about events leading to the approval of a $150 million convention center expansion.

District Court Judge James Mahan ruled on Friday that he would allow attorneys for the Venetian hotel-casino to take a deposition from Jones, who served as chairwoman of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority when the expansion was approved.

Venetian attorney Stephen Peek said he hoped to learn whether there were any violations of the state's open-meeting law, since Jones indicated at a June 22 meeting that board members had made up their minds on the expansion.

That was the same meeting at which Venetian executive David Friedman said he was prevented from giving all his testimony to the LVCVA board because of a time restriction on presentations. Mahan said he would allow the Venetian to present an affidavit from Friedman explaining what information he was precluded from giving to the board.

Those items were the two key points Mahan said he would allow as evidence in the Venetian's civil trial against the LVCVA scheduled to begin Oct. 5. The judge ruled Friday to limit the scope of discovery the Venetian sought.

The Venetian filed suit against the LVCVA July 8, shortly after the board voted to use revenue bonds to build the two-story, 1.3 million-square-foot expansion. The Venetian, a privately held rival to the tax-supported convention authority, says the revenue bonds actually are a form of general obligation bonds that would require a public vote for approval.

Once the suit was filed, the LVCVA delayed plans to build the expansion pending the outcome of the trial. LVCVA officials called the suit a delay tactic and decried the Venetian's strategy to seek hundreds of documents from the agency to be presented at the trial.

Mahan ordered an accelerated trial schedule and decided to conduct regular hearings to keep the schedule on pace. Friday's session was the first of those discovery hearings.

In addition to limiting the volume of materials sought by the Venetian, Mahan also allowed Peek to inquire about an LVCVA lobbyist's role in getting legislation approved that authorizes the use of revenue bonds to build convention facilities.

The Venetian had sought telephone records, calendars, reports and diaries from LVCVA employees working on the expansion. The Venetian also sought depositions from 55 people, ranging from former members of a consortium of trade shows seeking the expansion to bond underwriters financing the project.