County Commission to study ethics recommendations

Adrienne Packer

Friday, Jan. 22, 1999 | 11:41 a.m.

Because ethics was one of the hottest topics in Clark County last year, it only makes sense the County Commission would make ethics the subject at its first special meeting of the first year.

A citizens task force appointed months ago by County Manager Dale Askew will make its long-awaited presentation to the County Commission at a 9 a.m. meeting Tuesday.

Larry Spitler, a former assemblyman, will explain the task force's recommendations on ethics policies. The county board will offer its input before the list of policy suggestions are submitted to the state Legislature.

Much of the discussion is expected to focus on the process of awarding concessionaire contracts at McCarran International Airport.

The controversial method in which the contracts were awarded in 1997 was questioned by citizens and led to several ethics complaints against commissioners.

Spitler's group will suggest that elected officials be required to attend annual ethics training and sign a document confirming they fulfilled their obligation.

The task force recommends that the two master concessionaires at the airport choose concessionaires and negotiate the contracts, making the county board's sole responsibility that of approving the final contracts. Concessionaire applicants would be prohibited from directly lobbying the commissioners under the new policy. County staffers, not the commissioners, would review the bids.

Spitler said the task force will also ask for the county's support in requesting that the state Ethics Commission be expanded from a six-member board to 15 members.

The task force agreed that people who repeatedly file frivolous complaints simply to derail a politician's career be subject to a fine.

"If you pursued this (filing complaints) in a malicious way, you have to be held accountable," Spitler said.

Commissioner Lance Malone said he intends to make his own policy recommendations Tuesday.

Malone suggests that the director of aviation select a five-member selection committee that would scan all the applicants for airport concessions and choose 10.

If five vacancies existed, the county commissioners would vote on the best five from the pool of 10. Until then, neither applicants nor partners in the companies could have contact with the commissioners.

Malone said commissioners could pick from the same pool of 10 if a concessionaire chose to leave the airport.

Malone said Tuesday that he will vote for his recommendations over the task force's if the citizens group's are not as stringent as his own.

"If his are more strict, then we accept that," Spitler said. "We welcome the input."

Task force members included Dr. Delores Brosnan, acting chairwoman of the UNLV School of Public Administration; Deborah Campbell, senior vice president of the United Way of Southern Nevada; Randy Capurro, vice president of Layne and Associates; David Griego, manager of investments and recovery for Nevada Power; John Hiatt, chairman of the Enterprise Town Advisory Board; Lorraine Hunt, former Clark County commissioner; Dr. Betty Pardo, League of Women Voters; Mujahid Ramadan, presiding chairman of the National Conference of Christians & Jews and Danny Thompson, political action director of the AFL-CIO.