Ethics chief cleared old business at end

Thursday, July 22, 1999 | 11:19 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- On her last day in office, the chairwoman of the state Ethics Commission signed final decisions clearing former Las Vegas Mayor Jan Jones of two complaints and finding that former Clark County Treasurer Mark Aston was a "reckless and obstreperous public servant" who misused tax money.

Chairwoman Mary Boetsch, who did not want to be re-appointed to the ethics commission, approved nine written opinions on June 30, the last day of her term.

The cases had been decided in public by the commission previously, but no official decisions had been rendered.

Jones was charged a number of times with unethical conduct but was never found guilty by the commission.

In the two opinions released to the public Wednesday, Robert Rose accused Jones of ethics violations.

Jones voted in October 1993 to support condemnation of property for the Fremont Street Experience in downtown Las Vegas. She voted on the same issue relating to the Stratosphere in September 1994. In July 1995, the mayor bought stock in Mirage Corporation, which owns the Golden Nugget in downtown Las Vegas. In January 1997, she purchased stock in Grand Casinos, which then owned the Stratosphere.

The written opinion by the commission said the substantial evidence showed Jones did not own stock until years after her votes, and she never violated any ethics law. In the second case, Jones was cleared of any wrongdoing for encouraging City Manager Larry Barton to hire Ann Holland as deputy city manager.

Jones, at the time was engaged to her husband-to-be Richard Scheutz, a high executive at the Stratosphere where Holland worked in a temporary job as a senior vice president for operations.

Jones was introduced to Holland by Scheutz. At the time Barton had created three deputy city manager positions but wasn't satisfied with the operation. Mayor Jones talked to him about Holland at the time Barton was thinking about making changes.

Barton hired Holland in a $100,000 a year position, and Jones voted with the council to endorse the move. She did not disclose her relationship and personal knowledge of Holland.

The commission said Holland was a very "capable person," but this was a close case on the ethics call. In his complaint, Rose questioned if there was cronyism. The commission said Mayor Jones was "unabashedly an advocate for Ms. Holland throughout the hiring process..." because she wanted to promote the "corporate culture" in city hall.

Barton hired Holland without interviewing or advertising for any other candidates. The commission, in its opinion, said it was convinced that Holland was promoted by the mayor and hired by the city manager because of her "merits and that the hiring occurred in such a seeming rush because Ms. Holland had several other pending lucrative job offers among which she needed to choose

"The evidence did not show a significant personal relationship between Ms. Holland and Ms. Jones, nor did the evidence show the relationship between Ms. Holland and Mr. Scheutz was a motivating, much less controlling, factor in Ms. Jones' advocacy of Ms. Holland's merits."

Aston, who resigned his job in a cloud of controversy, pleaded guilty to stealing $21,000 from a professional organization called the County Finance Officers Association and was placed on three years probation in 1998.

The case before the Ethics Commission dealt with other breeches of the public trust. The commission found Aston dipped into an account in his office that accrues hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest that must be returned to Clark County, Henderson and Las Vegas. This is public money, according to the commission's opinion.

Aston, the commission said used this money as a "slush fund" to buy personal items such as video games, CD-ROMs and drinking water for the office. He purchased a $2,000 curio cabinet-bookcase and used the money to buy his Christmas cards.

The commission said Aston spent the money to contract with two former employees when they went into private industry. Chris Bunker, when he left Aston's office, received a $5,000 a month contract for investment advice that lasted from March 1993 to February 1995. Total payments to Bunker were $140,000 to $150,000.

Zev Kaplan, a deputy district attorney assigned to Aston's office, received a contract of about $2,500 a month from the treasurer when he went into private practice. Kaplan received a total of about $27,500.

Both Bunker and Kaplan essentially performed the same services, and the ethics commission said Aston did not follow usual county contracting processes, did not seek other applicants, never had these private consulting contracts before and never sought prior approval from the county manager or the county commission.

The written decision said Aston improperly solicited Merrill Lynch to donate tens of thousands of dollars of computers and equipment to the treasurer's office at a time the investment company had a contract with the county office.

The ethics commission said Aston waived penalties on delinquent taxes for friends and prominent politicians. One estimate was that tens of thousands of dollars in penalties were forgiven by Aston who never kept any records of his action.

The commission said, "Mr. Aston actively, intentionally and willfully chose courses of action intended to conceal his actions and to thwart accountability once the improper actions were detected. Through his actions, public money with which he was entrusted was endangered, misused and unaccounted for."