Chairmen see giant loophole in ethics bill

Tuesday, May 4, 1999 | 10:55 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Senate created a giant loophole in Gov. Kenny Guinn's ethics bill, according to the two most recent chairmen of the state Ethics Commission.

Current Chairwoman Mary Boetsch and past Chairman Thomas "Spike" Wilson both praised the work of Guinn's general counsel Scott Scherer, who drafted Senate Bill 478 that passed the Senate last month.

But Wilson said the Senate "badly damaged" the bill, leaving the legislation fatally flawed. Boetsch agreed.

The Senate's change, if it becomes law, would prevent the commission from finding public officials guilty in cases such as Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates, who was fined for a violation in awarding a concession contract at McCarran International Airport, Wilson said. Gates has appealed that finding in District Court.

Boetsch and Wilson appeared Monday before the Assembly Committee on Elections, Procedure and Ethics, which held a three-hour hearing but did not vote. Committee members had a myriad of questions about the bill.

The current law says elected officials may not vote or advocate passage of a law if they are materially affected by their "commitment in a private capacity to the interest of others."

Guinn's original bill defined "commitment" to mean a "substantial and continuing business or personal relationship" between the elected official and the individual seeking the benefit. The Senate deleted the word "personal."

Wilson said eliminating the word means the office holder would be prohibited from voting only if a relative or employer was involved or if there was a continuing business relationship with the person in question.

"Any personal relationship of whatever kind, degree or duration would require no disclosure or abstention, no matter that the independence of judgment of a reasonable person in those circumstances ... would be materially affected thereby," Wilson said.

But Scherer said he "disagreed strongly" with Wilson. He said there were other sections in the law that covered voting for close friends.

The ethics commission, under the new proposed bill, could still have found a violation by Gates, Scherer said.

Friendship between a public official and somebody seeking a law would not automatically prohibit a politician from voting, Wilson said. "The bar is higher than friendship. Politicians have a million friends."

Although the bill is an improvement, Wilson, who served as chairman from August 1989 to May 1996, said he would have to vote against it if he were in the Legislature.

Boetsch said her biggest concern, like Wilson's, was the removal of the word "personal." She too referred to the Gates case in which the commission found ethics violations in awarding concessions at the new Terminal D.

Boetsch, who leaves the commission June 30, also urged legislators to give the commission more power. She wanted the commission to have the power to find people in contempt if they engaged in outrageous behavior.

There have been cases where people in the hearing got out of line and all the commission could do was call a recess or call the police. She also asked the committee to change the bill to make it easier to fine those who bring frivolous complaints against public officials.

"You're not doing much to discourage frivolous complaints," said Assemblyman Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, who himself was fined $5,000 by the commission for making a false statement in the last campaign. He is appealing his fine in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas.

Boetsch opposed a section that prohibits prison inmates from filing complaints. That section would only spark more lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the law, she said.

Most complaints from inmates are taken care in 15 to 20 minutes, she said. They are usually dismissed because the inmates have not gone through the appeal procedures at the prison or are still pursuing a court case on the issue.

SB478 expands the commission from six to eight members and requires that two must be lawyers and four must be former public officials. It calls for creation of the job of executive director and also for the commission to have its own lawyer instead of relying on the attorney general's office.

In explaining the need for the commission to have its own lawyer, Scherer said the governor wants the commission to be independent and not be involved in politics.

A new procedure is adopted in SB478. On a complaint submitted to the commission, a panel of two members would decide if the complaint has merit to go to the full commission. Currently all six members decide if the complaint has merit and then preside over the hearing.