Ruling allows Venetian to explore LVCVA’s convention center plans

Friday, Sept. 17, 1999 | 11:28 a.m.

Bill abandoned

A Texas Democrat abandoned a bill introduced in the U.S. House that LVCVA officials feared would jeopardize the expansion of the city's convention center.

Rep. Ralph Hall submitted legislation in August restricting the use of tax-exempt bonds by certain government bodies.

Its wording could have applied to the LVCVA's convention center expansion. But Hall, who is the top Democrat on the energy and power subcommittee, said he soon discovered the bill could have affected tax-exempt bonds of municipal electric systems so he decided not to pursue it.

A similar bill affecting the Las Vegas Convention Center expansion was filed by Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas.

District Court judge ruled Thursday that the Venetian's attorney can question six Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority board members about how they reached decisions on approving the sale of bonds for a convention center expansion.

Ruling on a new motion to conduct additional discovery in the Venetian hotel-casino's lawsuit against the LVCVA, Judge James Mahan offered a narrow line of questioning for attorney Stephen Peek.

Mahan's ruling allows Peek to question up to six board members about potential violations of the state's open-meeting law. Under the judge's order, Peek can only conduct one-hour depositions and must limit his questions to incidents that occurred at the board's meetings of June 8 and June 22.

Those were the days when the final deliberations occurred on the LVCVA's approval of a revenue bond program to build the two-story, 1.3-million-square-foot expansion of the south hall of the convention center. The LVCVA plans to sell $150 million in bonds to finance the project.

The Venetian, which operates the Sands Expo Center, is suing the LVCVA over its plan to use revenue bonds for the expansion. The Venetian contends the bonds contemplated to expand the facility are a form of general obligation bond, which would require a public vote.

The Sands is a competitor to the publicly run Convention Center.

Peek pleaded with Mahan to allow him greater latitude in his questions. But the judge, attempting to keep on track for an Oct. 5 trial date, said Peek could only ask about open-meeting issues.

Peek wanted to depose the entire LVCVA board of directors and some of its executives about the decisions leading to expansion and bond program approvals. He also sought depositions of casino executives and business people who have dealings with the LVCVA.

"You're tying my hands again," Peek told Mahan.

But the judge wouldn't budge on his ruling, allowing Peek only to explore whether the LVCVA board conducted serial communications and had a "walking quorum" to deliberate on the issues.

A "walking quorum" can occur when a board leader gets a consensus of opinion through individual consultations with board members instead of all at once in a meeting, violating the spirit of the open-meeting law.

After the hearing, Peek said he didn't know which board members he would depose.

"We were trying to get all 11 of them, but we haven't even looked at getting just six," Peek said.

The LVCVA board recently expanded from 12 to 13 members. Earlier this month, Peek took a deposition from former Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones, who served as chairwoman of the LVCVA board when the bond decision was reached.

The LVCVA's attorney was critical of the 2 1/2-hour deposition, stating it went far beyond the scope of what the judge permitted.

Although Peek said he wasn't sure whose deposition he would seek, it seems likely he would pursue information from North Las Vegas Mayor Mike Montandon and former board member Don Snyder. Montandon and Snyder were identified as board members who had conversations about the bonds outside the board meeting.

There's nothing illegal about a board member having a conversation outside a meeting as long as a quorum of the board isn't present.

Montandon is still on the board but Snyder's term expired in July.

Although Peek's motion for additional discovery mentions Snyder's conversations, it also said they occurred in April, outside the frame of the judge's ruling.

Peek challenged the LVCVA on numerous occasions in Thursday's hearing to produce information he says is relevant to his case.

LVCVA attorney Steve Morris countered that the Venetian has gone beyond the public record of proceedings in its efforts to retrieve background.

Clark County civil district attorney Robert Gower, who joined the case on behalf of the County Commission, said Peek's efforts were "a fishing expedition ... and I realize how overused that phrase is."