Columnist Jon Ralston: Oliver Stone is missing a good plot here

Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2000 | 9:43 a.m.

Jon Ralston, who publishes the Ralston Report, writes a column for the Sun on Sundays and Wednesdays. Ralston can be reached at 870-7997 or by e-mail at ralston@vegas.com.

Hollywood couldn't produce a movie with a script this delicious. Joe Eszterhaus in his most creative ferment, Preston Sturges at his most screwball could not concoct the comedy/drama now playing down on Stewart Avenue. City Hall has become stranger than celluloid.

Imagine the producer given a story treatment like this: A powerful political consultant tries to get an office building converted into a topless bar. But despite the support of the former mob lawyer turned mayor, he is almost thwarted by a councilman and his alter ego who resemble extras from a Martin Scorsese picture and are known to be close to a rival strip joint owner.

Only after hiring a private eye does the consultant unearth a possible conspiracy that the police are called in to investigate.

Add in a mayoral aide who could be played by G. Gordon Liddy and whom the councilman blames for casting suspicion upon him, and this is an offer no Tinseltown executive could refuse.

Metro's decision to investigate how the Universal Church for Life Enhancement -- whose sole purpose seems to have been not to enhance but destroy Sig Rogich's topless bar deal because of proximity regulations -- has brought a sordid local government saga to a head. Rogich has believed for weeks that Councilman Michael McDonald, acting as an agent for Crazy Horse owner Rick Rizzolo, has been trying to scuttle his multimillion dollar deal. When Rogich's local Sam Spade discovered that Rizzolo's sister had set up the church, the conspiracy theory suddenly began to have legs.

So the natural question -- and, yes, it is the one Metro is looking into, sources confirm -- is whether this serpentine storyline leads to McDonald's council office. That is, could he have been involved in helping Rizzolo's sister set up the church, which was nothing more than a room in a building until public disclosure forced her abrupt evacuation of the premises?

McDonald, of course, denies any involvement. But he also was quoted recently as saying that he and Rogich are still close, which is a joke. What is fact and not speculation or conspiracy theory is that the councilman knew about the church before the vote ever took place last April. Sources close to the councilman have indicated he knew. But knowledge of the church does not equate to felonious behavior.

The question Metro wants to answer is whether any staffers inside City Hall either were complicit or know of any involvement by McDonald. Although there were reports of a city probe into how the church got there, that never happened. And because it didn't, staffers began calling authorities begging to be interviewed.

The cops are sensitive that the investigation will be seen as politically motivated because of ex-cop McDonald's long-held antagonistic relationship with Sheriff Jerry Keller. But that's the kind of red herring so often used by Hitchcock in his thrillers.

And the dirty little secret inside City Hall is that McDonald intimidates not just staffers but some of his council colleagues, too. They're afraid of what he could do to them in their elections -- look at how Michael Mack, who once was on McDonald's enemies list, wrote a "good luck, buddy" letter to him before an Ethics Commission hearing last week. And Larry Brown, who is up next year, also showed up at the ethics panel to support McDonald.

McDonald has publicly accused self-proclaimed former CIA-man Bill Cassidy, Goodman's aide and a walking mayoral liability, of leaking information to damage him. Cassidy, who has to deal with cell phone bill problems and accusations of misconduct in the Binion trial, is a great foil for anyone.

But this Metro probe has nothing to do with Cassidy. Sources say too many credible city folks called the cops -- and Cassidy is not credible. So the police are checking into every angle -- mail pieces sent out to embarrass Rogich, public records, staffer testimony. Once they assimilate all the information, the end of this script may finally be in place; whether it will presage the end of the cat-like McDonald is another question entirely.