Columnist Jon Ralston: Politics of saving the Sportspark

Sunday, Aug. 13, 2000 | 8:52 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.

Even after absorbing a legislative soaking, the state's ethics laws still prohibit a few obvious types of behavior. For instance, using your government post to help your boss financially. That -- I know you may be shocked -- actually is not kosher under the state's ethics laws.

So is Las Vegas City Councilman Michael McDonald, who recently escaped the Ethics Commission frying pan with not even a singe, about to be immolated by that provision of state law? Judge for yourself.

Sources at City Hall and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority report that McDonald has been involved in trying to help rescue the controversial Las Vegas Sportspark, a public-private venture in northwest Las Vegas. Beyond the issue of whether the city should shell out as much as $5 million to take over the facility's lender's note is the fact that McDonald's employer, Larry Scheffler of Las Vegas Color, is a part-owner of the project. Scheffler's partner in his graphics business, Linda Fernandez, as well as ex-Clark County Commissioner Don Schlesinger, are the other owners.

McDonald has said he will abstain on any Sportspark issues, including a critical audit report that will be presented next week. He has talked to Scheffler about the facility and, sources confirm, he also has talked to city officials, elected and otherwise, about the government buying Sportspark.

"He's strangling everybody," was how one city official put it. Another said McDonald has been deeply involved as the city has tried to negotiate with Scheffler & Co. during the last few weeks and tried to attend a bargaining session a few weeks ago on the issue.

Sources say that McDonald recently approached Mayor Oscar Goodman about Sportspark. His Honor was in Silicon Valley Thursday and Friday and unavailable for comment -- but he apparently told other city officials about the conversation.

McDonald insisted Friday that he did not advocate any position with Goodman or anyone else at the city. "I'm not lobbying, I'm merely providing information," the councilman said. "I told them the Sportspark is in trouble, that it would be coming to the city and that there were interested parties who wanted to buy it."

With controversy over whether the city should purchase the place, and a deal between the owners and suitors, such as the Elardi and Lowden families, still not consummated, McDonald also thought of another way to help the bleeding recreation center. Sources confirm that McDonald, who chairs the LVCVA board, has been talking to the folks at the convention authority about taking $1 million that was being paid to the Fremont Street Experience and spending it on the Sportspark.

So he is, in his capacity as the head of a government body, advocating for a payment from that government body to benefit a business in which his boss has invested. This ain't rocket science, folks. McDonald acknowledged that he told people at the LVCVA that the Sportspark could use the money "as one of the sources of funding." But, he added, he never lobbied.

The question is whether this is all semantics -- providing information vs. advocating a position. The actual language of the ethics statute reads:

"(A) public officer shall not vote upon or advocate the passage or failure of, but may otherwise participate in the consideration of a matter with respect to which the independence of judgment of a reasonable person in his situation would be materially affected by ... his commitment in a private capacity to the interests of others."

You may recall that lawmakers, creating a Guidebook for the Unethical, narrowed the definition of "private capacity in the interest of others" to include only a few categories. One of them is someone "who employs him ..."

There's too much smoke here for there not to be some fire. But as an elected official who appears to wear asbestos beneath his suits, McDonald may well be able to avoid being burned, even by an issue this combustible.