Thursday, Aug. 17, 2000 | 11 a.m.
Spending
Here is how the Las Vegas City Council voted Wednesday to spend taxpayer money:
To M & H Enterprises for construction of the Elkhorn and Durango parks.
To Eddie General Construction for restroom upgrades at four city parks.
To Computer Intelligence Assoc. Inc. for non-Microsoft software.
To install speed humps on 17th Street between St. Louis Avenue and Charleston Boulevard.
Someone isn't telling the whole truth about the Las Vegas Sportspark.
And for the second time in a month, Metro Police investigators are being asked to sort through city politics to find out whether Councilman Michael McDonald meddled somewhere he didn't belong.
What started as a simple presentation of a city audit of the Sportspark turned into a two-hour drama Wednesday as political volleys were hurled between the council dais and the lectern where Sportspark partners pled their case.
Although McDonald recused himself from the discussion because he works for Sportspark partner Larry Scheffler, he emerged from the back room after 90 minutes to angrily defend himself.
Don Schlesinger, a minority partner in Sportspark, was asked about a visit McDonald made to the facility in May. Schlesinger said McDonald toured the facility with his friend Rick Rizzolo, who owns the Crazy Horse Too strip club, and attorney Dean Patti.
In response to questions from Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald, Schlesinger said McDonald, Rizzolo and Patti were touring the facility as "potential investors."
"It was represented to me that they were trying to work out an investment," Schlesinger said.
But Schlesinger said he would not sign a document already inked by his other partners, Linda Fernandez and Scheffler, because he did not approve of Rizzolo as a potential owner.
McDonald said Schlesinger's statement was slanderous and immediately entered the discussion demanding to know, "Are you aware how much money (Rizzolo) contributes to underprivileged children?"
McDonald said he, Rizzolo and Patti were at the Sportspark only to scout a location for a softball tournament to raise funds for a charity in which all three are active participants.
"We were out there to look at a softball complex," McDonald said.
Boggs McDonald, whose ward includes the Sportspark, said it is customary for council members to tell their colleagues when they have a potential interest in something in that person's ward.
"I'm very disappointed that you would be holding an event of this magnitude in my ward without informing me, especially since you have built so many wonderful parks in your own ward," she said.
McDonald refused to address her, asking instead for the entire council to refute media reports that he "lobbied them."
When nobody replied, McDonald then asked City Manager Virginia Valentine if he had ever been briefed on the Sportspark.
Valentine said McDonald had not been briefed on Sportspark since disclosing his employment with Scheffler's Las Vegas Color Graphics.
Scheffler told the council that McDonald was "exactly right" about the May visit being only to find a site for the fund-raiser.
But Schlesinger produced a contract, written by Patti shortly after that visit, that would have sold the Sportspark to the city for $7.8 million to $8.7 million, or to a third party for the same amount.
Patti is Rizzolo's attorney and represents Fernandez.
Fernandez said she and Scheffler wanted to sell their combined 64 percent of the Sportspark, because Schlesinger had told them the facility was in financial trouble.
The council was left trying to decide whether to believe Schlesinger, who moments before was labeled "disingenuous" by Councilman Larry Brown, or McDonald.
Last month McDonald was chastised by the state Ethics Commission for failing to disclose friendships before a vote on a garbage contract.
He also is accused of playing a role in helping Rizzolo's sister open a church to scuttle attempts to turn an office building near Sahara Avenue into a topless club. Metro is investigating that. "To me, people's reputations are at stake," Mayor Oscar Goodman said. "The city's reputation is at stake."
Goodman then asked Valentine to contact Metro about investigating the proposed sale of the Sportspark.
"If it turns out the way Councilman McDonald says it took place, a great apology is owed him," Goodman said to Schlesinger.
Finally the matter returned to the Sportspark's future and offered the session a brief moment of levity. Goodman looked at Schlesinger, Fernandez and Scheffler and asked them to raise their right hands and say they will cooperate with city auditors who need more information.
With that, several dozen people in the audience and both Brown and Boggs McDonald raised their right hands.
"The books are open," Fernandez said.
"I will provide any documentation you require," said Schlesinger, who has taken an indefinite leave from the Sportspark.
For now Sportspark will remain open. The council expressed interest in keeping the public-private partnership alive even though the Sportspark had breached terms of the joint 50-year contract numerous times, according to city attorneys.
Brown, who argued the most with Schlesinger, lamented the agreement approved in 1997. Brown was the lone dissenter when Sportspark was approved, even though city attorneys had issued a memo at the time expressing serious concerns with the partnership.
"It's a horrible contract that was juiced-in politically," Brown said.
Although Brown and Schlesinger bickered at length about the quality of ballfields and the politics of 1997, Brown agreed the city needs to work with the Sportspark in the future.
"We have to fix it," he said.
A second audit report, including information from the city manager and city attorney, will be presented to the council when it is completed.
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