Goodman frustrated after deal with family not signed

Erin Neff

Monday, Aug. 21, 2000 | 12:03 p.m.

The city of Las Vegas left a negotiating session Thursday thinking its multimillion-dollar offer would finally settle a seven-year battle with a local family whose property was taken to make room for a downtown parking garage.

But an 11th-hour request from lawyers for the Pappas family involving a small side property could stall any final settlement.

"I've never in my private practice tried so hard to negotiate a case," a frustrated Mayor Oscar Goodman said Friday in his office. "This has been through four different drafts, back and forth, up to Carson City and the last draft we were going to agree upon yesterday."

But the Pappas family never appeared Thursday afternoon to sign the agreement. And on Friday Harry Pappas was phoning the media to say negotiations had taken a "turn for the worse."

Pappas said he agreed to the city's offer for the 7,000-foot building seized from his mother, Carol Pappas, to allow for construction of the Fremont Street Experience parking garage.

However, he said, his family members believe they are also owed roughly $120,000 in income his mother had received from people who parked in a small lot she owned downtown. Now the larger garage has taken away that business, the family alleges.

"We're saying now that you owe for the tenants you took," Harry Pappas said. "They don't want to do this."

Neither Goodman or City Manager Virginia Valentine would disclose the amount of the tentative settlement. But Goodman said it is higher than a $4.1 million settlement former U.S. Sen. Chick Hecht received in a similar eminent domain case.

Harry Pappas had requested $7 million.

Goodman -- a criminal defense attorney by trade -- said he's amazed the family is hesitating to settle because he thinks they would be offered less if the courts resolved the issue.

"As far as I was concerned, we had a deal with the Fremont Street Experience piece," Goodman said. "It was a fair offer to wrap it all up with the Pappases."

But Goodman does not think the $120,000 demanded for the side lot is fair.

"As a matter of good conscience on my part, I said I could not go back to my client, the city, for one more cent," Goodman said.

Valentine said she is still hopeful the Pappas family will accept the city's final offer.

"We had a deal, and we hope we still have a deal," she said.

If the family doesn't accept the offer, the case will proceed to District Court Judge Mark Denton, whom the Nevada Supreme Court on Friday ruled could hear the case.

Denton had sought to recuse himself from hearing the matter because he received $3,800 in campaign contributions from four downtown casinos in 1998.

The court, in a 7-0 vote, ruled the contributions do not serve as grounds for disqualification. During the past seven years, five judges -- including Denton -- have left the case citing potential conflicts.

The Pappas family has also questioned the impartiality of the judicial system in the matter.

In its decision handed down Friday, the Supreme Court warned that the family might continue to question the judge.

"Although operating under such circumstances may be difficult or disheartening, the judicial duties of a judge take precedence over all the judge's other activities," the opinion reads.

"Indeed, if a party were allowed to selectively disqualify a judge through what amounts to media-bullying, the very integrity and independence upon which the judiciary depends would be undermined."