Las Vegas City Council to vote on topless club that is at center of political dispute

Erin Neff

Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2000 | 10:47 a.m.

Normally when a business license is transferred to a new owner, the item is so routine it doesn't even merit comments from the City Council.

But nothing is formulaic when one of the owners is Sig Rogich, and the very building helped debilitate Councilman Michael McDonald's political career.

In fact the license transfer request comes Wednesday, just a day before the city's Ethics Review Board is set to determine whether to prosecute McDonald for trying to scuttle Rogich's initial license request on the same building.

Item 78 on the agenda won't be commonplace.

The City Council is set to decide whether Ranger Building Corp. can turn over 2801 Westwood Drive to Ali and Hassan Davari of Houston so they can open a topless club called The Board Room.

Rogich, an adviser to former President George Bush, campaign consultant to President-elect George W. Bush and a leading Republican power broker, first applied for a tavern license for his former office building early last spring.

And although McDonald publicly abstained from voting on the license matter when it came before the council in April, the ethics board determined he worked feverishly behind the scenes to block Rogich's efforts.

For starters McDonald asked two city surveyors to conduct additional field measurements of Rogich's building as it related to schools and other taverns nearby.

Just two days before the City Council voted 4-2 to grant Rogich the license, a mysterious church opened in a building just 219 feet away.

The Church for Universal Life Enhancement was operated by Annette Marie Patterson, sister of Crazy Horse Too owner, Rick Rizzolo. Patterson, who is also the bookkeeper at Crazy Horse, kept the church open into July when the Davari brothers first applied to buy Rogich's building.

Although nobody discovered the church around the time of the April council vote, the church was noticed in July when city planners rejected the Davari's request.

After media scrutiny of the church and its relationship to Crazy Horse -- a likely competitor to The Board Room -- Patterson closed up shop and moved her fledgling congregation.

But since McDonald is friends with Rizzolo and since he worked to scuttle the original tavern license, many suspected the councilman was somehow behind the New Age church.

When the ethics board heard the complaint in November, they determined McDonald violated city ethics laws by attempting to manipulate the tavern license to either help his friend Rizzolo or simply to hurt Rogich, who was once a political adviser to him.

McDonald, who did not participate in the original April tavern license discussion, will likely abstain from Wednesday's vote. In addition to Thursday's city ethics hearing, McDonald must face the Nevada Ethics Commission on the same issue in February.

Even if McDonald recuses himself from the tavern license discussion, he isn't sitting by idly.

Also on Wednesday, McDonald will introduce an ordinance that would amend the city's liquor and zoning regulations to make them consistent regarding the discontinuation of businesses called non-conforming uses.

Certain taverns and sexually oriented businesses don't conform to city distance separation requirements because they are grandfathered in to a specific location.

When the council heard Rogich's original tavern license request in April, one such bar, Camilio's Ballroom, was a factor. That bar, just 551 feet away from Rogich's building, was also within 1,500 feet of a school and another club.

But because Camilio's owner had passed away and the club's business license was not valid, council did not consider the business when it determined Rogich's building could have the license.

McDonald's bill establishes a uniform 180-day discontinuation period for all non-conforming uses. Any non-conforming use that has been discontinued may be re-established within 180 days.

However, after that period elapses, the use would have to conform with current zoning code requirements -- and thus by default would have to close.

Neither Rogich nor McDonald could be reached for comment Monday.