Kenny, witness spar over ethics complaint

Adrienne Packer

Friday, Dec. 22, 2000 | 10:38 a.m.

Clark County carpenter Bradd Banaszak broke his silence about a private meeting that led to an ethics complaint against Commissioner Erin Kenny, calling her affidavit "a bunch of crap."

"For them to send this out sent me over the edge," Banaszak said of Kenny and union representative Maryanne Dawicki's affidavits submitted to the Nevada Ethics Commission last week.

Banaszak, a witness in the ethics complaint filed in November by former county employee Gene Smith, had been mum about the meeting because he feared he would be retaliated against.

Smith's complaint claims that in an obscenity-laden tirade, Kenny urged Smith and Banaszak to break into the County Government Center to find documents proving employees helped Commissioner Mary Kincaid move her flower shop on county time.

The meeting took place at Kenny's Rhodes Ranch home Aug. 2, Smith said, when Kincaid was engaged in a fierce campaign battle against North Las Vegas City Councilwoman Stephanie Smith, Kenny's best friend.

Banaszak said not only was he asked to break into file cabinets and the county computer system, but he was given the next day off with union pay to drum up other employees who could provide dirt on the flower shop move.

Smith and Banaszak said they thought they were invited to Kenny's home to discuss problems with Bill Barrett, chief of the facilities division that maintains county buildings.

In her response released to the media Thursday morning, Kenny said she never asked anybody to break into the government center.

The two-term board member's affidavit says Banaszak brought up the flower shop move as well as other incidents of wrongdoing in the facilities division. She said she simply asked him to request copies of payroll records as proof.

"In discussing these matters with Banaszak, we discussed our need for proof of the allegations if any formal action was to be taken," Kenny's affidavit says. "We would need the employees involved or other employees with direct knowledge to come forward."

Kenny's affidavit says she never promised Banaszak a promotion or Smith, who was fired in 1998, his job back as asserted in the ethics complaint. Kenny said she said offered to protect them from retaliation from Barrett.

Kenny, who reportedly passed a lie detector test administered Dec. 12 by Las Vegas polygraph examiner Dennis Arnoldy, also said she did not recall two other employees coming to her house that same week in August to discuss problems in the facilities division.

Dawicki, who also was listed as a witness on the ethics complaint, submitted an affidavit through Kenny's attorney, Frank Cremen. The union representative's account is similar to that offered by the commissioner.

Banaszak said Dawicki requested a meeting with him the night the Sun reported the complaint had been filed. He said Dawicki repeatedly made statements about the meeting and then asked Banaszak what he recalled.

"She was trying to pick my brain to see what I was thinking," Banaszak said. "She would say, 'Do you remember it this way? This is how I remember it.' I know she was trying to pick my brain to save the union."

Dawicki is on vacation and could not be reached for comment this morning. Kenny also is out of town, and her office referred calls to Cremen, who also could not be reached Thursday or today.

Banaszak's recollection of the August meeting greatly differs from the accounts given by Kenny and Dawicki. He said he remembers at one minute Kenny suffering from a bout of vertigo and the next Kenny jumping to her feet, stupefied that Banaszak and Smith couldn't pick a lock to get to the payroll forms.

"She was trying to make us feel stupid for not doing a B and E (breaking and entering)," Banaszak said. "She was like a pit bull on that flower shop story."

Banaszak said he was suspicious when Kenny asked him to get the documents to prove misuse of overtime pay rather than using her authority as a county commissioner to request the paperwork.

"I'm the one, me, that said 'It's public record, why don't you ask?' " Banaszak said. "Now I know it's because she couldn't interfere with a campaign."

Gene Smith was fired for having in his home a washer and dryer that formerly belonged to a county facility, although he said he purchased the appliances.

Banaszak still works in the facilities division and is seeking whistle-blower protection from county administrators. He said that although he encouraged employees to discuss problems in the facilities division with Kenny, he has never received any protection.

Gene Smith said he decided to file the ethics complaint when he saw that Kenny was doing nothing to protect his friend.

"Erin's word is an amoeba; it's nothing," said Banaszak, who along with Smith has received threatening phone calls since the ethics complaint was filed.

Cremen has suggested that Smith and Banaszak created a publicity stunt to gain media attention while Kenny has abided by the rules of the ethics board.

"Mr. Smith's complaint has received quite a bit of publicity here in Las Vegas," Cremen wrote in a letter to the ethics board. "He has deliberately taken his allegations to newspapers, television stations and radio stations."

Gene Smith said he has until Wednesday to file a response to Kenny's affidavit. And although Banaszak was never asked by the ethics commission to submit his account of the meeting in writing, he now intends to do so.

Once the responses are submitted, an ethics review panel will determine whether to move forward with an investigation.