Panel settles suit with councilman

Friday, Feb. 18, 2000 | 11:07 a.m.

RENO -- The state Ethics Commission Thursday reversed its 1999 finding that Las Vegas City Councilman Gary Reese should have abstained when he voted against a controversial restaurant on Sahara Avenue.

The commission reached a settlement with Reese over his lawsuit, allowing both sides to avoid admitting any wrongdoing, and the settlement clears Reese's record.

"I really don't feel any different, because all along I felt I hadn't done anything wrong," Reese said this morning.

Commission Chairman Pete Bernhard of Las Vegas said a change last year in the ethics laws would not have put Reese in the position he found himself in during voting on Nick's Fishmarket.

The commission in an opinion issued last year said Reese did not violate any ethics law but should have abstained because of his relationship with a bank president who opposed the project.

In April 1998 Paseo Partners applied for a special use permit with the city to build Nick's Fishmarket at Sahara Avenue and Paseo Del Prado. It was to be located in front of a multistory building in which BankWest was the primary tenant.

BankWest President Larry Woodrum had received haircuts at Reese's barbershop since 1963, and both men said they are friends. Prior to the vote, Woodrum visited Reese at the barber shop for a haircut and explained his objections to the restaurant, saying it would disrupt operations of BankWest and deliveries to the restaurant would block access to the bank.

Woodrum then returned to the shop later and told Reese they would still be friends no matter how he voted.

Reese made a full disclosure of his friendship with Woodrum and revealed he had accounts in Woodrum's bank and also a $12,000 loan. He was advised by attorneys for the city of Las Vegas there would not be any conflict of interest if he revealed his ties and then voted.

To check out the project, Reese drove his truck to the location to verify Woodrum's concerns.

The council then voted down the project.

In its 1999 opinion, the commission said Reese met with Deputy City Attorney Steve George and told him about the relationships of the two men. But Reese did not tell George about the two instances in which the bank president talked to the councilman about the project.

The commission found that a reasonable person in Reese's position would have had his independence of judgment materially affected by the relationship with Woodrum.

Although there were no sanctions, Reese filed suit to overturn the commission filing. He said the commission was in error when it found he should have abstained.

The complaint against Reese was filed by former Las Vegas Councilman Steve Miller.

"I don't think it was a vendetta or anything," Reese said. "It's just like it was a shadow over my head for the longest time.

"This decision takes that extra 5-pound pack that I've been carrying around for the past 2 years off my back," Reese said.