McDonald hearing postponed

Erin Neff

Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2000 | 10:20 a.m.

An ethics hearing to determine whether Las Vegas City Councilman Michael McDonald lied before a state board has been postponed.

The state Ethics Commission agreed to postpone a hearing scheduled Thursday in Las Vegas for one week at the request of McDonald's attorney, Louis Palazzo.

The hearing Jan. 27 will take place in Las Vegas before two members of the Ethics Commission to determine if enough evidence exists for the full commission to take up the complaint.

Former City Councilman Steve Miller, who has lost consecutive elections to McDonald, filed an amended request for an opinion alleging McDonald and Palazzo misrepresented facts when they went before the commission in Carson City on Nov. 19.

Miller originally filed a request for an opinion alleging McDonald acted improperly last July when he voted to extend a trash-hauling contract for Silver State Disposal Services.

McDonald is friends with Silver State President Steve Kalish and the company's corporate attorney Robert Groesbeck. He also has dated Silver State employee Jennifer Simich.

Miller alleges McDonald had a conflict of interest when he voted to grant Silver State a contract extension estimated to be worth $1.5 billion.

However, when the two members of the Ethics Commission originally considered the matter, it heard only from McDonald and Palazzo. Miller did not make the trip to Carson City to testify.

The two-member board dismissed the allegations against McDonald, in part by saying that McDonald was not dating Simich at the time of the July vote.

Subsequently, Miller saw a photo of Simich and McDonald in a newspaper and learned that the couple had been dating since last February and were seen kissing at an Election Night party in June for Councilman Gary Reese just weeks before the vote.

Palazzo told the Ethics Commission that McDonald and Simich were not dating at the time of the vote.

Miller said he believes that to be untrue and would like the Ethics Commission to consider whether McDonald and his attorney lied.

Miller, meanwhile, will be watching closely as McDonald faces another Silver State vote on Wednesday.

"If he sits there and doesn't disclose everything, it just compounds the problem," Miller said Monday.

Miller said he would again amend his complaint if McDonald votes on the contract Wednesday without disclosing his relationships with the company's executives and with Simich. Miller also said McDonald should disclose that Kalish threw a fund-raiser for him last year at Kalish's bar, Paddy's Pub.

McDonald could not be reached Monday.