Panel to look further into McDonald-Silver State ties

Erin Neff

Friday, Jan. 28, 2000 | 11:11 a.m.

Las Vegas City Councilman Michael McDonald's ties to Silver State Disposal Services raised the eyebrows of two state ethics commissioners enough that they are asking the full board to look into the matter.

Ethics Commission Chairman Pete Bernhard and Commissioner Hal Smith found sufficient evidence during a 3 1/2 hour hearing Thursday to suggest McDonald's ties to the company need further exploration.

--The two-member panel also will ask the full board whether it wants to hire an investigator to determine if McDonald's attorney, Louis Palazzo, misrepresented information to the commission last year with the councilman's knowledge.

Both McDonald and Steve Miller, the political foe responsible for filing the complaint, claimed moral victories after the lengthy closed-door hearing at the County Government Center.

"Now I get to tell my side of the story," McDonald said, during a briefing with reporters after the hearing. "All this has been a witch hunt. That's what we've been falling victim to."

Miller, a former councilman who has lost two elections to McDonald, said he was satisfied a full hearing into the matter has been recommended.

"This should be a lesson for all public officials that professional behavior includes full disclosure of relationships," Miller said.

McDonald is friends with Silver State President Steve Kalish and company attorney Robert Groesbeck. He also dates company employee Jennifer Simich and received $36,800 from Silver State and its related entities for his last campaign.

Kalish also threw a fund-raiser for McDonald at his bar during that spring re-election campaign.

Last July McDonald voted to approve a 15-year extension of Silver State's exclusive trash-hauling contract. The estimated $1.5 billion contract gives Silver State a monopoly until 2021.

McDonald did not disclose his relationships with the company at the time of the vote but did mention the campaign contributions.

Approval of that contract came with a $5.5 million donation from Silver State that the city designated for park projects. Last week the council voted to spend all of that money on one park project in McDonald's ward.

Miller said the commissioners determined the average person might perceive McDonald to have a conflict of interest in voting on Silver State items. As a result, the full commission will determine whether those relationships require disclosure and whether McDonald acted improperly by failing to disclose.

Palazzo downplayed the panel's decision saying, "Councilman McDonald was found to have faithfully and honestly discharged his duty as a councilman."

Both Palazzo and McDonald said the full commission hearing will allow the public a chance to hear both sides of the matter and form their own opinion, outside of media reports.

"Right now there's a shroud of confidentiality," Palazzo said. "But with the matter going to a public hearing, then the complaint is subject to scrutiny and cross-examination."

The full hearing has been tentatively scheduled for March 23 in Las Vegas.

Last November a two-member panel of the Ethics Commission first met in Carson City to determine whether McDonald had made proper disclosures in light of his relationships with the company.

Immediately before that hearing, Palazzo wrote a five-page letter to the commission, in which McDonald's relationship with Simich was described in a small passage.

"It bears mentioning that Councilman McDonald dated Ms. Simich in late January and February and was no longer dating Ms. Simich at the time that the issue arose regarding the extension of the Silver State garbage agreement on July 12, 1999," the letter states.

The panel hearing the complaint in November dismissed the case. But Miller, bolstered by news accounts and a published picture of McDonald and Simich attending functions together as a couple, claimed the relationship never ceased. Simich and McDonald are still dating and are frequently seen together at public events.