Columnist Jon Ralston: We Nevadans smile on cronyism

Sunday, June 4, 2000 | 8:57 a.m.

Jon Ralston, who publishes the Ralston Report, writes a column for the Sun on Sundays and Wednesdays. Ralston can be reached at 870-7997 or by e-mail at ralston@vegas.com.

The message is clear: In Nevada, behave in the most blatantly unethical manner, using your government position to enrich your friends, and the state will sanction your actions.

Such is the unfortunate and unintended byproduct of the state Ethics Commission's failure, announced Tuesday, to appeal a case involving Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates and her involvement in Airportgate, the scandalous 1997 awarding of lucrative concessions by board members to their pals.

Don't blame the Ethics Commission entirely. Although an argument could have been made that the Supreme Court would have sided with Gates, the symbolism of the panel not pursuing the action is much more pernicious.

But the real villains here -- besides Gates for not accepting her relatively mild punishment -- is the Gang of 63 and Gov. Kenny Guinn, who during the 1999 session undercut what the ethics panel had done when it deservedly rebuked Gates and Commissioner Lance Malone.

If there has been one characteristic that has been the leitmotif of this case, it has been chutzpah. Gates' arrogant dissembling was only matched by Malone's pathetic maundering. They acted as if the public was an ass -- and the public has obliged by making both, especially Gates, favorites for re-election.

And the chutzpah continued after the decision last week. Gates' attorney Dan Polsenberg made a series of statements to the media that indicate he is as brazen as his client. To wit: "It's been obvious from the beginning that you couldn't read the statute, so Gates didn't violate it," Polsenberg told the Sun.

Now I get it. So before Gates subverted the concession process and asked commissioners for their picks and then prepared a list for County Manager Dale Askew, she flipped through the Nevada Revised Statutes. Upon coming across the ethics laws, she looked, and looked and looked. But, as Polsenberg pointed out, couldn't make sense of it. So she decided then that it was OK to put her longtime friends and political associates Judy Klein and Mike Chambliss on the list as well as Reber, a Malone family friend. How could anyone have known from that vague statute that awarding contracts to your cronies is unethical?

So in June 1998, when the ethics panel, after an exhaustive investigation, found her and Malone guilty, no wonder Gates sued. (Malone took his medicine and declined to sue, fearing it would only resurrect the issue.) She had been wronged, by God.

Unfortunately, on Sept. 7, 1999, Judge Jerome Polaha found that the statute was too vague and declared it unconstitutional. But his decision was made easier because the Legislature had narrowed the definition of friendship and undermined the ethics panel's flexibility -- it was as if the Legislature, and then Guinn, had winked at Polaha and said Gates was right.

Don't blame the judge, either. In fact, in his decision, Polaha made it clear how he felt about Gates' actions, which he wrote "disrupted and bypassed a system for choosing concessionaires that was put in place specifically to eliminate behavior like that of (Gates)."

But now, thanks to the ruling and especially the gutting of the law, the public will believe that no bad deed goes punished. This after thoughtful lawmakers 30 years ago crafted a statute that was intentionally vague so as to give the panel flexibility and not create instead, as Guinn and the Gang have, a Guidebook for the Unethical.

So spread the message to the rest of the country: Here in Nevada, we don't frown on cronyism. In fact, even if the truth of your transgressions is manifest, you can file a lawsuit, and the governor and the Legislature just might change the statute to bolster your case.

Nevada: Where the unethical can thrive and if you need any help, a road map is even encased in state law.