Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2000 | 11:07 a.m.
One of Michael McDonald's staunchest political opponents is considering an effort to recall the Las Vegas city councilman from office.
Former Councilman Steve Miller, who has twice lost elections to McDonald, said he will decide by the end of the week whether to file a petition for recall with the city clerk's office.
Although he has yet to make the decision, Miller seems to be leaning that way, judging from the materials he is compiling and the research he has already conducted about the recall process.
McDonald, 35, is facing a host of legal troubles that could cripple his political career.
Last week Metro Police turned over two investigations related to McDonald to the district attorney's office. District Attorney Stewart Bell will now decide whether to convene a grand jury, hold a preliminary hearing or drop the case.
McDonald also faces an Oct. 19 meeting of the city's Ethics Review Board. The board will hold an evidentiary meeting to determine if there's enough evidence to proceed with a full-blown hearing into alleged misconduct and conflict of interest.
The Nevada Ethics Commission also has received a complaint about McDonald's behavior, but has not yet set a meeting.
Miller said that while conviction of a crime, or violation of city ethics laws would result in removal from office, both cases could be bogged down for years on appeal.
"The fastest way to get someone out of office who's totally malfeasant, is to recall them," Miller said.
And although recent efforts to recall public officials, including County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates, have failed, Miller said he believes his efforts would succeed because he plans to get signatures at the polls during the Nov. 7 election.
"Normally you do these things door to door," Miller said. "But that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and leave you with nothing.
"On election day, you have eligible, registered voters right there," Miller said.
Once a recall petition is filed by an eligible voter from McDonald's ward, the person who files it has 60 days to obtain signatures from 25 percent of the voters who participated in the April 1999 Ward 1 council race won handily by McDonald.
A total of 11,494 people voted in that 1999 election, meaning Miller would be required to obtain at least 2,876 signatures to recall McDonald from office.
But Miller won't stop with a recall petition. That petition will be accompanied by a nominating petition to put Miller into the Ward 1 seat.
If Miller is successful with his petition drive, the clerk then has to schedule a special election within 120 days. Ward 1 voters will then be asked to decide at the polls whether to recall the councilman.
Miller said a special election could occur as early as January, even as other cases against McDonald proceed through the legal system.
McDonald could not be reached for comment Monday.
McDonald is accused of using his public office to benefit friends in two cases. In the first, he is accused of helping a suspicious church open in close proximity to a building attempting to be zoned for a topless club.
The church was run by Annette Marie Patterson, sister of Crazy Horse Too owner Rick Rizzolo, who is a friend of McDonald's. Since another topless club would compete for customers with Crazy Horse, some claim the church was merely created to block the other club.
McDonald also is accused of trying to broker the sale of the financially troubled Las Vegas Sportspark to help his boss, Larry Scheffler, and Scheffler's business partner, Linda Fernandez, out of a bad investment.
Metro investigated both cases and determined it had enough evidence to ask the DA to proceed with prosecution.
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