Editorial: Houdini act may not last

Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2000 | 10:05 a.m.

Despite Metro Police's allegations that Michael McDonald misused his office to separately benefit his employer and a friend, District Attorney Stewart Bell has declined to prosecute the Las Vegas city councilman for violating public corruption laws. McDonald may find solace in Bell's decision, but the district attorney's written statement, which outlined why indictments weren't handed down, nonetheless paints a disturbing portrait of McDonald.

Metro Police looked into McDonald's actions regarding an application for a zoning change on a building owned by political consultant Sig Rogich. If the change was approved it could result in the building of a topless club in competition with Crazy Horse Too, a topless club owned by a McDonald friend, Rick Rizzolo.

Police noted that McDonald called two city employees to his office and ordered them to conduct surveys to see whether a nearby building, which had leased space to a church, would be close enough to Rogich's property to violate a city ordinance that restricts the location of taverns or sexually oriented businesses.

The church just happened to be run by -- surprise -- Annette Marie Patterson, the sister of Rizzolo. But City Manager Virginia Valentine intervened, ordering the employees not to take the new survey. While McDonald either ignored or didn't see the conflict of interest, luckily for him, Valentine did.

McDonald also came under Metro Police's scrutiny because of his involvement in the possible sale of a privately run park. McDonald is a $52,000-a-year employee of Las Vegas Color Graphics, whose owner, Larry Scheffler, is an investor in Las Vegas Sportspark. This obviously would be a situation that most elected officials would stay clear of -- but not McDonald.

The city councilman claimed that a May 15 meeting at Sportspark -- which included himself, Sportspark investors and Rizzolo -- was simply to scout the location to see if it could be used as a charity venue. But the district attorney said it was reasonable to conclude that the meeting was actually to see whether Rizzolo would be interested in purchasing the property. The specter of killing two birds with one stone certainly existed: Not only was it possible for McDonald to help his employer unload a financially troubled park, but he also could parlay a deal for his friend, Rizzolo.

Although that deal didn't materialize, police said McDonald did let Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald, Councilman Larry Brown and Mayor Oscar Goodman know that Sportspark was for sale. McDonald spoke with Brown about Brown's support of the city possibly buying Sportspark. McDonald also wanted to discuss Sportspark with Valentine, but the city manager told him she didn't want to talk about it because of his conflict of interest.

Still, the district attorney didn't believe that public misconduct laws had been violated since his salary wasn't tied to whether the park was sold. Also, the district attorney said there was never any indication that McDonald would have voted on a sale to the city. In addition, the district attorney said it wasn't up to the criminal justice system to decide whether McDonald went beyond merely discussing such a sale with fellow colleagues, as opposed to lobbying, which would be prohibited.

McDonald may have escaped prosecution by the state, but Metro Police has not ruled out sharing its evidence with federal prosecutors and local and state ethics commissions. Even if McDonald eludes these probes as well, his actions will continue to haunt him and deeply damage his effectiveness as a city councilman.