Ethics panel to pursue McDonald allegations

Jace Radke

Friday, Oct. 20, 2000 | 11:16 a.m.

Despite a complaint characterized as hard to follow and having more questions than accusations, the city of Las Vegas Ethics Review Board unanimously voted to hold a hearing into allegations that Councilman Michael McDonald has misused his office.

Board member Robert Fleming moved for the Nov. 8 hearing on Thursday after listening to McDonald's attorney, Richard Wright, complainant Bob Rose and the board's special counsel, Frank Cremen.

"I feel there is a conflict of interest, and that there is sufficient cause to investigate further allegations filed by Mr. Rose," Fleming said.

McDonald said that he wasn't surprised that the board decided to convene a hearing that could cost him his council position and jeopardize his political future.

"Obviously with as much publicity as this has received we went in there, and we knew," McDonald said as he made his way through television cameras and reporters on the way to City Hall elevators. "We'll have our opportunity, and we'll move forward."

Rose's 50-page complaint alleges that McDonald used his office in an attempt to broker the sale of Las Vegas Sportspark and that the councilman worked behind the scenes to block a zoning matter involving a proposed adult business and a nearby church.

Wright argued that the allegations he was able to find in the complaint wouldn't violate the city's code of ethics even if the accusations were true.

"We're constrained by the ethical guidelines," Wright told the board after citing the code several times while running through a checklist of Rose's allegations. "All I can do is say 'here's an alleged conflict, and does it violate the ordinance.' Maybe you can find a violation of the statute. I don't find it."

Cremen disagreed saying that once he took the time to pore through Rose's complaint he found areas that could be seen as possible ethics violations. He pointed out alleged lobbying of council members and the city manager on Sportspark and asking for measurements by city employees outside of his ward for the zoning issue.

Cremen agreed to recast the complaint for the Nov. 8 hearing so that it will be easier for board members as well as McDonald and Wright to grasp the allegations and what part of the ethics code they may violate.

Wright questioned how the board could select special counsel for the McDonald matter when city law dictates that only the City Council can appoint a special prosecutor for the ethics board, but board chairman Earle White Jr. said the special counsel was necessary.

"There is an obvious conflict if we have a city attorney giving us counsel when it is also the attorney's job to represent the city council and its members," White said. "We are working off an earlier precedent set when special counsel was used in a matter involving former councilman Frank Hawkins."

Rose told the board that he didn't know if McDonald had done any of the things alleged in his complaint, and he wanted the hearing to find the answers.

"The questions have to be answered under oath," Rose said. "If there's nothing there, then there's nothing there, but they have to be asked."

The complaint centers around allegations that McDonald tried to broker the sale of the Sportspark to help his boss and part owner of the Sportspark, Larry Scheffler. McDonald toured the Sportspark in May with Crazy Horse Too strip-club owner Rick Rizzolo, Rizzolo's attorney, Dean Patti and Scheffler, but maintains that the visit was to scout a charity softball location.

According to a Metro Police report to the district attorney, no other members of the charity can verify McDonald's story. Sportspark partner Don Schlesinger said he thought the tour's purpose was to show the park to potential buyers.

Metro Police detectives were convinced that McDonald attempted to lobby for the potential sale of the Sportspark to the city in a meeting with City Manager Virginia Valentine and repeated phone calls to her, Mayor Oscar Goodman and Councilman Larry Brown.

The Metro report requested that McDonald be prosecuted for misconduct in a public office and for asking for or receiving a bribe, but District Attorney Stewart Bell last week declined to prosecute McDonald, suggesting the case was better suited for an ethics investigation.

A second set of allegations deals with whether McDonald was working to keep a proposed topless club from opening in the vicinity of Rizzolo's business. A church, run by Rizzolo's sister, the bookkeeper at Crazy Horse, suddenly emerged near the proposed strip club effectivly blocking it because of zoning regulations.

Some allege that McDonald helped the church find a location that would block the zoning request, and that he asked city employees to investigate the church's proximity to the proposed club.