Complaint against McDonald reduced to three charges

Jace Radke

Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2000 | 10:40 a.m.

A 50-page ethics complaint filed against Las Vegas Councilman Michael McDonald has been boiled down to two pages and three alleged violations.

The complaint filed with the city of Las Vegas Ethics Review Board Monday was revised by the board's special counsel, Frank Cremen.

Two of the violations concern allegations that McDonald used his office to attempt to broker the sale of Las Vegas Sportspark, and the third deals with allegations that the councilman worked behind-the-scenes to block a zoning matter involving a proposed adult business and a nearby church.

The first alleged violation says that McDonald attempted to facilitate the sale of the Sportspark in June or July 2000 to Larry Scheffler, McDonald's boss at Las Vegas Color Graphics, then a part owner of Sportspark. The complaint alleges that McDonald promoted the idea to Mayor Oscar Goodman, City Manager Virginia Valentine and Councilman Larry Brown.

The second allegation says that McDonald provided false information to the City Council when he said he had gone to the Sportspark on May 15 with Scheffler; Rick Rizzolo, owner of Crazy Horse Too topless club; and attorney Dean Patti to scout the park as a site for a charity softball tournament.

The final allegation involves the sudden opening of a church run by Rizzolo's sister, the bookkeeper at Crazy Horse, near a proposed strip club. Because of zoning regulations that set minimum distances between churches and adult businesses, the church blocked the license for the club that would have been in competition with Crazy Horse .

The complaint alleges that McDonald directed Paul Sullivan and Nancy Peace, employees of the city's surveyor's office, to conduct additional surveys of businesses involving alcohol or adult licensing in the 2800 block of Westwood Drive, where the church opened and was the site of the proposed topless club.

The complaint notes that the 2800 block of Westwood is not in McDonald's ward, and that the councilman had already disqualified himself from the matter.

The original complaint was filed by resident Bob Rose. On Thursday the review board decided that there was enough evidence in that complaint to hold a full hearing into the allegations of wrong-doing by McDonald.

McDonald is scheduled to appear before the board on Nov. 8.