Editorial: Most recent revelations don’t help

Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2001 | 8:49 a.m.

More information keeps emerging about City Councilman Michael Mack's finances, and the more that comes out the less good he looks. Last February Mack filed a disclosure form that said he had l2 outstanding business loans exceeding $5,000 each, all the form required him to report. In an exclusive story on Tuesday the Sun reported that the loans, all related to Mack's pawnshop business, totaled more than $3 million and that he had had trouble keeping up with the payments.

Neither the loans nor their amount necessarily reflect on Mack the councilman, and he contends they have no bearing on his performance in office. But the loans included $60,000 from Joseph Scala, a car dealer. In June Mack voted against a car dealership that would have competed against a Scala dealership, beginning a periodic gurgle of information about Mack's financial situation.

In the last several days the Sun's Diana Sahagun and Jon Ralston separately showed that the relationship between Mack and Scala was deeper than the councilman had previously revealed. In September 2000 Scala paid off three overdue loans of Mack's, totaling $2l,000, directly to Nevada State Bank. Mack also failed to report on his campaign finance form that Scala had loaned him a vehicle for his election campaign. Mack also acknowledged that he asked "a lot of people," including two with business before the city, to invest in his financially troubled pawnshop.

Mack hasn't helped himself by being unforthcoming about the details of his finances, which have been coming out piecemeal anyway, or by bailing out of his council duties while, according to him, undergoing treatment for stress in Arizona and Las Vegas. Stress is not an excuse for bad decision-making by a public official ("If you can't stand the heat ..."). His dealings with Scala have drawn a lawsuit and ethics complaints alleging he abused his public office, both of which will be the subject of hearings Thursday that could well bring out more information that Mack might very well wish would remain private.