Ethics panel eyes second Kenny inquiry

Adrienne Packer

Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2001 | 11:22 a.m.

The state ethics panel that decided last month to pursue an allegation against Clark County Commissioner Erin Kenny also is interested in a second potential violation listed in an ethics complaint filed in November.

Members of the two-person review panel asked the full ethics board to study Kenny's relationship with county facilities manager Bill Barrett, who previously had been reprimanded for campaigning for commissioners.

The concerns of panel members William Flangas and Rick Hsu were outlined in a meeting six days after their Jan. 23 decision to investigate whether Kenny used her position to accept favors.

According to transcripts released Monday from the follow-up meeting, Kenny told ethics board executive director Polly Hamilton that Barrett helped with her first bid for office, but has never campaigned for her since.

Although Hsu and Flangas agreed that if Kenny wasn't in office, she did not violate any ethics codes, they suggested their concerns be forwarded.

"(The panel) has a recommendation that the full commission consider our concern regarding any possibility of assistance from Barrett to Kenny subsequent to her election," Flangas is quoted as saying in the transcripts.

Barrett, who has been repeatedly reprimanded by county administrators for violating county policy, is also in the ethics commission's scope.

The ethics complaint filed by former county employee Gene Smith against Kenny mentions that Barrett helped Commissioner Mary Kincaid with campaigns on county time. Kenny was quoted as saying she believes Barrett and his crew helped Kincaid move her flower shop using county equipment.

Hsu and Flangas also discussed conducting an separate investigation into Barrett and Kincaid.

"(Union representatives) confirmed long-standing problems with Bill Barrett's department and misconduct, if not corruption, which Commissioner Kenny also said she'd been aware of," Hamilton said during the Jan. 23 meeting.

County sources said administrators recently threatened to fire Barrett. Barrett's attorney Richard Segerblom subsequently sent a letter saying Barrett's political activities have taken place while off duty, and he has simply exercised his freedom of speech rights.

Segerblom's letter also suggests the county is blaming a recent EPA investigation on Barrett.

"Mr. Barrett does not wish to cause the county embarrassment and negative publicity, but he is unwilling to be trampled upon so that others may save face," the letter says.

The series of ethics allegations stem from Smith's complaint in which he claims Kenny asked facilities employee Bradd Banaszak and Smith to break into the County Government Center and take documents.

Her intent, the complaint says, was to prove Barrett moved Kincaid's flower shop and doom Kincaid's chances of beating Kenny's close friend Stephanie Smith in a tight primary race last September.

In exchange for the break-in, the complaint says, Kenny offered Banaszak a promotion and told Smith she would get him his job back. The conversation took place during a private meeting at Kenny's home in August.

The ethics board is investigating whether Kenny violated a state ethics statute that prohibits elected officials from using their position to seek or accept favors.

According to the transcripts Hsu quotes the state statute they focused on, which says public officers are prohibited from seeking or accepting favors that would influence "a reasonable person in his position to depart from the faithful and impartial discharge of his public duties."

"I think there's a possibility that that might have occurred," the transcripts says Hsu said during the initial meeting. "But that's my initial impression on this."

Hsu and Flangas -- who were assigned to screen the complaint and determine whether it was worthy of a full investigation -- acknowledged during their meetings that it is a he-said, she-said case.

"I'm instinctively uncomfortable with the credibility of all the parties on both sides of the situation," Flangas is quoted as saying. "And what it boils down to is basically one party's word against the other."

The two also introduced another angle -- that Smith's and Banaszak's motive is to harass Kenny.

"I'm mindful that retribution and retaliation are bona fide fears on the part of public employees," Flangas said during the first meeting. "I think it's a very murky situation, which will require the entire commission to evaluate it."

The full commission is scheduled to meet Feb. 15-16 in Room 1100 of the Grant Sawyer Building in Las Vegas.