Dutton, longtime county assessor is dead at 77

Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2001 | 10:16 a.m.

Former longtime Clark County Assessor Jean Dutton was not your typical politician.

He overcame a very public battle with alcohol abuse early in his career and remained sober for a quarter of a century. While separated from his wife, he openly dated a stripper named Bambi who was 32 years his junior.

But the overwhelming majority of voters apparently didn't care. Many admired the tall, ruggedly handsome Marine veteran of World War II for his accomplishments that included securing significant property tax exemptions for veterans and seniors.

He once even stood up to the governor, vehemently opposing a tax shift that changed the state's assessment methodology from the market system to replacement cost.

Dutton, who served as assessor from the mid-1970s to the early 1990s during Clark County's great population boom, died Saturday of a lung ailment at the South Coast Medical Center in Laguna Beach, Calif. He was 77 and a resident of Laguna Beach and Las Vegas.

Per Dutton's request, there will be no services, his family said.

"Jean was a brilliant mentor who was loved by people because he was an ordinary Joe," said Assessor Mark Schofield, who succeeded Dutton in 1992. "He treated everybody the same and had an open-door policy. When he ran for office, people trusted him and as a result he was a huge vote-getter."

The county has had only three assessors in 46 years, with Dutton failing in 1966 to unseat fellow Democrat James Bilbray Sr., who held the post for 20 years, retiring in 1974. That year, Dutton collected 60 percent of the vote for his first public office win.

But in mid-January 1975, after less than three weeks on the job, Dutton found himself sitting in the Clark County jail, booked on a drunken driving charge after being stopped by a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper on U.S. 95.

Dutton checked himself into the Hazelden Foundation sanitarium in Cedar City, Minn., refusing to draw a county salary during his 44-day stay.

Assessor's office employees stood firmly behind their boss while he was going through alcohol abuse treatments, with 98 of them signing a petition of support. Dutton returned to work in May 1975 and never again consumed alcohol, Schofield said.

In 1977 Dutton lobbied the Legislature for passage of the law that enables disabled veterans to receive tax exemptions on their property. He later helped make the senior tax assistance program, started by his predecessor, the strong exemption it is today.

During the 1980s Dutton was overseeing a system burdened by the era's booming growth. From 1980 to 1990 Clark County grew from 170,034 parcels with a gross appraised value in excess of $11 billion to 257,007 parcels worth about $34 billion. In 1980 Clark County real estate holdings doubled and, in some cases, tripled in value.

In February 1990 while seeking his fifth term, Dutton shared his philosophy on what his job was all about: "I have the responsibility to the taxpayers to ensure fair and equitable assessments, to propose realistic forms of legislation and work toward the elimination of unnecessary governmental expenditures and bureaucratic red tape."

Born Sept. 9, 1923, in Oregon, Dutton was given the generally feminine version of the first name Gene by his mother, late longtime Las Vegan Ula Dutton, for reasons that never were made clear. It may even have been a simple misspelling, friends said.

Jean Dutton was raised in Benton County, Ore., and attended the University of Oregon. He moved to Las Vegas in the 1950s.

In 1958 Dutton was hired by the city of Las Vegas as director of license and revenue, a post he held until 1974, resigning to run for assessor. In 1981 Dutton publicly criticized then-Republican Gov. Bob List over the tax shift, opposing the way List's office had come up with the new formula.

Dutton won re-elections in 1978, 1982, 1986 and in 1990. However, fearing his health would not hold up, he decided to step down in mid-term to enjoy his remaining years.

Dutton is survived by his companion, Pam McCoy of Laguna Beach; two sons, Jean "Ed" Dutton and Ronald Dutton, both of Las Vegas; and two grandsons, Jeremy Dutton and Daniel Dutton, both of Las Vegas.

The family said donations can be made in Dutton's memory to the Hazelden Foundation, P.O. Box 11, BC2, Center City Minn. 55012.