Ethics hearing set for March

Erin Neff

Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2001 | 11:30 a.m.

Las Vegas City Councilman Michael McDonald's political fate will rest with District Court Judge Jim Mahan on March 20 when a civil malfeasance petition is heard.

During a short procedural hearing this morning Mahan set the date when attorney Frank Cremen can present arguments as to why McDonald should be removed from office.

McDonald's attorney, Richard Wright, also will get the opportunity to call witnesses and present a defense of his client on grounds that McDonald's actions were not much different from his council colleagues.

The hearing is expected to last two days. However, Wright will also be filing a motion to dismiss the hearing within 10 days.

Cremen filed the petition at the request of the Las Vegas Ethics Review Board. That board determined last year that McDonald violated city ethics laws on two occasions.

McDonald was found to have lobbied for the sale of the Las Vegas Sportspark to help his boss out of a bad investment. The board also ruled he purposely tried to block a tavern license request by political consultant Sig Rogich.

Cremen said the evidence presented in the Sportspark case was a clearer example of how McDonald violated city laws, and thus, the Sportspark matter is the evidence Mahan will consider.

During last year's ethics hearing on the Sportspark case, several witnesses, including Mayor Oscar Goodman, City Manager Virginia Valentine and Councilman Larry Brown, testified that McDonald had repeatedly tried to get the city to buy Sportspark.

Brown said he even warned McDonald not to attend a meeting between city officials and his boss, Larry Scheffler, on the matter. Valentine testified that McDonald made repeated calls to Brown and Goodman during a business trip to Baltimore, which she also attended. Those calls were intended to get his colleagues to put Sportspark's sale on the council agenda.

During an August council meeting, one of the Sportspark owners said he saw McDonald touring the park with Scheffler and Crazy Horse Too owner Rick Rizzolo, who is a friend of the councilman. That owner, Don Schlesinger, said he thought McDonald was trying to get Rizzolo to buy the park.

McDonald works for Scheffler at Las Vegas Color Graphics. Scheffler's business partner, Linda Fernandez, is a majority owner of the Sportspark.

State law provides for a civil proceeding for any public official "who refuses or neglects to perform any official act in the manner and form prescribed by law, or who is guilty of any malpractice or malfeasance in office."

The law has only been invoked once to try to remove an official from office. McDonald would be the first official in state history removed from office in that way if Cremen's case is successful.