McDonald’s career hangs in balance

Erin Neff

Wednesday, March 21, 2001 | 11:18 a.m.

Las Vegas City Councilman Michael McDonald will learn today whether he will retain his title and return to City Hall for a zoning meeting, which is scheduled for this afternoon.

After closing arguments late this morning District Judge James Mahan was expected to rule on whether McDonald's actions during last year's Las Vegas Sportspark incident constitute malfeasance and, consequently, removal from office.

McDonald's trial opened Tuesday with the same witnesses and similar testimony heard during his city and state ethics hearings. McDonald was found guilty after both of those proceedings, but the civil bench trial raises the stakes for his political future.

If Mahan determines McDonald acted willfully to lobby city officials to buy a financially strapped recreation center -- as the complaint alleges -- he can immediately remove the second-term councilman from office.

Frank Cremen, an attorney representing the city's Ethics Review Board, tried to lay that foundation Tuesday. Cremen called five witnesses, whose testimony was familiar.

City Manager Virginia Valentine testified about how McDonald called her repeatedly in an attempt to pique her interested in buying the Sportspark. McDonald's boss, Larry Scheffler, president of Las Vegas Color Graphics, is a part-owner of Sportspark.

The only new element came when Valentine glanced down at hand-written notes to answer a question from McDonald's attorney, Richard Wright. Wright immediately asked that the notes -- from a series of critical telephone calls in late July -- be entered into evidence.

Valentine testified that she was asked to call McDonald on July 22, just before leaving town on a business trip to Baltimore. McDonald provided her with numbers showing how much the city would have to pay to buy out Scheffler and two other partners, then asked her to put the sale on the next council agenda.

The next day, she said, McDonald and Scheffler repeatedly phoned her in Baltimore to tell her the sale was urgent because of the likelihood that Sportspark would default on its loan.

Because McDonald is one of Valentine's seven bosses on the council, she said his constant lobbying -- given the fact he has the power to fire her -- made her nervous.

"It made me very uncomfortable," Valentine said. "It put me in a very difficult position.

"It put me in a position to be between him and one or more of the council members," she added. "I felt I had almost been put in a whistleblower's position."

When Wright zeroed in on the various Baltimore phone calls and asked Valentine to discuss exactly what McDonald told her, she grew frustrated. At one point she said, "I am trying not to say anything more damaging than I have to."

Councilman Larry Brown and Mayor Oscar Goodman also testified that McDonald had discussed the sale of Sportspark to the city with them.

Brown said the terms of the deal discussed -- which could have cost the city anywhere from $5 million to $8 million -- didn't sit right with him, even though he had problems with the way Sportspark was being operated.

"It had to be a good deal for the city of Las Vegas, not for Larry Scheffler or Linda (Fernandez) or me," Brown said.

Fernandez is the majority owner of Sportspark and is a longtime business partner of Scheffler's.

"The purpose to make two people whole who have invested in a bad investment is not my responsibility," Brown added.

Scheffler, who hired McDonald with no training, contract or formal interview to fill a $52,000 vice president's position, was less candid Tuesday than during the Feb. 15 state ethics hearing.

In response to numerous questions, he was curt. He responded simply, "I don't remember," "I don't recall" or "Not to my recollection."

During one heated exchange, after Scheffler denied receiving information from the councilman about what was transpiring at City Hall, Cremen was persistent in his line of questioning.

"You don't think you would have learned that from Michael McDonald?" Cremen said.

Scheffler answered, "You don't think I would have learned it from Virginia Valentine?"

Goodman testified McDonald had suggested a way for the city to receive some of the money for the Sportspark sale through the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority's budget.

When asked why McDonald told him the city should buy it, Goodman said the councilman told him, "They were good people. They were in a bad spot and should be helped out."

McDonald took the stand twice, first as Cremen's witness and later as Wright's only witness.

He said he discussed the city's purchase of Sportspark only because he feared the recreation facility on Rampart Boulevard was going to shut down if the city didn't step in to bail it out.

McDonald denied he was trying to force the council to act on an item from which he recused himself.

Closing arguments were expected late this morning.