City Council to struggle with pay raise, ethics panel

Judy Odierna

Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2002 | 9:13 a.m.

Two contentious issues remain undecided as they hit the Las Vegas City Council on Wednesday.

At the first public airing of a bill to give council members pay raises and a car allowance, and another bill that would abolish the city's Ethics Review Board, at least two City Council members took a pass on making any decisions.

On Monday the Recommending Committee, made up of Councilmen Lawrence Weekly and Michael Mack, moved both items to the council without a recommendation, saying they needed to be decided by the full council.

Council members currently receive $40,664 and would get an additional $8,000. They would also get an additional $7,200 from a $600-a-month car allowance.

The mayor currently receives $53,422 and would get an additional $9,700. The mayor's annual car allowance would be $10,800, though Mayor Oscar Goodman said last month that he wouldn't need the fund because he was going to use a Cadillac donated to the city by a local dealership.

Council members would not benefit from the raise until after their next elections, should they win. Goodman, Weekly, Michael McDonald and Gary Reese are up for re-election next year. Council members Lynette Boggs McDonald, Larry Brown and Michael Mack will not run again until April 2005.

City Manager Doug Selby said the raise is long overdue because the council has not received one since 1986 other than minimal cost of living adjustments. However, that cost of living increase has amounted to more than $15,000 for council members and more than $19,000 for the Mayor.

"From my perspective the $8,000 raise is not going to change my lifestyle or how I function day to day," Mack said. "Some of us have an election cycle in the spring; I don't have to think of that. It takes courage for my colleagues running for election in the spring to take on something like this."

Weekly said he felt there were still too many questions regarding the salaries.

"The public doesn't understand," Weekly said. "People think we vote on the pay raise today and get it tomorrow. Actually, we have to run for our seat and get re-elected."

On the abolishment of the portion of the city's ethics code, which would in turn eliminate the Ethics Review Board, the two council members said even less.

"This is another item which requires further discussion," Mack said.

Mack was acquitted of an ethics violation in August, after the board charged in February that Mack had a conflict when he voted last year to delay, and then deny, plans by businessman John Staluppi Jr. to open a car dealership without disclosing that he had borrowed money from rival automobile dealer Joseph Scala.

The areas of the city's ethics code that would be eliminated by conforming to the state standards include financial disclosure, conflicts of interest and having complaints looked at by a board. Any ethics complaints would be sent to the state, and some city council members have argued that city ethics laws essentially just duplicate state laws.

The bill, however, re-adopts the city's ethical codes as they apply to lobbying and political activities for city employees.

Another change affects the "cooling off period" for city employees, who currently have to wait two years before returning as lobbyists, for example, before city officials. The new provision shortens the period to one year.