Columnist Jeff German: Back-room deal drives Experience

Friday, Dec. 6, 2002 | 11:09 a.m.

There's a reason why Mark Paris is paid $205,000 a year to serve as president of the Fremont Street Experience.

Paris has proven to be a master in the art of cutting back-room deals with public officials.

He's about to save the 10 downtown casinos that make up the privately run Fremont Street Experience $7 million -- all at the public's expense.

On Wednesday, after a PowerPoint presentation that made the oft-maligned downtown pedestrian mall out to be the savior of Las Vegas, Paris persuaded the City Council to ask the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority for $7 million in recreational funds to help upgrade the mall's aging light and sound show.

But the deal was cut long before Wednesday.

It occurred on the afternoon of Nov. 22 when Paris met behind closed doors with Mayor Oscar Goodman, City Manager Doug Selby and City Attorney Brad Jerbic at the Fremont Street Experience offices to pitch them the idea of using public money to benefit the mall's private interests.

The LVCVA, which regularly donates funds to local park projects, poured $8 million into the construction of the light show in 1993 after city officials got the Legislature to basically declare the Fremont Street Experience a public park, even though it has no grass and is run by the profit-minded casinos.

At the Nov. 22 meeting Paris brought with him Fremont Street Experience Chairman Don Snyder, president of Boyd Gaming, which owns several downtown properties that benefit from the mall. Mirage President Bill McBeath, who sits on the LVCVA board, and Golden Nugget President Maurice Wooden also were present.

The skids weren't just greased with city officials, however. The LVCVA's top two executives, President Manny Cortez and Executive Vice President Rossi Ralenkotter, also attended the high-powered powwow, which featured an even more intense PowerPoint performance by Paris.

Cortez and Ralenkotter, according to Goodman, now are poised to recommend giving the city and the Fremont Street Experience the $7 million at next Tuesday's board meeting. Paris is prepared to orchestrate still another dog and pony show, this time for the LVCVA board members, who include none other than Goodman.

The LVCVA money, which comes from hotel room taxes, will supplement the $7.3 million the downtown hotels are kicking in and the $2.2 million corporate sponsorship by LG, the South Korean company that's doing the upgrade.

When it is completed by this time next year, the light show's outdated incandescent technology will be turned into high-resolution digital graphics with real-time video capabilities and television quality images.

And the downtown casinos will have a chance to earn millions more in profits while money to renovate real parks for everyone to enjoy will remain scarce.

Asked why the casinos don't want to pay for the entire $16.5 million light show remodeling, Paris simply said they can't afford it.

But they can afford to pay big bucks to Paris, who will earn $65,000, and possibly more, in bonuses this year. They also can bankroll expensive PowerPoint presentations to provide political cover for elected leaders, host happy hour parties to put a smile on the face of the mayor and donate a $37,000 neon welcome sign to the city to keep the bureaucrats happy.

At Wednesday's City Council meeting, you could tell the deal had been cut when Goodman called the Fremont Street Experience the "heart and soul" of the entire valley.

In his push for the money-grab, the mayor apparently forgot about a little tourist attraction called the Las Vegas Strip, which happens to be in the county.

Compared to the star power of the Strip, the Fremont Street Experience still looks like a mediocre lounge show seven years after its 90-foot-tall canopy was first lit up.

The pedestrian mall was built for $70 million, mostly with public funds, to bail out the downtown casinos, which had failed to reinvest enough of their profits to keep up with growth on the Strip.

Even today the public is being asked to pay for what is either a lack of business foresight or just plain greed.

When is it going to end? When will the downtown casinos start carrying their own weight and stop manipulating elected officials?

And when will those officials start putting the interests of the public over private business?