Friday, Feb. 15, 2002 | 11:07 a.m.
After long being criticized for its ineffectiveness, the Las Vegas Ethics Review Board wielded its power Thursday by taking the unprecedented step of recommending criminal charges be filed against City Councilman Michael Mack.
The board unanimously found that Mack violated the city's ethics code on five occasions for failing to disclose a $60,000 loan from a car dealer when voting on a rival dealer's proposal.
While that ruling didn't come as a surprise -- because Mack admitted his lapse -- what shocked some at city hall was that the board found that he intentionally failed to disclose the loan, given to him by Courtesy Automotive dealer Joseph Scala. By a 4-2 vote, the board recommended sending the case to Las Vegas Municipal Court. Mack said he had forgotten about the loan at the time.
"I don't understand how you wouldn't know the loan wasn't paid," board chairman Earle White Jr. said. "It appears to be willful. That's not an accident, 'I forgot' mistake."
The board asked attorney John Graves to pursue misdemeanor criminal charges against Mack in Las Vegas Municipal Court, where -- if convicted -- he could be removed from office, fined up to $1,000 or jailed up to six months. It's the first time the board has asked for criminal charges against an elected officer.
"I'm disappointed with today's ruling, and I'm shocked they found my actions were willful," Mack said nearly four hours after the hearing. "I still want to stay a councilman."
The move came as a surprise because the men who filed the ethics complaints on behalf of East Coast car dealer John Staluppi -- Frank Maione and Mike Bellon -- didn't show up for the hearing, which many thought would nullify the allegations.
Some say the board, often considered weak or toothless, wanted to send a message.
Ted Jelen, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas, political science professor, said the board may have been trying to dispute criticism that it wasn't tough on public officials.
"If they let this go they would let almost anything go," Jelen said. "And I don't think the ethics board wants to be in that position."
Jelen compared the situation with the recent Mike Tyson hearing before the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which denied the fighter a license even though critics said it would never bend because of the money at stake.
"It's the same thing," Jelen said. "If this group is going to do anything at all, this is the time to do it. There was a lot of credibility at stake."
In its six-year history, the city's ethics board has suffered serious credibility issues, including:
Mack's attorney, Richard Wright, said the board went outside its boundaries by acting as prosecutor and jury. He said the board was simply trying to prove a point.
"Where they went off the reservation is when they decided they were tired of criticism about being toothless, or they didn't back up anything, so they decided to do something they have no authority to do," Wright said.
Several city insiders expected Mack to walk out of the hearing with a slap on the wrist because he has admitted he did not properly disclose the loan.
Mack has admitted he failed to disclose on three occasions between May 2001 and June 2001 that he had an outstanding $60,000 loan from Scala when voting on items affecting his potential rival, Staluppi. Mack testified Thursday that he was distracted during his 2001 run for his council seat and thought the loan had been repaid.
But Mack said he never imagined the board would determine that he had full knowledge of the loan and tried to hide it when he voted twice to postpone a car dealership application by Staluppi, and once to deny the application.
After Mack led the June vote to deny Staluppi's application, saying it went against the intent of Town Center, he was told by his accountant that the loan was not paid off. Mack asked for the item to be reconsidered so he could abstain, but it was denied a second time.
Graves, though, said the facts stood on their own.
"Throughout all this time Councilman Michael Mack didn't exercise the independent judgment he should have because he knew that Scala could call the note," he said.
The board members unanimously agreed that Mack committed a willful act on five occasions, but board members Linda Young and Danae Adams voted that he should not be prosecuted in court.
"It was probably an honest mistake," Young said. "I don't feel it was willingly and knowingly. Perhaps there was some poor judgment here, too."
Graves said he will review the case and decide whether to pursue the criminal charges.
The board could have sent Mack's case to District Court, which is where the panel sent McDonald's case. The board accused McDonald of breaking ethics laws in office when he lobbied for the sale of the Las Vegas Sportspark to bail his boss out of a bad investment, and purposely tried to block a tavern license by political consultant Sig Rogich. Under a seldom-used malfeasance statute, a judge needed to find his actions so egregious that he should be removed from office. The judge didn't.
In Mack's case, the board is asking its attorney to take the case to municipal court and find Mack guilty of violating the city's ethics codes, which would automatically remove him from office.
Wright said the board chose to refer the case to municipal court because it knew it would lose in District Court. In a separate lawsuit filed against Mack by Staluppi, a judge in October ruled that Mack's actions didn't rise to the level of malfeasance.
Frank Cremen, who represented the ethics board in the McDonald case, said Graves has a higher standard of proof in the municipal court.
"In municipal court they will have to show that there was a willful and knowing violation of the ordinance ... beyond a reasonable doubt," Cremen said. "The question isn't should the officer be removed, it's is the public officer guilty of this misdemeanor infraction?"
Cremen, though, questioned the process and said the council should have abolished the board when it had the chance.
"In my personal opinion, I think that the ethics commissions have been created in this state for the product of post-Watergate reforms," he said. "In most instances the issues presented to the commissions I think are politically motivated."
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