Thursday, Feb. 28, 2002 | 11:02 a.m.
Clark County Commission Chairman Dario Herrera said he was not surprised by a state ethics board's decision clearing him of wrongdoing in regard to a contentious Dec. 4 vote in support of an ordinance governing billboards.
The State Ethics Commission on Wednesday cleared Herrera of a conflict of interest charge filed by an opponent of the new billboard ordinance, which was backed by the billboard industry.
Herrera said Lisa Mayo-DeRiso's complaint was politically motivated and based on his congressional bid against Republican state Sen. Jon Porter.
"I'm very pleased but certainly not surprised that the panel recognized this as a political attack against me and my family," he said.
Mayo-DeRiso said she was deeply disappointed by the ethics board's decision. She said her complaint wasn't politically motivated, but the board's decision might inspire others to become involved in the congressional race.
"It appears to me that the only way a citizen, a member of our community, can police our elected officials is at the voting booth.
"Once they are in office, if they misuse their power, the only way you can rectify it is to get rid of them," Mayo-DeRiso said.
Mayo-DeRiso, owner of a small marketing company, filed the complaint on grounds Herrera's wife, Emily, is tied to the billboard industry, which benefited from the commissioner's vote.
Emily Herrera runs her own company, Bourbon Development Services, that does permitting work for builders, one billboard company and others.
Polly Hamilton, Ethics Commission executive director, said Emily Herrera does not own and is not directly employed by a billboard company. She said Herrera's wife stands in line to get permits for companies.
Herrera said he disclosed his wife's ties to a billboard company but voted for the ordinance because the new law provides significant new protection for residents in his central Las Vegas Valley district.
The law requires almost all new billboard applications to come before the county commission for final approval.
Herrera, citing his wife's relationship with the industry, had abstained on other billboard ordinances earlier last year. After voting on the issue in December, he again abstained when two dozen amendments to the billboard rules came before the commission last week.
He said he abstained last week because "of an overabundance of caution."
He said Porter and "his cronies are trying to find every way to attack me and my family during the campaign" instead of debating the issues of nuclear waste, the economy and health. Herrera said it would not surprise him if additional complaints were filed with the ethics panel to harass him.
The commission chairman is under fire for signing an $84,000 contract to provide consulting services to the Las Vegas Housing Authority. The FBI decided Monday to drop the investigation into the contract.
Porter and his campaign staffers have said they had no connection to the ethics complaint and that Mayo-DeRiso doesn't work for their campaign.
Mayo-DeRiso said Herrera's vote on the issue has opened up much of the county to an influx of billboards, and that is what motivated her complaint.
"I was doing this as a private citizen, because there was something there that I thought was wrong," she said. The complaint "was the only avenue I had, that anyone had, to object to something I thought was unethical."
Mayo-DeRiso said she isn't likely to file another ethics complaint against any commissioner.
"If somebody came to me today and said I think there is something unethical about a county commissioner's actions, I would tell them not to bother wasting their time," she said. "I asked for an opinion, and I got it.
"I don't agree with it, but I have to live with it," she said.
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