Mack clears ethics hurdle

Diana Sahagun

Thursday, Jan. 24, 2002 | 10:10 a.m.

Las Vegas Councilman Michael Mack has one last hurdle ahead of him on the road to ethical victory as a lawsuit alleging he tried to broker a deal between two rival car dealers appears to be settled.

Mack said Wednesday that East Coast car dealer John Staluppi Jr. has offered to withdraw the lawsuit filed against him, Councilman Larry Brown, and the city of Las Vegas. The settlement comes two weeks after the Las Vegas Planning Commission gave Staluppi the green light to build a new Nissan dealership in the northwest, near Ann Road.

Mack, who has successfully beaten a malfeasance allegation, faces an ethics hearing Feb. 14. City sources say Staluppi's attorney, Anthony Sgro, has already tried to withdraw the ethics complaints, but was told they must go forward. Sgro could not be reached for comment this morning.

But if Wednesday's action is any indication of how the hearing will progress, it's unclear whether Frank Maione and Mike Bellon -- who filed the complaints on Staluppi's behalf -- will testify before the Las Vegas Ethics Review Board. According to new ethics rules adopted by the council in August, if the men fail to attend the hearing, the complaints will be dismissed.

Mack said Wednesday that he's looking forward to putting the matter behind him by Valentine's Day.

"I want to get these ethics charges behind me, because I never really thought much of the lawsuit," Mack said. "The process I've been through has been ridiculous."

Ridiculous, he said, because the original complaints were filed in June 2001, but then had to be refiled after ethics board chairman Earle White missed a key deadline to hold a full hearing. And also ridiculous, he said, that Staluppi's associates alleged he had gambling debts and was suffering from a long-running anxiety disorder.

Although he said there is a chance the complaints could be dismissed, Mack said he hoped a full hearing would reveal what he has maintained for almost a year -- that it was only a lapse in judgment when, in leading the vote June 6, 2001 to deny Staluppi's original application for a car dealership, he failed to disclose that he had an outstanding $60,000 loan from rival car dealer Joseph Scala, who owns land in Town Center.

Days after the vote, when Mack realized that the loan was outstanding, he asked for the item to be reconsidered so he could be abstain. The original dealership application on Rancho Road was denied by the council a second time.

The original vote led to a flood of litigation against Mack and Brown, alleging they tried to broker a deal between Staluppi and Scala. The suits also revealed that, in addition to the $60,000 loan, Mack was $3.3 million in debt, which ultimately led him to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December 2001.

Mack is currently finalizing a plan to ward off 12 creditors seeking more than $3 million.

Brown has maintained that the litigation was a way for Staluppi to extort a new-car dealership from the council. Last fall, Sgro told several city attorneys that he would drop the lawsuit and ethics complaints if the city approved a new-car dealership for Staluppi.

A possible hold-up for the settlement could be a countersuit that Brown filed against Staluppi earlier this month, alleging he filed the litigation as a means of extortion. Brown was ultimately cleared of ethics allegations by the city's ethics board and a two-member panel of the Nevada Ethics Commission.

Mack said he has come a long way since June, when -- after disclosing the loan -- he left town for Arizona for almost two weeks to be treated for a self-described panic attack.

"I did make some mistakes, but it will never happen again," Mack said.

Mack said he holds no ill feelings toward Staluppi, who is the northwest's newest businessman. Once the dealership opens, Mack said he will treat Staluppi like any other businessman who he hopes to see prosper in the community.

"I really want them to be successful," Mack said. "It was something they had to do and I got a lot of mud thrown in my face, but I won't be vindictive."

The legal wrangles haven't just affected Mack but also the residents in the northwest. Since June, Mack has had to abstain from dozens of items relating to the growing Town Center area because of his legal problems. In recent months, residents have expressed their frustration during council meetings.

But Stephen Reilly, who sits on the Northwest Network of Neighborhoods, said the residents still believe in Mack's abilities. Reilly said if the lawsuit and ethics complaints were actually legitimate, Staluppi would have gone through with the process, rather than back out.

"It appears that Staluppi wanted very badly to have a car dealership in the northwest," Reilly said. "And now that he has it, I guess he has no more appetite for a lawsuit."

Reilly said he was delighted to hear that the lawsuit could be dropped and hoped northwest residents could put the issues behind them once the ethics hearing is held.

"I think everybody in the northwest was tired of it and we wanted to really see our councilman be able to vote on Town Center issues," he said. "I really think that he still has the support of the northwest and we're anxious to move forward."