Officials better at filing statements

Friday, July 12, 2002 | 8:52 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Of the estimated 5,500 paid public officials in Nevada, only 17 missed the deadline this year for filing their annual financial disclosure statements with the state Ethics Commission.

Commission Chairman Todd Russell said Thursday that's "significantly smaller than last year," when there were an estimated 75 who didn't make the deadline or who didn't file the statement at all.

Of the 17, eight have asked for a waiver of their potential fines, citing various circumstances as to why they were late. The commission said it will listen to their requests at the next meeting.

The commission told Executive Director Stacey Jennings to send a bill to the remaining nine -- including Assemblyman Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, who owes $525 for filing his statement on April 15 this year, after the April 1 deadline.

Jennings said she is still tabulating the 1,000 financial disclosure statements filed by political candidates that were due May 31. She said she would have a list of those who were delinquent at the next meeting Aug. 8 in Las Vegas.

Other paid public officials from Clark County who missed the deadline were: David Clark of the state Contractors Board, who owes $50; Nadia Jurani and Dennis Shipley, both of the Nevada Equal Rights Commission, who face a $25 fine; Gary Mono of the state Osteopathic Medical Board, who faces a $1,575 penalty; Guy Van Wyck of the Henderson Planning Commission, who owes $175; and Lawrence Wong of the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, who could be hit with a $725 penalty.

Clark, Jurani, Shipley and Wong have asked for waivers of their fines.

In other matters:

Jimmerson, who served on the Nevada Taxicab Authority in Las Vegas from 1995 to 2001,told the commission that the proposed new company would not have any ties to owners of taxicab companies in Southern Nevada.