McDonald describes threat

Thursday, Oct. 3, 2002 | 11:17 a.m.

Las Vegas City Councilman Michael McDonald says he has been threatened with political retribution if he does not back off an investigation into contracting practices of the city's Housing Authority, which he chairs.

At Wednesday's council meeting, McDonald said people told him they would back a candidate against him in next year's elections unless he stops a probe into a matter that has become a political hot potato in Clark County Commissioner Dario Herrera's efforts to win the new 3rd Congressional District seat.

"This kind of thing goes with the territory," McDonald said today. "No, I'm not going to back off from any political threat."

The controversy surrounding Herrera's public relations work for the Housing Authority last year has become one of Republican Jon Porter's big weapons in their heated race for Congress. Herrera, a Democrat, received about $50,000 for the work.

McDonald, a Republican, said the issue pains him because "Dario is a friend, but I am just doing my job as chairman of the housing authority."

McDonald declined to say who threatened him politically, but said today that he was approached in an open area at the Rebel Luncheon.

"They are some big money people and I don't doubt they will field a candidate," he said. "Let them. I serve at the will of the people."

McDonald has said city Housing Authority employees also have received threats to their jobs. McDonald has granted "whistle-blower" status to any housing authority employees who come forward to tell of allegations of threats against them for their knowledge of the incident involving Herrera.

So far, McDonald said, two former employees have requested meetings with him to tell what they know.

Parviz Ghadiri, acting director of the Housing Authority, released a report last week acknowledging Herrera's public relations contract violated the agency's procurement policy -- an admission made by board members in February.

Beginning in January 2001, former director Frederick Brown, who died of a heart attack in June, paid Herrera $4,500 a month to perform public relations work for the Housing Authority.