County workers say scandal unfairly reflects on them

Will Oremus

Friday, Aug. 29, 2003 | 9:45 a.m.

A cloud of corruption charges is swirling around the top level of Clark County's government, but many of the county's rank-and-file feel like they're the ones being rained on.

Workers at the Clark County Government Center on Thursday afternoon reacted to the indictment of former County Commissioner Lance Malone with a mix of resentment and resignation. Many admitted that they don't know whether Malone is guilty, but said the scandals are damaging regardless of their outcome.

"All the news that's come out about our county commissioners and our elected officials misusing their office, it doesn't make our government look good," said Don Hairston, an employee of the Regional Transportation Commission.

"I'm a county employee, a proud county employee, and I don't think we need that blemish in the name and the reputation of the thousands of employees that are honest, hard-working and dedicated."

Malone was indicted by a federal grand jury along with strip club owner Michael Galardi for allegedly bribing city council members in San Diego. In a related probe in Las Vegas, Commission Chairwoman Mary Kincaid-Chauncey, former commissioners Erin Kenny and Dario Herrera, and former Las Vegas City Councilman Michael McDonald have all been named either targets or subjects of the investigation.

John Penuelas, an associate engineer for the county, said he wasn't at all surprised by the allegations of corruption, which he has come to view as a standard feature of local government.

"I lived in Tucson for a while, and they were always dragging (politicians) off to jail," he said.

"It would be nice if our commissioners were honest," he said. "I'm sure some of them are. But as the rank-and-file, we're divorced from all that. We just go to do our jobs like everyone else does."

That makes Public Works employee Dave Drabek feel a bit helpless.

"The only thing I can see is that whoever is supposed to be overseeing these elected officials isn't doing their job," Drabek said. "The average Joe can't do much."

But in county government, Nisha Fuller said, it is often the average Joe who shoulders the responsibility.

"It does affect you," said Fuller, who works with the Regional Transportation Commission. "Even though we're just an entity, we're still the county. And we're the ones who deal with the people.

"People say, 'Oh, you work over there? They're stealing all that money' ... They ask me questions I can't answer," Fuller said.

David Dean of the Air Quality department said he understood that the commissioners face temptation, but he said it's hard to see that as a valid excuse.

"We argue about getting a 2 percent raise, and these people make a lot more money than us and still they are taking more on top," he said. "I think that's what bothers me the most."

Dean said he had hoped that Malone, a former police officer, would be the type to resist bribes.

"What I liked most about Lance Malone was that he wasn't a politician," Dean said.

County workers aren't the only ones who feel betrayed. Citizens doing business at the county building Thursday said they feel like they lose out, too, when their elected officials accept bribes.

"The common man doesn't have the ability to bribe politicians to get things done," retiree Johnny Smith said. "As a 'little guy,' I've gone and fought zoning changes and not gotten it done ... It appeared to me that the large companies and the guys with the big money are the ones who win."

Doug Manfra, a student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said he takes it for granted that there are always corrupt officials who are "giving hard-working, honest people the short end of the stick."

But Smith said he was optimistic that a crackdown on corruption could change things for the better.

"I'm hoping that if the indictment is true and he does get convicted, that it will prevent other politicians from following his lead."