Group says it’s not the bad guy in gym closure

Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2003 | 11:09 a.m.

Members of the Fraternal Order of Police who voted last month to seek the ouster of the Golden Gloves from a Las Vegas building on which they hold the lease say accountability demands the entities be separated.

They say Golden Gloves Gym operator David Moody has a conflict of interest because he is president of both the Nevada Golden Gloves franchise and the FOP Lodge No. 1, which has given the amateur boxing organization 23 years of free rent.

They also say the FOP, which is the landlord of the building at 1602 Gragson Ave., where the gym has operated since January 1981, has been relegated to a small room on the second floor and has no say in the use of the whole facility. The building sits on former city land for which the group pays $1 a year.

The FOP members argue they are not the bad guys in this scenario that in a few weeks could spell the end of a gym that has benefited thousands of area youths.

"I love kids, but that is not the issue here," said FOP member Mo Levy, a retired New York police officer and former amateur boxer. "Accountability and integrity are the issues.

Moody said no one raised the issue of conflict of interest when his father-in-law Hal Miller ran both organizations, nor when he took over both in 1997 after Miller died.

FOP member Steve Popovich, a former Cleveland, Ohio, transit officer who is running against Moody for president, says that while the Golden Gloves and FOP have long been perceived as "joined at the hip" they are separate entities.

"The way they have run things for so long does not mean that is the right way to run things," he said.

Moody said while the Golden Gloves pays no rent, it pays for all utilities, licensing fees, trash pickup, maintenance, swamp cooler repairs and the nominal utility bills of the FOP.

The Golden Gloves Gym sits on what used to be city of Las Vegas-owned land that was acquired three years ago by James E. Rogers, chief executive officer of Nevada-based Sunbelt Communications, which runs KVBC Channel 3.

Rogers built an auto museum on land adjacent to the gym and, under the terms of his deal with the city, must observe a lease given to the FOP in 1968 by the city for use of the land at $1 a year through 2020.

Rogers offered the FOP free use of 7,000 square feet of a bigger building he wanted to erect on the current gym site that also would hold more of his antique auto collection.

Levy and Popovich said they opposed the offer, because it proposed only 1,600 square feet for the FOP's use.

Rogers said he withdrew his offer after learning that infighting within the FOP membership would result in the gym's closure.

Moody has decided to close the gym at the end of the month.

Moody says he must decide whether to put his limited resources into fielding an 11-member nationals team for the upcoming state, regional and national tournaments or hiring an attorney to fight eviction.

Still, Moody said he "is not a one-issue" FOP president and wants to remain head of the 470-member local group.

A vote is scheduled for Saturday at the gym for new FOP officers, but Popovich has taken legal action to delay the election.

Golden Gloves Gym mainstays such as Doc Brodus, 84, who managed the facility from 1981 to 1987 and still coaches at the gym, said the kids have been forgotten in the fight.

"All of this infighting is going to wind up hurting both of the organizations and definitely hurt all of the kids who benefit from training there," he said. "This whole thing is heartbreaking -- just heartbreaking."