Revived ethics panel treads old ground

Thursday, June 12, 2003 | 11:09 a.m.

Several members of the revived Clark County Ethics Task Force said recommendations they made in January 1999 to restore public faith in county government were not followed as they had hoped.

They also were told by a county analyst that one of their recommendations -- annual ethics training for elected and appointed officials -- occurred only that year with no follow-up.

The 10-member appointed task force met on Wednesday for the first time in more than four years in the Clark County Commission Chambers. The task force, a collection of professors, business and labor executives and other community leaders, has a directive from the commission to make revised ethics recommendations by late August.

The task force was reactivated because of a controversy earlier this year involving a plan by businessman Jim Rhodes to develop 2,400 acres surrounded on three sides by the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.

Former Clark County Commissioner Erin Kenny, who left office last year in an unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor, lobbied commissioners on Rhodes' behalf.

Commissioner Mark James, who took office this year, had also talked to Rhodes about development near Red Rock while running for the office last year. Rhodes sued James this spring, alleging those conversations presented a conflict of interest, in an attempt to prevent the commissioner from introducing an ordinance to bar high-density development from the property. The lawsuit eventually was settled out of court.

Task force members did not mention anyone by name but were upset that recommendations they believed were clear in 1999 have not worked, based on recent media reports in which ethical issues involving current and former commissioners have been raised.

"It's regrettable that we have to come together once again," said task force member David Griego, vice president of the Nevada Energy Buyer's Network. He said he had felt the task force's initial recommendations were "plenty clear."

Fellow task force member Betty Pardo, representing the League of Women Voters, said she agreed.

"I thought we were very clear and you would think other adults would have been clear on how to implement our recommendations," Pardo said.

John Hiatt, chairman of the Enterprise Town Advisory Board and a fellow task force member, said ethics rules do not always mean there will be "ethically minded people."

Task force chairman dick Morgan, dean of the Boyd School of Law at UNLV, summed it up when he said the issue boils down to personal responsibility.

"The bottom line in ethical matters is it's up to the individual to choose between right and wrong," Morgan said.

When the task force meets again on June 24, the topics for discussion and possible recommendations will involve conflicts of interest and when it is appropriate to abstain from county business.

A follow-up meeting in early August will focus on the "cooling-off" period for former county officials when it comes to doing county business and whether punishment should be levied for violations of ethics codes. Punishment does not exist in current codes.

"I do believe there has been tremendous damage in the perception of public officials," Griego said.

The controversy involving the cooling-off period centers on Kenny's role in the Rhodes saga. County code, modeled after a state ethics law, prohibits former county officials from lobbying on behalf of someone else for one year after they leave office on issues that were under consideration by the county agency where they had served.

Kenny has denied having a conflict of interest because she said she never considered or voted on the Rhodes issue when she was in office.

Task force members also voiced a desire to study federal ethics laws and how other states have dealt with ethics violations. Former members of Congress, for instance, are prohibited from doing any lobbying before Congress on any issue within a year of leaving office, making that federal cooling off code tougher than what is applied to former lawmakers in Nevada and Clark County.

Mike Popp, an analyst at the county manager's office, told the task force that the county held three ethics training sessions in 1999 but none since then. Jim Spinello, the county's assistant director for administrative services, said after the meeting that a few commissioners -- he couldn't recall which ones -- attended the sessions but that they were not mandatory.