Columnist Jeff German: System engenders distrust

Wednesday, May 21, 2003 | 11:05 a.m.

Keeping tabs on a federal grand jury hearing evidence in the FBI's latest probe into possible political corruption Tuesday reminded me of how little things have changed in Southern Nevada.

Back in 1982 reporters also roamed the hallways of the federal courthouse as a similar grand jury moved to indict a handful of elected leaders on charges of taking bribes from an undercover FBI agent. Some of those politicians went to federal prison.

We don't know whether this latest investigation will produce the same kind of results, but we do know that we have the same corruptible system of government.

It's a system that allows part-time politicians to pursue their own business interests at the same time they're on the public payroll. It's a system set up to breed conflicts of interest, not prevent them.

An elected official can have an unlimited number of consulting contracts as long as he declares his ties and abstains from voting on any matters relating to his other employers. An official also can leave office one day and go to work for a wealthy power broker he regulated the next morning, and no one will even question it.

Cash flows freely in this system, if not through the consulting contracts, through hefty campaign contributions and, as we soon may learn from the latest FBI investigation, through secret payments or bribes.

There always has been corruption in politics, but today people seem to run for office with the goal of getting rich -- not serving the people.

Today's politician may start out with a modest income, but by the time he leaves office, or shortly thereafter, he's living in a huge home, driving a luxury car and joining a country club. He doesn't achieve this wealth on a $54,000 County Commission salary.

The system not only allows an elected official to grab whatever he can for himself, but it encourages him.

It has created the kind of atmosphere that may have landed County Commissioner Mary Kincaid-Chauncey and former Commissioners Dario Herrera, Erin Kenny and Lance Malone in trouble with the FBI. Malone has slipped out of sight without a word, but his three former colleagues all have denied wrongdoing.

Unless he took money under the table, City Councilman Michael McDonald may escape federal charges in the FBI probe because he followed the letter of the law with his consulting contract with topless nightclub owner Michael Galardi. McDonald contends he abstained from voting on any council matters relating to Galardi and declared the money he earned from Galardi on his tax returns.

He won't say how much Galardi paid him. But you can believe that it's more than the $40,000 he makes as a city councilman, which raises the question: Is McDonald more loyal to Galardi, or the people who elected him?

We will have trouble trusting any of our politicians for decades to come unless we stop making it easy for them to get in trouble -- ethically or legally.