Mack to face state ethics panel

Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2003 | 10:59 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Las Vegas City Councilman Michael Mack has been ordered to go before the state Ethics Commission on Nov. 13 to respond to allegations that he failed to fully disclose his business ties to two of Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman's sons when he abstained from voting on a billboard issue.

Two ethics commissioners on Tuesday found cause for a full-scale hearing into Mack's conduct during the City Council's Aug. 6 approval of a billboard variance sought by Orion Outdoor Media.

The panel said the commission needs to conduct a hearing "and render an opinion on the allegations that Mr. Mack violated the provisions of (state law)."

Stacy Jennings, Ethics Commission executive director, said this is the first time the commission has initiated an investigation. And it is the first time the commission has alleged that a public officer has violated an advisory opinion he sought, she said.

In March, Mack received an advisory opinion about his relationship with MK Squared, a public relations and advertising firm, and Mack had been advised to be specific with disclosures of potential conflicts of interest.

Mack said that at the August meeting he "acted ethically, properly and on the advice of the city attorney" when the council considered Orion's request to place a billboard closer to residential property and adjacent billboards at Sahara Avenue near Paradise Road than allowed under Las Vegas code.

At the beginning Mack disclosed that he had a potential conflict of interest because Orion's lawyer, Eric Goodman, the son of the mayor, represented Mack in a separate matter. Mack initially indicated, however, that he was going to vote on the item anyway because the relationship was not going to affect his vote.

Later, however, Mack abstained from the vote. He refused to elaborate on his relationship with the Goodmans during the meeting and in the days that followed.

Orion got its zoning variance. With the mayor also abstaining because of his son's involvement, the measure passed by a 5-0 vote.

An investigation by Jennings determined that at the time Mack made his initial disclosure "he did so with the intent of participating in the vote, not abstaining."

She said Mack "should have, at a minimum, provided sufficient information to inform the public of why he felt the independence of judgment of a reasonable person in his situation could be materially affected in this particular circumstance."

Mack's lawyer, Richard Wright, told the ethics commissioners that Mack followed the requirements in the law in making the disclosure. Wright said Mack has a business relationship with Ross Goodman, the brother of Eric Goodman. Mack and Ross Goodman are working on a program called Hollywood Production of California and they are forming a new business called Las Vegas Previews that proposes to send computer discs to consumers with advertising about entertainment in Las Vegas.

Wright said Mack is seeking contracts with all the businesses that typically advertise in newspapers and on television.

There is no other business like it, Wright said, and that's why Mack "believes any detailed disclosure would create a competitive disadvantage to his future business by fueling the idea in others who would not otherwise have considered the computer disc advertising business." The commissioners who recommended a full hearing are Rick Hsu of Reno and Caren Jenkins of Carson City. They will not sit with the rest of the commission when the other commissioners hear the case.

Jennings said disclosure is not the only issue. She said the panel also wants the full commission to examine whether Mack should have abstained in this case. She said the commission is concerned sometimes that public officials pass on making a vote when it is not necessary and thereby deprive their constituents of a voice.

In a prepared statement faxed to the media Tuesday, Mack said he looks "forward to putting this matter behind me."

This is not Mack's first ethics controversy. In 2002 he voted to to postpone and ultimately to deny an application for a car dealership in northwest Las Vegas -- while failing to disclose he owed $60,000 to competing car dealer Joseph Scala. The city's ethics board recommended Mack be prosecuted in Municipal Court, where he was acquitted of four criminal charges.