Editorial: Disclose, don’t hide

Thursday, Oct. 23, 2003 | 8:47 a.m.

This week the state Ethics Commission told Las Vegas Councilman Michael Mack to appear before the panel in November. The Ethics Commission is investigating Mack's failure to completely disclose his business ties with two of Mayor Oscar Goodman's sons when he abstained from voting on a billboard issue during a City Council meeting in August. Mack at the time acknowledged that lawyer Eric Goodman, who was appearing before the board on a zoning change involving a billboard, was representing him on a separate matter. Mack, however, would not say just what his relationship was with Eric Goodman despite a state law that mandates "sufficient information" be disclosed when abstaining. If that requirement isn't enforced, then there is no way for the public to know if a politician has a conflict of interest.

In response to the commission's complaint, Mack attorney Richard Wright told the Ethics Commission that Mack and Eric Goodman's brother, Ross, want to form a business that will send computer discs about Las Vegas entertainment to consumers. Disclosing such information, Wright asserts, would have put Mack at a competitive disadvantage. But the bottom line is that Mack should not have withheld such information that the public had a right to know about. As long as we have part-time elected officials, the possibility exists that they may try to cash in on their office. That's why we need strong disclosure laws -- and why the Ethics Commission is doing the right thing by conducting an inquiry into what Mack did or, more precisely, what he didn't do.