Friday, April 9, 2004 | 9:47 a.m.
The Nevada Ethics Commission may make a plea deal with Clark County Recorder Fran Deane, who is accused of trying to personally profit from her office and giving preferential treatment to title companies that backed her campaign.
A plea deal, formally called a stipulation, is on the agenda for next Wednesday's Ethics Committee agenda.
However, Commission Executive Director Stacy Jennings said Thursday that a written plea deal, formally called a stipulation, didn't exist, and she wouldn't say whether the two sides are negotiating one.
The matter was placed on the commission agenda so that if a deal were brought to the commission by Wednesday's meeting the commission could consider it without violating the state Open Meeting Act, Jennings said.
"There is no written agreement but that door is open," Jennings said.
"This item has been placed on the agenda in the event that such an agreement is available for the commission's consideration. There is currently no stipulation before the commission to consider on behalf of Frances Deane," she said.
Deane referred questions to her attorney Lew Brandon. Brandon did not return telephone messages left at his office Thursday afternoon.
The commission was originally scheduled to conduct a hearing on the charges against Deane on Wednesday. But that hearing was pushed to June 9 and 10 after Deane's attorney said he had a conflict with the April date, Jennings said.
The charges against Deane stem from a complaint filed in October by the Service Employees International Union Local 1107, which represents county workers in the recorder's office.
Most of the charges against Deane focus on her aborted effort to establish a company to provide a pay-for-use Web site that would have provided access to public documents over the Internet. Deane was listed as an officer of the company. She later told the Las Vegas Sun that her effort would have benefited her personally if she had followed through and started up the company.
Deane has argued that her efforts to impede a county contract with a company that intended to provide the same service for no charge stemmed from her desire to protect county taxpayers. She said she felt the county's contract with Virginia-based AmCad was a bad deal and her efforts to prevent the implementation of the contract were not designed to benefit her would-be company.
But Jennings noted in a report to the commission that the issues of AmCad's contract and Deane's entrepreneurial efforts overlapped.
The recorder's office provides critical property-ownership and identification information through the official recording of important documents.The recorder is an elected position, independent of the County Commission's authority. Deane has been in office since January 2003.
The ethics commission could fine Deane or forward its findings to the Attorney General's Office, which could seek Deane's removal from office. The first willful violation of the state's ethics rules can result in a $5,000 fine, the second a $10,000 fine and the third or subsequent violations $25,000.
If three or more violations are supported by the commission after the hearing, Nevada law requires the commission to seek the violator's removal from office.
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