Goodman apologizes for a ‘weakness,’ losing his temper

Heather Rawlyk

Tuesday, April 13, 2004 | 9:45 a.m.

In his first major interview since he abruptly exited his news conference Thursday, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman apologized for losing his temper but stood by his claim that he has "done nothing wrong" in light of alleged ethics violations.

Goodman's comments came during an interview with KLAS Channel 8 news anchor Gary Waddell that aired Monday.

During the interview Goodman called losing his temper a "weakness" that was sparked after the media "attacked" his family.

"This ethics complaint is something that troubles me because it talks about my family, it talks about my integrity, and that disturbs me, so I wasn't as cool as I usually am," he said. "I lost my temper a little bit because I feel strongly about the fact that I really have not done anything wrong.

"I am usually very good about keeping a good head about me, but when they started attacking my family, I lost it."

Goodman will face eight charges of state ethics violations on May 12 alleging he violated the law, in part by helping his son's business by hosting a party for other mayors in Washington, D.C., and by accepting endorsement money donated to the Meadows School, which his wife founded.

If convicted, he could face fines and possible removal from office.

"I'm looking forward to the hearing and getting it behind me so I can do the work I should be doing," Goodman said. "This is not a trial. These are not criminal charges. They (the ethics commission) judge your behavior and then they indicate if it's outside the scope of the ethics laws. I know I did not do anything willfully wrong."

Goodman defended promoting his son's business, iPolitix, at a cocktail party in Washington, and his $100,000 endorsement contract with Bombay Sapphire Gin, of which $50,000 went to the Meadows School.

"I helped my son. I'll always help my son. I hope I helped my son within the ethical parameters -- that's very important to me," Goodman said. "I helped a school that my wife founded, but it bothers me very, very much when I hear that she owns the school, that she's going to make something out of this."

The mayor said the money -- at the suggestion of Larry Ruvo, who arranged the endorsement -- was used to help people who ordinarily could not afford such an education.

Goodman said the party to promote iPolitix was "in no way taking advantage of the position."

"I really believed the mayors would love the product," he said. "I thought I was doing everyone there invited a favor by showing them a wonderful product."

Goodman also addressed other issues the ethics commission will examine:

"I only drove the Cadillac for city business. They asked for it back and I gave it back to them. It didn't cost them a cent."

"My public information officer got a great offer from Jane Magazine," he said. "I said fine, but what do we get for this besides great publicity for Las Vegas? They said we'd get $2,000 to give to my favorite charity."

The $2,000 will go to the city and "nothing goes in my pocket and nothing hurts the taxpayer," Goodman said.