Friday, April 16, 2004 | 5:22 a.m.
Jon Ralston hosts the news discussion program Face to Face on Las Vegas ONE and publishes the Ralston Report. He can be reached at (702) 870-7997 or at [email protected].
WEEKEND EDITION
April 17 - 18, 2004
If you need assistance with advertising, marketing, public relations, digital publishing or event coordination, you can hire plenty of firms that have the requisite experience and expertise.
Or you could hire Councilman Michael Mack.
Mack, whose business experience includes a failure as a pawnbroker and a multimillion-dollar bankruptcy, is The Forgotten Man on Stewart Avenue as City Hall is engulfed by Mayor Oscar Goodman's ethics troubles. Mack, who preceded his surrogate dad before the state ethics tribunal, has a limited liability company that advertises an array of services and boasts of many clients. And yet he refuses to disclose who might be involved in that venture, thus keeping everyone in the dark as to whether any supplicant before the City Council actually might be a business partner or client.
Mack also quietly has lobbied the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority on behalf of a company that also has ties to mayoral son, Ross Goodman -- the firm is related to iPolitix, the outfit that has landed His Honor before the ethics panel.
Mack refused last week to answer any questions about his consulting business or the private convention authority presentation. But The Forgotten Man's silence notwithstanding, his mysterious business alliance with the mayor's son -- remember, they were both hired, for some reason, by the strip club Treasures -- and his even more murky business venture, where he won't reveal his associates or clients, send a loud message that his continued presence on the council is worth remembering.
I suppose we could just take Mack's word -- or lack of them -- that he is not voting or acting on behalf of any of his silent partners or clients. Or perhaps he could actually release the LLC participants and a full list of clients. I wonder why he won't.
Click on Mack's Web site -- www.mackconsultingllc.com -- and you are greeted with many words, full of cliches and promises and signifying nothing:
"Mack Consulting, LLC is the consultation company of Las Vegas City Councilman Michael Mack. It began when Mack offered his immediate clients and contacts effective suggestions for business solutions. His professional and experienced advice was so popular and effective that it soon grew into a business."
Really? It was popular and effective? Do tell.
I wonder why he includes his elected title on the site. I can't imagine a reason to do so, can you?
This is the same ostensibly broke pawnbroker who is portrayed in the iPolitix announcement as a "veteran marketing executive" who will "oversee the day-to-day operations" of the new venture.
Veteran marketing executive? He was set up in the family pawn business, blew a fortune and was forced into bankruptcy. His only marketing expertise is that he has been successful in selling himself from the council dais to clients who might come before the city -- I am sure his strip club client treasures his, ahem, expertise. And as for overseeing the iPolitix daily operations, will he be doing so from the 10th floor of City Hall?
Mack says on the site that he was able to provide, among others, the massive search engine Google.com "with a business solution that was useful and effective for their companies."
Really? Useful and effective for Google.com? Do tell.
Showing he has the same familiarity with his own company as he does with the concepts of ethics and conflict of interest, Mack responded thusly when I asked about what services he had performed for Google.com.
"He's not sure what you are referring to," Mack said through an aide. Why am I not surprised?
Mack also declined to answer any questions about iPolitix, the company he and Goodman the Younger are enmeshed in. That's a pity because I was curious why iPolitix, which was incorporated Dec. 12, was not on Mack's financial disclosure form filed Jan. 8. (There is no amended form filed, either, according to the secretary of state's Web site.)
I suppose, since the councilman maintains his right to silence, that I could imagine the conversation:
JR: "Councilman, why didn't you list this company on your disclosure form?"
MM: "Well, it hasn't made any money yet, so I have nothing to disclose. I am very good, by the way, at not making money."
JR: "But, councilman, the disclosure form says you must disclose 'each business entity with which you or a member of your household is involved as a trustee, beneficiary of a trust, director, officer, owner in whole or in part, limited or general partner.' "
MM: "Um, let me get back to you."
That's not the only business Mack didn't list on his disclosure form. According to an August filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mack is the operator of Las Vegas Previews. The resident agent of the company, which began as a magazine proposal and a subsidiary of a Hollywood company, is none other than Ross Goodman.
Here's what the SEC filing says: "Mr. Mack has many personal and business affiliations with hotels, casinos and convention committees and organizers. In addition, Mr. Mack has extensive advertising, sales and marketing experience through his public relations firm."
Really? Extensive experience, eh? And which hotels and casinos? Do tell.
Mack does inform us on his Web site of P.T. Barnum's dictum: "A terrible thing happens without advertising ... nothing!"
Perhaps he should have included, for prospective clients, Barnum's more well-known aphorism: "A sucker is born every minute."
Mack insists through a city spokeswoman, despite rumbles to the contrary, that he intends to seek re-election next year. So if you are an unfortunate denizen of The Forgotten Man's ward, you could look for someone who is dedicated to his public duties, bereft of conflicts of interest, cognizant of a duty to disclose and not a mayoral marionette.
Or you could re-elect Councilman Michael Mack.
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