Labor Commission looking into Sky-Vue hiring practices

Sito Negron

Wednesday, April 21, 2004 | 10:49 a.m.

The Nevada Labor Commission is looking into the hiring practices of the ownership at the beleaguered Sky-Vue Mobile Park, a mostly dilapidated collection of trailers in such bad condition that health and safety officials have ordered immediate repairs and threatened closure.

Labor Commissioner Terry Johnson would not discuss the investigation, other than to say that it was ongoing. He said there was no time limit set for the investigation. "It will take as long as it requires to ascertain the facts," he said.

The complaint was filed by Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, who became involved with the park after being called about its condition by a former constituent.

She said that when she went to the park, "I met several (people) who were employees of the park. When I asked them how much they were paid or if they had a contract they said they didn't. They said sometimes they might get a cut off the rent, or they (the owners) might give them 20 bucks at the end of the month."

The ownership of the park is murky, because it has been sold several times since 2002. A city order dated April 13 lists T&B Del Corp., as the owner of record, CCSD Properties as the managing agent, and West Owens Management Group, LLC, "as purported legal owner."

T&B Del Corp. had purchased the park previously from a company owned by David Dimarco, and CCSD is owned by David's father, Andy Dimarco.

Officials are dealing with Sandi and David Dimarco as the responsible parties. Sandi Dimarco has assumed responsibility for overseeing the park cleanup.

Sandi Dimarco said she was unaware of a Labor Commission investigation into the park's employment practices.

"Nobody has come to me," she said.

She has said she is trying to comply with orders from city, county and state agencies that require the park to fix leaking sewers, dangerous electrical wiring, unsafe water supplies and other health and safety violations. In addition, the park is operating without a business license and is being fined by the city for each day without the license, starting last week.

The park operators cannot get a license from the city until they install a fire hydrant and make other Las Vegas Fire Department-ordered safety improvements, authorities said.

The Clark County Health District obtained a court order forcing improvements to the sewer, water and electricity, and the Dimarcos are slated to be in court May 4 so that the court and health district officials can assess progress.

In the meantime, the city of Las Vegas has paid for people from 42 trailers to stay at the Budget Suites until they find new housing. An item on the Las Vegas City Council agenda for today calls for an emergency expense of $40,000 to repay Clark County Social Services, which issued emergency vouchers for the Budget Suites, bus tokens, and meals.

The issue of how to deal with Sky-Vue has touched upon multiple departments in multiple jurisdictions, and has brought to light gaps in the system meant to prevent housing from reaching such a state.

The different investigators looked only at pieces of the park, but nobody put together all the varied reports that could have provided the impetus for an earlier intervention and prevented the emergency order that could end up shutting down the park and forcing residents to move.

Giunchigliani said the park employees she interviewed told her "they did not get minimum wage, there was no contract, no workers compensation, no payroll taxes, no Social Security deposits."

She said some of the employees told her they were getting free rent in exchange for their working as maintenance and security guards.

"The law says if you choose to give something of value, such as rent, it still has to be in a contract and it can't break down to 30 cents an hour," Giunchigliani said. 10