Columnist Jeff German: Galardi gets a slap on the wrist

Friday, Jan. 9, 2004 | 11:01 a.m.

It looked tough all right -- fining Cheetahs owner Jack Galardi $1.1 million over the sins of his son, former co-owner Michael Galardi.

But in reality your City Council wasn't very hard at all on the elder Galardi for failing to keep a leash on his corrupt son and ex-partner, who has pleaded guilty to bribing elected officials in Las Vegas and San Diego.

Instead of forcing Galardi out of the topless club like his son, which would have been the tough thing to do, the council this week made one of those politically expedient moves we've come to expect in Las Vegas politics.

It actually ended up doing Galardi a huge financial favor.

Cheetahs, I'm told, earns roughly $8 million a year in profits.

So if you were in Jack Galardi's position and ran a business that made $8 million a year, and it landed in trouble like this, wouldn't you be willing to part with $1.1 million for the right to keep those profits flowing in? Where do you sign up for such a deal?

Sure, Galardi may have a difficult time scraping together that much cash to pay the fine in 30 days, the deadline the City Council gave him. But he has some pretty sharp lawyers to help him with that task.

And as Mayor Oscar Goodman, who led the charge for the $1.1 million fine, the largest the city has ever imposed on a business, said at Wednesday's hearing, "If I were a banker, I'd loan him the money this afternoon."

Galardi, who owns more than 20 strip clubs in a half-dozen other cities across the country, isn't exactly light in the personal wealth department. My guess is he will have no trouble coming up with the cash.

Had the City Council sided with Councilwoman Janet Moncrief and revoked Galardi's liquor license, life would have been much more difficult for the strip club mogul. Cheetahs, in all likelihood, would have had to close its doors for good because of its unusual zoning situation, and Galardi really would have been hit hard in his pocketbook.

Galardi, it turns out, received his liquor license before the city enacted an ordinance that bans strip clubs from operating within 1,500 feet of each other. Cheetahs is within 1,500 feet of its chief competitor, the Crazy Horse Too.

Under the ordinance, Galardi would have had only 90 days to qualify for a new license or find someone else to undergo a background check and run the joint. Detectives told the City Council that any new background investigations couldn't be completed in three months, which means Cheetahs would have had no choice but to shut down, leaving Galardi with no opportunity to recoup his losses.

The closure also would have set off a fierce court battle between Galardi and the city and sent 250 salaried employees and 1,500 independent contractors (strippers) looking for jobs elsewhere, maybe outside the city limits.

So handing out a hefty fine was the easy way out for the City Council.

Galardi got slapped on the wrist for having a sleaze as a partner and son, but he was allowed to continue to reap huge profits at Cheetahs. Jobs in the city were preserved. And the city got a nice chunk of change for its financially strapped coffers.

I'd say it was business as usual in Las Vegas.