Mack’s e-mailed invitations violate policy

Sito Negron

Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2004 | 11:04 a.m.

Las Vegas Councilman Michael Mack used a city computer to send invitations to a charity fund-raiser, a violation of the city's policy for its employees.

It also apparently violates state rules, which allow elected officials to use their office phones and fax machines but do not provide for use of public computers for private use.

"It was just brought to my attention," Mack said Tuesday afternoon. "I won't be using e-mail again from (the office)."

The event is tonight's fund-raiser for Shade Tree, a women's shelter, which is to be hosted by Mayor Oscar Goodman. Mack, who owns Mack Consulting, said he did not get paid for sending the e-mail

Mack said he sent some of the invitations from his home, but wanted to check some of the addresses, which he had on his city computer.

Mack previously has been the subject of two ethics complaints, the most recent coming to a vote of the state Ethics Commission in November. The commission held that Mack did not violate ethics laws when he abstained from voting on a council agenda item involving Goodman's son, but that he should have been more specific in disclosing the reasons he abstained.

In 2002 he voted to postpone and ultimately to deny an application for a car dealership in northwest Las Vegas, while failing to disclose he owed $60,000 to competing car dealer Joseph Scala. The city's ethics board recommended Mack be prosecuted in Municipal Court, where he was acquitted of four criminal charges.

The city rules related to use of computers do not contain disciplinary provisions, which in the case of a municipal employee would be determined by managers. Discipline would vary depending on the person's history, past performance and the nature of the infraction, City Manager Doug Selby said.

"We'd look at the context in which it was done, and have to make a case-by-case judgment about how severe the infraction was, and whether the person knowingly did it," Selby said. "There's always some judgment in interpreting violations like that."