Columnist Jeff German: Parking feud still in high gear

Friday, July 23, 2004 | 11:03 a.m.

The County Commission has spoken, and the consensus is that the latest round in the battle of casino giants goes to Sheldon Adelson.

Steve Wynn's high-priced lawyers left Wednesday's three-hour hearing unhappy about the commission's decision to allow Adelson's $1.6 billion expansion plans at the Venetian to proceed despite their concerns about inadequate parking.

By contrast, Adelson's impressive legal team -- anchored by former Sen. Richard Bryan and 84-year-old Sam Lionel, the lead namesake of the high-powered Lionel, Sawyer & Collins law firm -- left the meeting with smiles on their faces.

The commission tried to play peacemaker here, but as predicted in this space last week it didn't exactly succeed, which means this titanic conflict isn't going away anytime soon. There will be future battles -- probably lots more -- before the commission.

What the commission did was throw itself deeper into the high-stakes rift between the dynamic casino moguls, who each wield much political clout on the Strip. The commission is now the official referee and can expect to be right smack in the middle of this mess for months to come.

It's a job that could place some commissioners in a perilous political position. That includes the just-appointed Lynette Boggs McDonald, who must get elected in November to keep her seat.

Boggs McDonald obviously had trouble Wednesday figuring out which hard-nosed casino mogul to support.

She first voted for a motion proposed by Commissioner Myrna Williams to refuse to allow Adelson to move forward with his expansion plans until he absolutely, positively, takes care of his parking problem to Wynn's satisfaction. But when that motion failed, she was the swing vote that gave Adelson the go-ahead to start the project with the parking concerns still unresolved.

The commission ordered the Venetian to prove every month to county officials that it will have at least 7,600 parking spaces available on and off the property during construction of a six-floor underground parking garage that is expected to anchor the expansion.

That figure was arrived at to ensure that Venetian employees and guests won't take up valuable parking spaces at its Strip neighbors, especially the $2.4 billion Wynn Las Vegas megaresort, which is set to open April 28.

The problem is Adelson's people presented a plan that includes a series of revolving off-site parking lots that would make anyone's head spin. There's plenty of room to wiggle.

It's why Marc Rubinstein, general counsel for Wynn Las Vegas, and Frank Schreck, the gaming "juice" lawyer Wynn hired to do his arguing, came away from the meeting unimpressed with the commission's peacemaking abilities.

They contended the commission, though taking a seemingly tough stance against the Venetian (construction will have to stop whenever the 7,600 threshhold isn't met), actually was letting the Venetian off the hook. The resort, they argued, has consistently ducked its responsibility to provide enough parking for the last five years, and the commission was giving it a chance to circumvent the rules again.

They fear Adelson's well-paid stable of legal talent will find a loophole in the county's latest mandate.

"Now we and the county will have to be their baby sitter," Rubinstein said.

Rubinstein and Schreck suggested Wednesday that they might go to court to overturn the commission's decision.

But after having a night to think about things, both said Thursday they had ruled out that option.

"We'll live with this to see if it works," Schreck said. "There's an enforcement mechanism set up with the county, and you can rest assured we'll be monitoring it."

The County Commission, it turns out, has given Wynn and Adelson reason to keep fighting.