Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Commission proceeds with ethics case against recorder

A panel of the Nevada Ethics Commission on Thursday ordered a hearing for Clark County Recorder Fran Deane, ruling there was enough evidence that she violated state ethics laws.

Deane will face the full commission on April 14.

The charges stem from a complaint filed in October by the Service Employees International Union Local 1107, which represents county workers in the recorder's office. The complaint alleged that Deane, under fire virtually since she took office in January 2003, tried to personally profit from her office and granted preferential treatment to title companies that backed her campaign.

The commission panel found enough evidence to hold a full hearing on those allegations.

The ethics commission could fine Deane or forward its findings to the attorney general's office, which could seek Deane's removal from office. One "willful" violation of the state's ethics rules can result in a $5,000 fine, the second a $10,000 fine and the third or subsequent violation $25,000.

If three or more violations are supported by the commission after the hearing, Nevada law requires the commission to seek the violator's removal from office.

A report by Stacy Jennings, commission executive director, found credible evidence to support six of the seven allegations originally leveled by the union. Several of the allegations cite more than one violation of state ethics laws.

Following the commission's standard procedure, a two-person panel of commission members -- George Keele of Minden and Jim Kosinski of Reno -- reviewed Jennings' original report and largely backed up their executive director but expanded some of the charges to go before the full commission.

Keele and Kosinski's review cited Deane's appearance and discussion of controversies affecting her office on the TV show "Face to Face with Jon Ralston," which airs on Las Vegas ONE, Cox cable channels 1 and 19.

Jennings' report also cited Deane's interview on the show, as well as interviews with employees in Deane's office and County Manager Thom Reilly.

Much of Jennings' report focused on Deane's admitted but abortive effort to establish a company to provide a pay-for-use website that would have provided access to recorded documents over the Internet. Deane was listed as an officer of the company. She later told the Las Vegas Sun that her effort would have profited her personally.

"The executive director believes the filing of organization papers provides credible evidence that Ms. Deane was seeking an economic opportunity that would tend improperly to influence a person to depart from the faithful and impartial discharge of public duties," Jennings wrote in her report, released Thursday.

The recorder's office provides critical property-ownership and identification information through the official recording of important documents. The recorder is an elected position, independent of the County Commission's authority.

Deane has argued that her efforts to impede a county contract with a company that intended to provide the same service for no charge stemmed from her desire to protect county taxpayers. She said she felt the county's contract with Virginia-based AmCad was a bad deal and her efforts to frustrate the implementation of the contract were not designed to benefit her would-be company.

But Jennings noted in the report that the issues of AmCad's contract and Deane's entrepreneurial efforts overlapped.

Jennings said Deane "refused to cooperate with the AmCad company while concurrently exploring her own business venture to provide the same records to the public via the Internet for a fee -- from which she would financially benefit."

Jennings also questioned Deane's treatment of title companies, which had backed her campaign in 2002.

"The title companies have a relationship with Ms. Deane, as evidenced by significant contributions to her political campaign. ... The title companies are the entities which are alleged to have been purchasing records from the recorder's office, and are presumably the same entities which Ms. Deane had proposed to enter into business with to establish a website to offer the same records to the public for a charge," Jennings said.

Such a commitment would be a violation of Nevada law, Jennings noted.

According to Jennings' report, employees in the recorder's office also testified that Deane gave preference to title companies.

Deane has said that she ended special access for walk-in customers and other practices potentially favorable to title companies after media scrutiny, county audits and complaints alerted her to potential ethical conflicts.

Deane, in her response to the charges, blamed said they are the result of a vendetta by Reilly. Reilly testified for the report on Jan. 28.

Reilly said Deane's counter-charge was "categorically untrue."

"I wasn't the one who tried to start a business," Reilly said. "The vast majority of issues she seemed to have disclosed to the press herself. She needs to be held responsible for her own actions and not blame others."

The supporting documents "seem to be very thorough in their investigation and supporting documents," he said.

"It is not surprising," Reilly said of Jennings' report and the commission panel's review. "These issues have been identified time and time again by the press, by management, by her employees. It seems to suggest that things were not operating appropriately during her administration."

Deane referred calls to her attorney, Lew Brandon.

"We're looking forward to the hearing," he said. "We finally want to dispense with the allegations. I have a righteous client. I think she's the target of political abuse.

"After this hearing, we're not going to have Fran Deane to kick around anymore," Brandon said.

He reiterated that Deane's concerns with the AmCad contract were not an effort to help her would-be business.

"The contract is not in the best interests of the county," he said. "To this day, it's still not in the best interests of the county."

Brandon said Deane did not actively seek to form the business that would have competed with the county's website.

"Fran Deane never formed a corporation," he said. "Fran Deane never formed a business. Fran Deane never formed a business plan. Fran Deane never took active steps to create a business that would compete with the county."

Vicky Hedderman, Local 1107 president, said she thought the findings backed up the allegations that the union made five months ago. Among the allegations were that staff members were pressured to provide preferential treatment for title companies.

"We were pretty sure that the ethics commission would find merit in the complaint," Hedderman said. "We're pretty delighted. Our members came forward, and we think this is great.

"We hope this is a first step towards bringing dignity back for those who provide public service, not just in the recorder's office but anywhere in county government. The deserve not just her (Deane's) respect, but everybody's respect."

Jennings said that in her two years as executive director of the ethics commission, this would be the third ethics complaint outside a campaign dispute to go to a full commission hearing. One of those complaints was dismissed. The second also was dismissed, although the commission chided Las Vegas City Councilman Michael Mack for failure to disclose a potential conflict.

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