Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2004 | 11:07 a.m.
Amidst questions over her role in a downtown land deal involving one of Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman's sons, Stephanie Boixo, the mayor's chief of staff, submitted her resignation Tuesday.
Boixo is engaged to another Goodman son, Eric, and in her letter to the mayor said that was the reason she was resigning, effective Jan. 1, 2005.
City rules forbid family members from supervising each other.
The resignation comes less than a month after Boixo quit a city committee responsible for evaluating downtown redevelopment proposals because of a possible conflict of interest.
In Tuesday's letter to the mayor, Boixo noted that she has "received numerous offers to continue my work completing your vision for downtown from the private sector."
Earlier in the three-paragraph letter, she had briefly outlined some of the downtown achievements.
"I have truly enjoyed working to bring upwards of $200 million worth of investment into the downtown core," she wrote. "You have been an inspiration and shown me that with vision and proper execution, you can make an incredible difference in your community."
City rules adopted in 1997 forbid municipal officers from employing close relatives. Boixo works as the mayor's chief of staff, coordinating the activities of his busy office as well as handling issues related to downtown, but she is a city employee and as such ultimately reports to City Manager Doug Selby.
Boixo was not available for comment.
Mayor Goodman refused to speak with a Sun reporter about the resignation, which comes as questions swirl about a land deal in which his son, Ross Goodman, is part of a legal team suing an 85-year-old woman to enforce the deal.
Ross Goodman and Louis Palazzo claim that they had an oral agreement with Christina Von Sturm to buy her property at 511 and 515 Las Vegas Blvd. South by Jan. 12, 2005. On Aug. 6, Ross Goodman sent a letter to her attorneys stating his intent to sue if the agreement was not enforced.
On Aug. 11, he filed the lawsuit.
Neither lawyer has returned telephone calls seeking comment since last week.
Von Sturm's daughter and lawyer say the two were trying to take advantage of Von Sturm, first with a contract that she did sign, and then, when that deadline expired, with the claim that they have an oral contract.
They also say the offer, $1.4 million, is less than a $1.8 million offer she turned down in 1997.
The land Ross Goodman and Palazzo seek is adjacent to a city-owned parcel that occupies the north end of the block that is to the southeast of the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard South and Clark Street.
Under the corporate name of Palco, they already have an ownership stake in 525 Las Vegas Boulevard South, the former Boulevard motel.
The city has a joint proposal for its site from Sam Cherry and the Related Companies, each of which already is involved in various downtown projects -- the former in Soho Lofts, a condominium tower, and the latter in the financing of the World Furniture Market.
The city began planning for its site months ago. Boixo was a member of the selection committee that was to recommend a project on the site, but resigned Aug. 18.
In an e-mail resignation from that committee, she wrote that "after receiving information that the mayor's son, Ross, closed on a parcel adjacent to the site, I must recuse myself due to a possible conflict."
The city manager said he was not concerned about Boixo's potential conflicts in staying on her job until the end of the year.
"Since she in effect has resigned, with an effective date at the end of the year, and she disclosed her engagement, we'll be monitoring to make sure she abstains from a situation in which she may have a conflict, as she did in the situation with the Bulldog site (the city name for the parcels next to its land)," Selby said.
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