Goodman’s son was sent info on city-owned lot

Sito Negron

Thursday, Sept. 23, 2004 | 11:23 a.m.

Ross Goodman was sent information July 30 about who bid on a city of Las Vegas-owned lot downtown, documents that under city rules at the time were not supposed to be made public.

The rules, challenged by the media, changed in early September. The city policy now is to release the names of people or companies bidding on city property.

City officials said today they could not explain why the information was sent to Goodman. A senior planner in the Office of Business Development, Bill Arent, provided the information.

"We're going through a transition, we have a new Office of Business Development director, and we were moving the (bid) practice from OBD to Finance," said city spokesman David Riggleman. "He may have been confused as to the practice at that time."

Riggleman said that neither he nor Arent's boss, new Business Development Director Scott Adams, had spoken to Arent, who is on vacation.

Goodman owns a stake in land at 525 Las Vegas Boulevard South, a couple of lots down from the city property at the north end of the block. He and a partner have sued Christina Von Sturm, the owner of 511 and 515 Las Vegas Boulevard South -- lots between his property and the city land -- claiming she reneged on an agreement to sell for $1.4 million.

Von Sturm's daughter and her California-based lawyer say that the 85-year-old woman was badgered into the agreement, which they contend wasn't legitimate to begin with. Even if the initial contract was valid, they say, it expired without the deal closing.

However, Goodman and his partner, lawyer Louis Palazzo, claim in their lawsuit that they have an oral agreement with Von Sturm to extend the closing date to January.

In addition, in an amendment filed Wednesday to the lawsuit, their attorney, John Netzorg, also argues that Von Sturm's lawyer canceled the original deal before the deadline to close.

"But for the cancellation, Plaintiff has been ready, willing and able to close escrow," Netzorg wrote in the amendment.

He also claims that Von Sturm's daughter and lawyer engaged in "unprecedented and scurrilous" attacks on Goodman, Palazzo, and "their family members and third parties."

Ross Goodman is son of Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman. His brother is engaged to the mayor's chief of staff, Stephanie Boixo, who coordinates the mayor's downtown development initiatives.

The mayor has denied knowledge of his son's deal with Von Sturm. Boixo resigned from a redevelopment project selection committee in August, citing potential conflicts, and on Sept. 14 resigned from her chief of staff position, effective January.

Netzorg's amended lawsuit states that "Plaintiff has been accused of surreptitiously obtaining information from the Las Vegas Redevelopment Agency regarding the adjacent property and to have utilized that information for Plaintiff's own benefit."

However, he argues, "there is no factual support" for those allegations.

He claimed that Von Sturm was offered more for her property than other nearby parcels have fetched, and uses comparisons with the city-owned lot as an example.

Netzorg writes that the city asked for $2.265 million for its vacant land, or about $55.31 per foot.

Von Sturm, who Goodman and Palazzo approached after hearing from the neighboring property owner that she was interested in selling, was asking $133 per square foot, he writes.

"Plaintiff's principals are being accused of having learned that the City had appraised the property next door for $55 a square foot and having secretly used this information to defraud Christine (Von Sturm) by offering $133 a square foot," Netzorg wrote in the amendment.

He cites six other nearby property values, which range from $28 to $82.50 per square foot.

Netzorg also includes information about the city Redevelopment Agency timing for selling its lot. The agency released a request for proposals to use the land on May 21, and opened an "inquiry period" May 27-July 12. Ross Goodman did not apply to buy the land during or after the inquiry period, Netzorg writes.

City records show that a fax was sent from Goodman's office on behalf of Resort Property Groups in early April inquiring about the property.

Ross Goodman and Palazzo have not been available to comment on the story.

Netzorg's lawsuit claims that Von Sturm's action in canceling the contract July 21, several weeks before the deadline to close escrow Aug. 8, "constituted a default aand therefore the defendant is not entitled to claim a default by the Plaintiff."

The lawsuit seeks damages in excess of $10,000 for "breach of the contract occasioned by the collateral bad faith conduct of the Defendant and Defendant's agents." It also seeks to recover the $30,000 in earnest money Goodman and Palazzo put into an account for Von Sturm.

Von Sturm's lawyer said she never touched the money.

The lawsuit also seeks to enforce the contract to allow Goodman and Palazzo to buy the property.