Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Columnist Jon Ralston: On how audit simply confirmed what was already known about airport land fiasco

Jon Ralston hosts the news discussion program Face to Face with Jon Ralston on Las Vegas ONE and also publishes the daily e-mail newsletter RalstonFlash.com. His column for the Las Vegas Sun appears Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Ralston can be reached at 870-7997 or through e-mail at [email protected].

The drama playing Tuesday at the Clark County Commission was movie-length but had all of the sad predictability and dull humor of a sitcom.

If this truly is Airportlandgate, the discussion Tuesday was more like one of those "Airport" sequels -- mind-numbingly boring with flat performances from an ensemble cast.

And if this is a sequel to 1997's Airportgate, where commissioners helped land their friends and cronies lucrative concessions at McCarran International Airport, how ironically fitting that Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates, deeply enmeshed in that eight-year-old scandal, was most volubly, albeit obliquely, critical of aviation boss Randy Walker.

Atkinson Gates does not like Walker, especially since he did not help her in 1997 and never lifted a finger to help her crony and serendipitous concessionaire Michael Chambliss, recently arrested for murder. But whatever her motivations, Atkinson Gates provided the most telling colloquy, with auditor Jerry Carroll, nearly two hours into the hearing, when she asked this leading question:

Atkinson Gates: "Who was driving this process? Would you say then that the developers were driving that process vs. the airport driving the process?"

Carroll: "As far as the appraisals (of the land), the developers were driving that portion of the process. They were doing the appraisals. They were trying to make deals where they could make exchanges."

To distill: The audit essentially confirmed what already was known, which is that canny developers, with Scott Gragson as their broker, saw an opportunity to flip land near the airport and achieved much of what they wanted because of a laissez-faire attitude by airport managers.

"I am saddened and perplexed by the overall lack of management of this entire process," Atkinson Gates lamented at the end of the hearing. And whether she was really saddened or really perplexed -- or just happy to see Walker suffer as she suffered eight years ago -- she also happens to be right.

Walker humbled himself before the commission and acknowledged where the buck stops. But he also pointed out that during the time frame in question, he was somewhat preoccupied dealing with the aftershocks of two disasters -- the effects of 9/11 on the airport and the cost overruns at the Regional Justice Center.

Walker is a manager par excellence -- why else would County Manager Thom Reilly have thrown him into the snake pit of the RJC? -- so it's clear he wasn't paying attention.

Although the presentations by Carroll and a consultant were not jaw-dropping, the report itself is devastating.

Besides the headline-making "significant problems" that were found with the land disposal process, Carroll's report details that one appraiser, Tim Morse, was involved in 75 percent of land exchanges that had resale gains -- $79 million worth out of $105 million. And, Carroll alleged, Morse also had an apparent conflict of interest by having an investment with one of the principals in a piece of land involved.

What's more, the serial involvement of Gragson and the discovery that 7.5 acres was accidentally and essentially given to him for free, shows that whatever rules were set up were ignored or flouted.

This was part laziness and part ineptitude. But the elected officials bear some responsibility, too, and Atkinson Gates showed her sensitivity when Walker mentioned that most of the items in question had come before the board.

"I rely on the management of our staff," she declared. "I also expect our staff to do their due diligence. ... I respond and my actions are based on your work. ... From that perspective, I rely on you."

Subtle she's not.

The only remaining question is whether anything criminal occurred here. A Metro Police captain provided some relief and then some dyspepsia for the county folks on that score.

"We have found no evidence of criminal conduct specifically with regard to the land exchanges," Capt. Kathleen Suey told the board, adding ominously, "However, during our investigation there was some evidence uncovered that has given us reason to suspect there may have been some other criminal activity connected to a current federal investigation."

The good news for the county is that if the feds botch the probe of Airportlandgate the way they did of 1997's Airportgate, where no one was indicted, they have nothing to fear.

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