Local firms pay to give Manning a big sendoff

Stephen Curran

Thursday, July 7, 2005 | 10:02 a.m.

According to a list circulated inside the more than 300 invitations that were mailed, outgoing Clark County Public Works Director Marty Manning's retirement party next week was paid for with contributions from:

- Juliet Property Company, Louis Berger, Parsons Brinkerhoff, PBS&J, Poggemeyer, Station Casinos, Walters Group.

Black &Veatch, Carter-Burgess, CH2M Hill, Focus Property Group, G.C. Wallace, Harris & Associates, HDR, KB Homes, Kimley-Horn, Lochsa, Pat Shalmy, Southern Nevada Homebuilders Association, Stanley Group, Strategic Solutions, Terracon,Tetra Tech, The Picus Group, Washington Group.

MWH Americas, Nevada By Design, R2H, Silverton hotel, Stantec.

The list of those footing the bill for outgoing county Public Works Director Marty Manning's retirement party next week reads like a "Who's Who" of the gaming, development and consulting powerhouses that routinely appear before his department.

Thirty separate companies, including neighborhood gaming titan Station Casinos and the Southern Nevada Homebuilders Association, are paying more than $10,000 total for the party, which coincides with Manning's July 15 retirement date.

It's all perfectly legal because Manning will no longer oversee the companies and because none of the private funding for the event was secured by county employees, county spokesman Erik Pappa said.

"He's a lame duck Public Works director," Pappa said. "These donations weren't solicited by county employees. A donation for this kind of event has no bearing on how the county transacts business."

The county, however, paid to mail the roughly 300 invitations, which were created on a desktop printer and were also sent to local media including the Sun. Pappa said county officials decided Wednesday to require the employees who created the invites to reimburse the county for the cost of sending them.

Manning was in a string of meetings Wednesday and was unavailable for comment all day, Public Works spokesman Bobby Shelton said.

The county's ethics code states that "gifts which may influence a reasonable employee in the performance of his/her duties, or which appear to be intended as a reward for any official action on the employee's part, or which potentially create the perception of impropriety ... shall be refused."

Manning's immediate boss, Assistant County Manager Rick Holmes, said he was not involved in planning the party or circulating the invitations. The party, he said, was not considered a gift because Manning, who will be a private citizen when it occurs, was unlikely to have solicited donations.

"We wrote our ethics policies to be basic common sense," Holmes said. "I think it would be unlikely for Marty to use his hours-old position (as a private citizen) to get a special benefit."

Holmes will be attending the National Association of Counties conference in Hawaii on July 15 and will not be at Manning's party. Pappa said there was not an official count of how many people RSVP'd by Wednesday afternoon.

Fairly large-scale celebrations are common for long-time retiring employees although Holmes said he did not know how they are usually paid for. Holmes said he would attend if he wasn't going to be out of town.

"I know Marty and his code of ethics," Holmes said. "He knows what's appropriate. He's never done anything inappropriate and I don't think he would three hours after he retires."

Consultant Terry Murphy helped arrange the party with Peggy Pound, a local representative of the American Public Works Association. Murphy's firm, Strategic Solutions, contributed $500 to hold the party, making it a "Silver Sponsor."

Seven companies, including engineering giant Parsons Brinkerhoff and Station Casinos, were listed as "Gold Sponsors," meaning they donated up to $1,000.

Murphy, who said she considered Manning a friend, credited him with the much-needed infrastructure improvements that helped transform the Las Vegas Valley to a fast-growing metropolitan area.

Manning plans to spend his retirement "relaxing, traveling around the state and hanging around with his grandbaby," Murphy said.

Among his achievements are completing portions of the Las Vegas Beltway ahead of schedule and working with gaming companies to improve median landscaping and build pedestrian walkways along the Strip. It was during that time that Manning earned the trust and respect of many local business leaders, for whom he often served as a "consensus builder" in meetings with county officials, Murphy said.

That reputation makes any questions about public perception of the privately funded party moot, she added.

"He's not going to be there (with the public works department) anymore," Murphy said. "I don't know what's wrong with the community saying thank you. Nobody from the county asked anyone to do it. This was generated by the private sector."

Manning, 67, took the helm of the Public Works Department in 1986 after serving as deputy director of Public Works in Houston and assistant director of Public Works in El Paso, Texas. He holds a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of Illinois and a master's in public works from the University of Pittsburgh.

County commissioners on Tuesday awarded Manning a proclamation praising his service and officially named a bridge on the Las Vegas Beltway and Town Center Drive after him.

A review panel is expected to begin reviewing hundreds of applications from those looking to replace Manning sometime next month, a search they hope to wrap up by October, Holmes said.