Columnist Jeff German: Session mired in backroom dealing

Friday, June 10, 2005 | 5:49 a.m.

Jeff German's column appears Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays in the Sun. Reach him at german@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4067.

WEEKEND EDITION

June 11 - 12, 2005

The ugly side of the Legislature's final days was exposed in Carson City last week.

Some might call it business as usual.

But if the unscrupulous politicking over Assembly Bill 485 and Assembly Bill 505 are examples of business as usual at the Legislature, then the Legislature is in need of a fix.

Together, these two ill-fated measures showed us everything that's wrong with a legislative process that's prone to backroom dealing, ethical conflicts and special interest meddling.

For a while high-powered casino industry lobbyists, led by political kingmaker Billy Vassiliadis, thought they had a lock on pushing through an 11th-hour amendment to AB485 that would have made it harder for residents to fight the spread of neighborhood casinos.

The amendment, which would have preserved the dominance of neighborhood casino giants Boyd Gaming Group and Station Casinos, surfaced at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. The hearing was chaired by Sen. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, who's law partner, Mark Fiorentino, was among those lobbying for the amendment. Fiorentino represented Boyd Gaming and Focus Property Group, which is looking to get into the neighborhood casino market.

Despite the apparent conflict, Amodei moved the bill with the amendment out of the Judiciary Committee, and he later became the deciding vote that allowed the entire Senate to send the measure back to the Assembly for final approval. He didn't think twice about abstaining.

Vassiliadis' man in the Assembly, Democratic Speaker and gubernatorial hopeful Richard Perkins, was supposed to push the measure there. But by the time the bill got back to the Assembly, anti-neighborhood groups had rallied in opposition and, with the help of powerful Station Casinos nemesis, the Culinary Union, they were putting their own pressure on lawmakers.

And lo and behold the bill unceremoniously died in the Assembly, as the Legislature prepared to adjourn last week.

AB505, meanwhile, made it out of the Legislature -- but not for very long.

This is a bill Gov. Kenny Guinn wanted that would have abolished the Transportation Services Authority and streamlined the regulatory process over limousines and other forms of transportation in the state.

On Friday, three days after the Legislature went home, Guinn announced that he felt compelled to veto his own bill because of a last-minute special interest amendment lawmakers secretly added.

The mysterious amendment, which had nothing to do with consolidating the regulatory process, barred cabbies from their longstanding practice of accepting kickbacks from restaurants, strip clubs and other tourist-oriented businesses. The ban, however, did not include limousine, shuttle bus and courtesy bus drivers, who also receive tips.

Angry cabbies correctly pointed out that they were being unfairly singled out, so they held two days of demonstrations on the Strip and flooded the governor's office with calls for help.

The amendment was sneaked through a conference committee two days before the Legislature recessed by Assemblyman John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, who chairs the Assembly Transportation Committee. There was no public debate and no chance for drivers to voice their opposition.

And worse, Oceguera refused to say who had put him up to it.

A group calling itself Citizens for Enforcement, a so-called coalition of "restaurants, hotels and nightclubs," kept the mystery going Friday when it issued a statement claiming it was tired of being "extorted" by cabbies. The group, however, suspiciously wouldn't identify its members, saying it feared retaliation from drivers.

Guinn, meanwhile, urged lawmakers to consider the "far-reaching ramifications" of future 11th-hour wheeling and dealing in Carson City.

That's how good bills become bad ones.