Columnist Jeff German: NLV police chief misses ethics point

Wednesday, June 22, 2005 | 11:01 a.m.

North Las Vegas Police Chief Mark Paresi may be politically pragmatic, but he's also ethically challenged.

Local ethics expert Craig Walton says he's "astounded" that the chief sees nothing wrong with the hiring of a North Las Vegas councilwoman's daughter as an intern at his department.

"He doesn't seem to see what the fuss is about," says Walton, who runs the non-profit Nevada Center for Public Ethics. "But he's using the power of his office in a way that goes against the ethics in government law."

In other words, Walton, a longtime UNLV ethics processor, sees what Paresi doesn't -- a potential ethics violation.

Paresi, who's been at the helm of the police department for three years, admitted this week that he created a $12-an-hour internship for Jenna Buck, the 19-year-old daughter of Councilwoman Shari Buck, one of five council members who oversee the chief's budget.

This was the college junior's job from the get-go, from the very moment her influential mother casually mentioned to Paresi weeks ago that her daughter was looking for summer work.

For Paresi to claim that he wasn't trying to curry favor with the two-term councilwoman is ludicrous. Of course he was.

Not only is Jenna Buck, a BYU sociology major, the first paid intern at the police department, but she's also the only applicant Paresi considered for the internship.

Just as ridiculous is Paresi's claim that the politically connected teenager was hired for the three-month position as part of the department's goal of bringing more women onto the force.

It's a noble goal, but I'll bet the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division would be more impressed if Paresi was this enthusiastic about hiring women to fill full-time police jobs. Those are the jobs that really count.

What Paresi has done here looks bad, no matter what excuses he offers. It smacks of nepotism and political patronage, questionable practices that were supposed to have died long ago.

Walton says Paresi has even landed Shari Buck in a pinch.

"Because of her duties as a councilwoman, he's put her in a position of having to evaluate her daughter's supervisors," he says. "You have the appearance of impropriety looking at you there."

No one's saying Jenna Buck isn't qualified for the internship. She does at least have the department in her blood. Her grandfather, lobbyist Jim Avance, is a former North Las Vegas police chief.

But as long as her mother is among those who oversee the police department's budget, she probably has no business working for Paresi.

"You've got somebody here who isn't getting it," says Walton, who has offered to give Paresi and his department some training in ethics.

If I were Paresi I'd take Walton up on his offer -- not only for Paresi's sake, but for the sake of the taxpayers in North Las Vegas who are paying for his ignorance.