Ethics panel calls for hearing

Thursday, Sept. 29, 2005 | 11:17 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Clark County Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald may have misused her office as a Las Vegas councilwoman to save her husband's state job, a panel of the state Ethics Commission said Wednesday. Ethics Commissioners Tim Cashman and Mark Hutchison found there is "just and sufficient cause" to hold a full commission hearing to determine whether Boggs McDonald tried to obstruct Treasurer Brian Krolicki's reorganization of his office.

Boggs McDonald's husband, Steven McDonald, worked for Krolicki and stood to lose his job as an administrator of the unclaimed property division under the reorganization.

The Ethics Commission hearing on the matter is set for Dec. 14 in Las Vegas.

Boggs McDonald could not be reached for comment, but her lawyer, John H. Mowbray, said he was looking forward to testing the credibility of the commissioner's accusers since the hearing should give him a chance to question witnesses under oath.

He said he will be able to show that Boggs McDonald never pressured any city employee or legislator.

The complaint, filed by Roger Jesko in 2004, alleges that during the 2003 Legislature, when Boggs McDonald was on the Las Vegas City Council, she tried to pressure two assemblymen into stopping a bill that would reorganize the treasurer's office. At the time, Assemblyman Wendell Williams, D-Las Vegas, worked for Las Vegas' Department of Neighborhood Services and Assemblyman Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, was a former employee of the same department.

In a September 2004 television interview, Williams said he was repeatedly asked by Boggs McDonald to use his influence to save her husband's job "by putting heat" on the treasurer's office. Williams said he was asked by Boggs McDonald to "skewer" the treasurer's office, and she gave him questions to ask Krolicki at a committee hearing. Williams said because Boggs McDonald, as a city councilwoman, effectively was his boss at City Hall, he was in a precarious position.

Stacy Jennings, executive director of the state Ethics Commission, was never able to locate Williams to talk to him about the accusations he made in the television interview.

She said a review of the minutes from the hearing by the Assembly Government Affairs Committee showed that Williams conducted most of the rigorous questioning of the witnesses testifying in support of the bill.

But Mowbray said he will show that Boggs McDonald never telephoned Williams. He said Boggs McDonald was not Williams' boss; Williams reported through a chain of command up to the city manager.

According to the ethics panel's report, Arberry, who left city government prior to the 2003 Legislature, told the commission investigators that he was approached by Steven McDonald to lobby against the bill.

Arberry also told investigators that Boggs McDonald telephoned him after adjournment of the 2003 legislative session to express her anger about enactment of the reorganization measure, Senate Bill 446. Arberry said Boggs McDonald urged him to contact Krolicki to save her husband's job, according to the panel report.

Krolicki said he was never contacted by Boggs McDonald but he was called into Arberry's office for a meeting at the end of the 2003 Legislature. He told investigators Arberry conducted a "penetrating inquiry" about the bill and asked how employees would be affected.

Arberry reportedly expressed concern that employees would be affected by the reorganization, and Krolicki said he believed he was referring to Steven McDonald. Jennings, in her investigation summary, said there is "sufficient credible evidence Boggs McDonald intended for her husband Steven McDonald to benefit from her conduct." She said the conduct of Boggs McDonald "appears to be an explicit attempt to use one's public office to secure an unwarranted privilege, preference, exemption, or advantage for both her husband and herself."

"It is likely that if Boggs McDonald was not a member of the Las Vegas City Council, Steven McDonald would not have had the opportunity to potentially benefit from having Williams lead the questioning of the treasurer's office regarding SB466 based on questions Steven McDonald wrote."

Jennings wrote that it appears "her (Boggs McDonald's) loyalty to her husband motivated her to advocate, lobby, and attempt to influence two members of the Assembly to depart from the faithful and impartial discharge of their public duties." Steven McDonald was fired from the treasurer's office on Oct. 1, 2003.

Krolicki refused to say why McDonald was fired, but he did say it was not because of the reorganization of his office.