Editorial: Removing Deane right call

Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2006 | 8:03 a.m.

District Judge Douglas Herndon on Tuesday ordered that Clark County Recorder Fran Deane be removed from her elective office. The order was in response to a complaint filed Aug. 16 by District Attorney David Roger.

Deane was indicted in June on multiple counts alleging that she had stolen county records and sold them for personal profit. After the indictment, Deane went on leave at full pay. Roger told KLAS Channel 8 that he filed the complaint out of concern that taxpayers were continuing to pay Deane's $90,000 salary "when there is clear evidence that she has committed a crime."

We agree with the action taken by Roger and with the decision made by Herndon. Three years ago we called for Deane's resignation after she had served only eight months on the job.

Her most serious offense had been to block a county initiative to upgrade her office's computers. The upgrade had been scheduled so that taxpayers could be offered additional services at no charge. All the while that she was blocking the upgrade, Deane and a partner were scheming to set up a business that they would run privately out of the recorder's office, a business that would have charged taxpayers a fee for those same additional services.

A county audit of her department resulted in allegations that funds were being mishandled, that title companies were getting preferential service, that mail was stacking up and that the office's error rate was excessive.

In March 2004 a Nevada Ethics Commission panel recommended a full review of six ethics charges that had been filed against her. She settled the case two months later by admitting one violation - that of trying to personally profit from her public position. She was fined $5,000.

The recorder has an important job filing public documents, but does not set policy, as other elected officials do. As such, and as we have said before, the recorder should be appointed, not elected. With the county manager's office providing supervision, there would be fewer chances for another Deane fiasco to occur.