Boggs McDonald saw no need to disclose

By Tony Cook

Saturday, Sept. 23, 2006 | 7:37 a.m.

Relying on a questionable interpretation of state law, Clark County Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald insists through her attorney that she did nothing wrong in acquiring a piece of land in Arizona and a $100,000 loan to pay for it from a local developer only four months after helping the developer obtain a zoning change.

"There's nothing shady going on here," said John Mowbray, the embattled commissioner's attorney.

The Sun reported Friday that Boggs McDonald never listed the loan on her financial disclosure forms, even though state law requires candidates to reveal creditors to whom they owe more than $5,000.

Mowbray, though, said Boggs McDonald did not disclose the loan because, based on her interpretation of the disclosure form, she did not believe she was required to do so.

That interpretation, however, differs from that of the executive director of the Nevada Commission on Ethics, the panel responsible for administering and enforcing state ethics laws.

"It sounds to me like that should be on there," said L. Patrick Hearn, the ethics commission's top administrator. "My reading of the law is it would be reported."

The sequence of events that raises questions about the land deal began in October 2004, when local developer Susan Mardian and her family sought from the County Commission a zoning change needed to build a Holiday Inn Hotel as part of a franchise agreement to build two hotels.

Three months later, in January 2005, Boggs McDonald helped pass the zoning change.

In May 2005, a company controlled by Boggs McDonald and her husband acquired 4.7 acres of property from the Mardians' development company in the prospective boomtown of White Hills, Ariz., a master-planned community expected to rival Summerlin in size and about 30 miles south of Hoover Dam on Highway 93.

Boggs McDonald purchased the land for $125,000, with a $100,000 loan from the Mardians.

In her May 2006 financial disclosure statement, Boggs McDonald did not disclose her indebtedness to the Mardians.

She also did not disclose that she owed the Mardians money during a routine County Commission vote last month, in which the board approved a liquor and gaming representative for the BlackJack Lounge, a tavern owned by the Mardians.

Mowbray said Boggs McDonald did not believe it was necessary to list the Mardians as creditors on her financial disclosure form.

"It could be a lot clearer," Mowbray said of the disclosure form.

The state law in question requires public office holders to disclose on the form "the name of each creditor to whom he or a member of his household owes $5,000 or more, except for: (1) a debt secured by mortgage or deed of trust of real property which is not required to be listed pursuant to paragraph (c)."

Paragraph C requires public officials to provide "a list of specific location and particular use of real estate, other than a personal residence in which he or a member of his household has a legal or beneficial interest; whose fair market value is $2,500 or more; and that is located in this state or an adjacent state."

In other words, the requirement that Boggs McDonald had to list the land - and she did list it - compelled her to also disclose the creditor.

The $100,000 loan, Mowbray said, was not special treatment for Boggs McDonald. The Mardians have offered similar financing packages to other buyers, he said.

The Mardians have not returned several phone calls from the Sun.

The loan was an interest-only five-year loan with a 9 percent interest rate, Mowbray said. Boggs McDonald has been making monthly payments on the loan since the sale, he added.

The Mardians made up the difference in the $125,000 sale price by giving Boggs McDonald a $25,000 credit to account for the fact that the land does not yet have utilities, Mowbray said.

The credit is typical for sales in the area, he said.

Mowbray stressed that when Boggs McDonald voted on Jan. 19, 2005, in favor of the Clark County zoning change sought by the Mardians, she had no relationship with the developers.

Several months later, when Boggs McDonald and her husband began considering buying land in Kingman, Ariz., the Mardians told the county commissioner that they could offer the couple some property, Mowbray said.

The sale closed in May 2005, he said.

Boggs McDonald's failure to disclose the loan at the time of last month's BlackJack Lounge vote, Mowbray said, must have been a result of her not knowing that the Mardians owned the tavern.

"Someone's got to bring it to her attention," he said.

State law requires a public officer to disclose any gifts or loans received from someone before voting on an issue affecting that person.

The questions over the Arizona land deal are the latest controversy to emerge in Boggs McDonald's re-election campaign.

A lawsuit filed by the Police Protective Association, the union that represents rank-and-file Las Vegas Metro Police officers, and the Culinary Union, which has had a long-running feud with Boggs McDonald - a former board member of non-unionized Station Casinos - charges that she does not live in her district. If proved, the allegation - supported, the unions contend, by weeks of video showing Boggs McDonald engaged in day-to-day activities at a home outside her district - could force her off the Nov. 7 ballot.

She also was faulted for using campaign money to pay a nanny to care for her children. Although she argues she did nothing wrong in doing so - the nanny, she says, watched her children while she campaigned - Boggs McDonald agreed this week to reimburse her campaign committee.