Editorial: Spending taxpayer money

Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2007 | 7:07 a.m.

Clark County commissioners are each allowed to spend $15,000 a year of taxpayer money without the approval of their colleagues.

As noted last month in a story in the Las Vegas Sun by Tony Cook, most of the commissioners barely touched the money, spending it on cell phone bills or travel. But first-term Commissioners Lawrence Weekly and Chris Giunchigliani spent thousands of dollars on community events. Weekly has spent more than $22,000 in his time in office, sponsoring youth football teams and holding community parties and a luau. Giunchigliani has spent more than $8,000 on Halloween parties and in sending a dance team to Disneyland.

As Cook reported Monday, Commissioners Chip Maxfield and Bruce Woodbury want better oversight of the discretionary accounts. Maxfield asked county staff to look at the policies governing the use of the money.

"If we don't have a formal policy, maybe we should, to make sure we are being fiscally responsible with the taxpayers' money and to make sure we are using it for the benefit of the community at large," Maxfield said.

There certainly should be a formal policy for the commissioners' spending. Letting anyone spend without any oversight is irresponsible, especially as the county budget is tightening.

The County Commission is still recovering from the G-Sting political corruption case, and allowing the commissioners to spend money without any accountability does nothing to restore the public's trust.

If commissioners want to spend taxpayer money on community events, let them bring the proposal before the full board in a public meeting and persuade their colleagues to vote for the plan.

Otherwise, these discretionary accounts are nothing more than slush funds that can be used to curry political favor, and that is not right.