Editorial: Tainted vote demands action

Thursday, Feb. 1, 2007 | 7:08 a.m.

Now that a Dec. 20 vote cast by Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates on a cardiology contract for University Medical Center is known to have been tainted by a conflict of interest, the commission needs to rescind its vote of approval.

When the vote was taken, Atkinson Gates was among four commissioners - a majority on the seven-member board - who voted yes to award the contract to the Nevada Heart and Vascular Center.

Atkinson Gates, however, is also a partner in a company that builds custom homes. On Wednesday Sun reporters Tony Cook and Marshall Allen disclosed that at the time of the vote she was among three contractors bidding to build a home for Dr. Raj Chanderraj - a partner with the Nevada Heart and Vascular Center.

Atkinson Gates' explanation for not disclosing her business relationship with the doctor and for not abstaining from voting on the contract is that she was not aware of Chanderraj's affiliation with the cardiology group.

The explanation is thin, especially since Chanderraj and another partner in the group personally lobbied her and then-Commissioner Myrna Williams in early December. Atkinson Gates says she doesn't recall that meeting.

We believe the County Commission has an equally thin excuse for having approved the contract. At the time of the vote, the commission itself, which oversees the public hospital, had for months been publicly raising concerns about UMC's management, which is where the push for a new cardiology contract was coming from.

Those concerns led to the Jan. 16 firing of the hospital administrator, who had not been forthright about the amount of red ink the hospital was generating. Atkinson Gates announced her resignation from the commission, effective early next month, the same day. Also that day, Metro Police investigators confiscated hospital records related to several contracts they allege are fraudulent.

At the Dec. 20 meeting, commissioners knew that the proposed contract with Nevada Heart and Vascular Center had not been advertised publicly, and they also knew that the holder of the contract since 2002 - Heart Center of Nevada - was offering to continue the job for $4 million - a million dollars less than what was approved for Chanderraj's group.

In our view, the County Commission should put this contract up for public bid.