Council removes member’s spouse from advisory committee

By Cassie Tomlin

Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009 | 4:22 p.m.

The City Council appointed three new members to the Airport Advisory Committee Feb. 10, declining to renew the term of Tracy Strickland, who is married to Councilwoman Linda Strickland.

Members Rich Moynihan and Robert Merrell, whose terms also expired at the end of the month, did not apply for reappointment.

The council named Joey Peterson, Rodney Whisenhunt and Jim Gross to the three open seats on the airport board, which advises the council on the Boulder City Municipal Airport.

The council also reappointed Vince Abila and Maria Effertz to the five-member Golf Course Green Committee, for two-year terms. Abila has served since December 2004 and Effertz since May 2003. The committee is made of one member from the Women's Golf Association, one from the Men's Golf Association and three citizens at large.

Tracy Strickland received one vote in his bid to stay on the airport board, from Councilman Travis Chandler. Linda Strickland abstained. Tracy Strickland called the council's decision "purely political."

Mayor Roger Tobler said the reappointment wouldn't have been a legal ethical violation, but said he was concerned it might appear the Stricklands aren't independent of each other in board decisions.

Tracy Strickland dismissed that notion.

"Of course there's no conflict of interest," he said. "We only make recommendations, and the council takes the advice and either follows or modifies it.

"My understanding is, historically, assuming you carry out your duties and haven't missed too many meetings, you get reappointed. I'm a bit outspoken about management decisions and some issues at airport. ... There seems to be, with a majority of the City Council, an idea to silence ideas that are different than theirs."

Councilwoman Andrea Anderson confirmed that board members typically are reappointed for a few terms and said she thought Tracy Strickland was an asset to the committee. She said, however, that the potential conflict concerned her.

Julie Tousa, president of the Nevada Center for Public Ethics, said if Councilwoman Strickland had needed to remove herself from every airport issue, it might be a concern.

But though two people on two boards who are married can be a perceived conflict, it's not an ethical problem as long as the people "do everything right by the book, separating personal issues from the decisions they make," Tousa said.

She said the council has the right to remove and appoint board members, so there was no ethical violation in not reappointing Tracy Strickland.

Cassie Tomlin can be reached at 948-2073 or [email protected].