Councilman has license to practice law suspended

By Jean Reid Norman (contact)

Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009 | 2 a.m.

The Nevada Bar Association recently suspended Boulder City Councilman Travis Chandler’s license to practice law, and Chandler faces an unrelated disciplinary hearing regarding a complaint by one of his former clients.

The suspension, which was effective Aug. 20, is a result of Chandler’s failure to pay his 2009 bar association dues of $700.

The disciplinary hearing stems from a complaint that Chandler allowed a patent application to lapse. Eddie Lane complained to the bar that in 2005 he paid Chandler $4,500 to perform a patent search and file a patent application and trademark registration on his behalf, according to the complaint.

Chandler wrote to Lane in February 2006 that the patent application had been filed, but two and a half years later, the application lapsed because of Chandler’s inaction, Lane alleges. Lane told the bar association’s investigators that Chandler was not returning his calls.

Lane could not be reached for comment, and Chandler said he had not yet seen the complaint and declined to comment on it.

As for his suspension from the bar, Chandler said that is not relevant to his business, which focuses on filing patent applications to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He does not need a law license for that, but without a license he can’t handle trademark cases.

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A divided Boulder City Council postponed raising water rates, opting instead to stretch out payments on the third intake into Lake Mead, put off some other projects and hope that the economy improves.

The council last fall raised water rates by 10 percent across the board and sewer rates by $9.65 to $14.65 a month per household, depending on use, beginning next month. That was expected to raise $550,000 by June 30, but brought in only $420,000, City Manager Vicki Mayes told the council.

The city also raised power rates on July 1 by three-quarters of a cent per kilowatt hour.

The extra money was supposed to go toward paying the city’s share of the third intake into Lake Mead, which the Southern Nevada Water Authority is building to ensure water can be drawn from the lake as water levels decline.

A second water rate hike of 10 percent was planned to begin Oct. 1 to set aside money to pay for other infrastructure projects needed for the city’s water and sewer systems. It was expected to raise $300,000 during the fiscal year, Mayes said.

But the council voted 3-2 to hold off for now. Councilmen Duncan McCoy and Travis Chandler voted for the increase.

Councilman Cam Walker and Mayor Roger Tobler asked Mayes to reevaluate the need for the second water rate increase after Boulder City’s share of the third intake came in substantially lower than originally estimated. The water authority scaled back the project, deciding not to build another pumping station until demand requires it, a move that reduced Boulder City’s expense from $26 million to $14 million, Mayes said.

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City officials say a $750,000 renovation of the Boulder City Police Station is still on track to be completed by Friday despite the flooding of the building’s basement last month.

Among the areas soaked when a fire suppression system pipe burst Aug. 25 was the department’s evidence room, but the water did not damage any evidence.

About an inch of water filled the room, Detective Sgt. Vince Albowicz said. All boxes of evidence were on metal shelving well off the floor, however, so only a few cardboard boxes suffered damage and none of the evidence inside the boxes was harmed, Albowicz said.

Contractor Hardy Construction Inc. is fixing the damage and will pay for the time city employees spent reorganizing the evidence and moving it. Hardy brought in extra workers to handle the repairs, officials said.