Tuesday, June 21, 2011 | 2:53 p.m.
Steve Sisolak
Barbara Buckley
Clark County commissioners approved a $3 million grant to help Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada build a $13 million building, but not before former Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley went at it with Commissioner Steve Sisolak, who had questions about the deal.
Sisolak noted that a member of Legal Aid Center’s board was an attorney representing Dotty’s in a lawsuit against the county. Dotty’s owner, Nevada Restaurant Services Inc., is suing Clark County in federal court over a new ordinance that requires Dotty’s and similar businesses to install bar-top gaming similar to gaming taverns’. Sisolak is named in the lawsuit.
Sisolak said he wanted to be sure that lawyers hired to represent the county had no qualms about the funding going to a nonprofit organization whose board includes a lawyer representing a company that is suing the county.
“I don’t see the harm in making a phone call” to the county’s attorneys, Sisolak said.
Buckley bristled at the question, saying that her board is policymakers who have “nothing to do with the day-to-day operations of legal aid for the poor.”
Buckley wants to build the 35,000-square-foot building near her current building at the corner of Charleston Boulevard and Eighth Street.
“Instead of a payday loan and a methadone clinic, it’ll have a classroom for 100 ... for free legal classes for the community,” she said.
The county’s $3 million is needed to ensure other financing, she added. She expects construction to begin this fall.
A bit later, commissioners were informed that county attorneys saw no problem or conflict, and the grant was approved.
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