Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

As revealed in ethics disclosures, Nevada government is an insiders’ game

Legislature Opening Day

Lance Iversen / AP

Recently re-elected Nevada Senators take the oath of office during the opening session of the Nevada Legislature on Monday, Feb. 2, 2015, in Carson City.

Many of the state’s elected officials have professional relationships that extend outside the Legislature, creating a web that reveals the close-knit nature of Nevada politics.

Lt. Gov. Mark Hutchison, for instance, represented Sen. Mark Lipparelli in front of the state’s ethics commission in 2013. Lipparelli, a tech executive and former gaming regulator, filled Hutchinson’s vacant state senate seat the following year.

Hutchison, who practices law by trade, said the business link between the two had no influence on Lipparelli’s appointment to Hutchison’s Senate seat.

But the business connection, disclosed in public documents, highlights the dual roles and relationships fostered in the private-public world of state politics. It also underscores Nevada’s revolving-door of officials who bounce from one government post to the next in an insular world that’s hard for a layperson to breach.

The disclosures lend themselves to the conflict of interest culture that onlookers of state government often mythologize. But they are evidence of the criss-crossing world between state officials, lobbyists and special interest groups.

The state ethics commission requires public officials to disclose when they represent clients in front of state agencies or boards. The disclosure forms are an act of good faith to prevent officials from facing claims of conflict of interest because of their day jobs.

Twenty appointed and elected public officials filed multiple disclosures since 2013. Among them were legislators, gaming regulators, state board members, city officials and ethics commissioners.

Many of the officials have longstanding ties to some of the most powerful interest groups and are themselves among the state’s influential brass, swinging heavy hands in the symbiotic milieu of Nevada’s political and private sectors. The two-pronged relationships are one area that’s bipartisan in state politics.

Those who submitted disclosures have not been accused of any conflict of interest. But the relationships — at face value — bestow airs of a system where cronyism is common.

Lipparelli, who also consults for gaming companies, hired Hutchison in 2013 — the year following his departure from the gaming board. He wanted a voluntary opinion from the ethics commission to see if his former role posed a conflict for potential work in the public sector.

Hutchison’s political and professional dossiers — including having served on the ethics commission from 2004 to 2010 — warrant his sought-after status on ethics issues.

He’s operated his eponymous law firm, Hutchison & Steffen, since 1996. He specializes in business and tort litigation along with government ethics and election law.

During his six years on the ethics commission, he never represented clients in front of state agencies. But members of his firm did, said Ryan Cherry, Hutchison’s chief of staff, in an email.

Hutchison started counseling clients in front of state agencies in 2011 — a year after he left the ethics commission. He won’t be practicing law before state boards or agencies while serving in his elected capacity, Cherry said.

As lieutenant governor, Hutchison’s political job is part-time. During the legislative session he is Senate president, a position that only allows him to cast a tie-breaking vote. Barring the 120 day session, the lieutenant governor sits on a handful of state boards and is allowed to work a day job in the private sector.

Hutchson’s dual roles may pose a potential conflict of interest, but it mostly procures his firm free advertising, said Eric Herzik, a political science professor at the University of Nevada-Reno.

“You can always say there is great potential and there is, but most [public officials] will work very hard to avoid that conflict of interest,” he said. “However, just by the nature of the beast you are drawing attention to your firm.”

The real danger, Herzik said, is the inner-circle of special interests tied to public officials.

“If you are in the Legislature, you will deal with a set of lobbyists who deal with a set of interests and it is the same group over and over,” he said. “Is it a conflict of interest or just the way that Nevada politics and businesses have become so intertwined? I don’t know. As soon as you step into the building you’re getting into that tight-knit cohort of decision makers. The appearance of conflicts: you can’t deny it. But that’s what you get with a part-time legislator — people have to have other jobs.”

A man who’s no stranger to Hutchison and Lipparelli ties another thread in Nevada’s web of politicos who are well known in the private sector.

Joe Brown, a marquee lobbyist in the Legislature and public official, worked in tandem with Lipparelli as gaming regulators between 2009 to 2012. Lipparelli was on the state’s gaming control board and Brown was acting in his current role as a gaming commissioner (The board makes recommendations, and the commission votes on them).

Brown is a former Nevada Athletic Commissioner and executive committee member on the Nevada Development Authority. He works for the powerhouse law firm and lobbyist mill Fennemore Craig and specializes in government affairs. His disclosures show that in 2013 and 2014 he represented clients in front of the athletic commission, attorney general and the health and human services department.

Another exemplar of ping-ponging roles is lobbyist and former Assemblyman Skip Daly.

Daly, a Democrat who lost his 2014 re-election bid, is a member and business manager for Laborers International Union of North America Local 169. He’s back in the Legislature this session, lobbying on behalf of the union. During his time in office, he represented his union while dealing with officials from 10 government agencies or boards, which include the attorney general’s office, the secretary of state, supreme court, labor commission, Nevada OSHA, state contractors’ board and others.

He also advised the union on political action committee registration and filings, prevailing wage, public records definition review, complaints and studies, according to his disclosures. Unions representing Laborers nationwide donated at least $56,300 to his failed re-election campaign, according to campaign finance reports.

He said he was overzealous in his reports, disclosing more than he thought he had to.

“Everybody is very careful about what they do,” he said.

Sen. Richard “Tick” Segerblom, a former assemblyman and past chair of the state Democratic Party, led the list in clients represented. For his day job, Segerblom is an attorney specializing in labor law. His disclosures show he represented 40 clients in front of the employment security division and taxicab authority between 2013 and 2014. Segerblom said his clients were cab drivers filing for unemployment benefits.

Segerblom has been questioned about this practice in the past. He said Nevada needs to look at bolstering lawmaker compensation, currently at $8,777 plus additional per diems, to prevent state officials from creating potential conflict of interests with their days jobs. Arizona and Oregon pay $24,000 and $21,936 respectively. Those states meet every year.

“The solution should be this: pay $2,000 a month, every month and prohibit them from representing.”

This story has been revised to clarify the parameters under which Hutchison will be practicing law while serving in his elected capacity.

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