Panel calls execs

      The state Ethics Commission is subpoenaing a dozen witnesses -- including a congressional candidate and several hotel executives -- to testify about whether Yvonne Atkinson Gates used her position as Clark County chairwoman to snag leases for her frozen daiquiri business.
      The Jan. 22 hearing also will focus on whether Atkinson Gates misled the ethics board when testifying about her venture in September.
      As part of its investigation, the ethics panel is subpoenaing Atkinson Gates, who failed to show up to her Nov. 13 ethics hearing. It also is summoning the following witnesses:
      MGM Grand Inc. Chairman J. Terrence Lanni; Primadonna Resorts Inc. Chairman Gary Primm; Circus-Circus Development Corp. Senior Vice President Mike Sloan; former New York-New York Vice President of Administration Lou Silvestri; and Las Vegas Sands Inc. Chairman Sheldon Adelson, developer of the Venetian.
      As a county commissioner, Atkinson Gates is responsible for zoning and other licensing decisions pertaining to those resorts. The ethics board plans to question executives about whether she approached them seeking leases or used her position in county government to gain a business advantage.
      "It puts everybody in a tough spot," said one executive who asked not to be named. "They'll be under oath. But Yvonne still sits on the commission and ... it's gotta be uncomfortable to have to testify against her."
      Executives from Gordon Group Holdings, which co-owns shopping centers at Caesars Palace, the Stratosphere and Primm, also are being subpoenaed concerning any conversations Atkinson Gates may have had about leases at those locations.
      "Yvonne's a wonderful lady," company President Randy Brandt said Friday. "She did nothing out of line or inappropriate."
      The ethics panel also is subpoenaing the following people:
      --Developer Ed Nigro, Atkinson Gates' partner in the daiquiri venture. She dropped her interest in the business after news reports about it in October.
      --University Regent Shelley Berkley, a Democratic congressional candidate and a former attorney for Adelson with whom she is now estranged. Berkley is a longtime Atkinson Gates ally who attended at least one meeting during which Adelson says he and Atkinson Gates discussed a possible lease in the Venetian.
      --Former County Counsel Mahlon Edwards, who in a June 1996 legal opinion wrote Atkinson Gates' venture "would present an apparent conflict of interest" if she were to vote on issues pertaining to resorts in which she held businesses. Atkinson Gates claimed under oath in September that county attorneys advised her the venture wouldn't pose an ethical problem.
      --And Craig Walton, director of the Institute for Ethics and Policy Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who has commented in several news articles on Atkinson Gates' ethics record.
      Atkinson Gates -- who has served as a county commissioner for five years -- was unavailable Friday for comment.
      The list of witnesses being subpoenaed was formed by the Ethics Commission's lawyer, Deputy Attorney General Louis Ling, and by Robert Rose, a private citizen who filed a request for an investigation into whether Atkinson Gates used her clout to help her business.
      She formed the venture in 1996 with Nigro, her friend and neighbor.
      In May 1997, she filed a request with the Ethics Commission asking whether she should vote on agenda items related to casinos in which she might open daiquiri shops. Her company signed a lease with the MGM Grand in August.
      In a letter to the ethics board, she wrote she has an arm's-length relationship with the MGM Grand. She testified under oath Sept. 26 that she is a silent partner and that Nigro handled everything relating to talks about a lease in the resort.
      But Lanni has said Atkinson Gates and Nigro met with him in early 1997. Atkinson Gates did not mention that meeting to the Ethics Commission.
      Asked in September whether she discussed her business with other casinos, she told ethics commissioners, "Ed is doing all that."
      Nigro testified Dec. 17 before the state's Gaming Control Board that he and Atkinson Gates met with a leasing agent from New York-New York to scout a possible site for a daiquiri store.
      Adelson has submitted sworn testimony saying Atkinson Gates approached him about a lease in the Venetian, which is under construction.
      And executives from three other casinos have said the commissioner also approached them about leases.
      With only eight business days before her Jan. 22 hearing, Atkinson Gates' attorneys are feuding with the ethics board over how evidence should be handled.
      The Ethics Commission has subpoenaed all Atkinson Gates' personal and business records from 1996 and 1997.
      Her attorneys have agreed only to hand over documents relating directly to the daiquiri venture. They have argued that having to submit two years' worth of calendars, correspondence computer files and fax and phone records would violate her privacy.
      A District judge is scheduled to hear Atkinson Gates' motion to quash the subpoena Monday.