Tuesday, May 06, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

County ethics rules revisited

Manager suggests holding companies liable for lobbying violations

Thom Reilly Clark County manager suggests stricter lobbying sanctions

Companies should be punished if former Clark County officials they hire violate ethics rules that limit lobbying, County Manager Thom Reilly said Monday.

Developers, contractors and others with development permits, liquor licenses, contracts or other business pending before the County Commission might be dissuaded from hiring former county officials if they risked having the county hold up their contract or zoning permit for a year, he said.

The penalty wouldn't affect matters unrelated to the lobbying, he said.

"If they thought they would jeopardize it being held up for some time, they would be more cautious in who they hire," Reilly said. "There would be less likelihood of it (ethics policies) being violated if it jeopardized an entire project."

Greg Borgel, a former county zoning administrator who now is a consultant to developers, said Reilly's proposal is problematic when applied to zoning matters before the County Commission. Decisions typically involve a property owner and a developer, and one person shouldn't be held responsible for another's actions, he said.

"That clearly has an unreasonable effect," Borgel said. "You have to make sure you punish the right people."

The recommendation is among several the commission is scheduled to discuss today as it considers reconvening its defunct Ethics Task Force to strengthen 5-year-old ethics rules.

Other suggestions include banning former commissioners from lobbying middle- and upper-level county administrators, and establishing an internal mechanism to determine, report and respond to alleged violations.

The existing ethics regulations don't include penalties for violators. Commissioners Bruce Woodbury and Rory Reid want civil or criminal penalties established so the rules are taken seriously.

Current regulations forbid former commissioners and county administrators from lobbying county commissioners for one year after they leave office on any issue that came before them while with the county.

Woodbury and Reid said they want the task force to consider expanding the one-year "cooling off period" to prohibit former officials from lobbying on any issue whether or not it came before the prior commission.

The county's ethics policies resurfaced last month after a sworn affidavit from Commissioner Mark James stated that former Commissioner Erin Kenny lobbied him on behalf of a developer one day after he replaced her on the commission. The developer, Jim Rhodes, was to build homes just east of the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.