Saturday, January 31, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

ETHICS VS. ENDORSEMENT: Mayor's promotion of venture criticized

Goodman pitches son's business to other mayors, officials

Unethical, or just tacky?

That's the question some were left asking after Mayor Oscar Goodman promoted a cocktail party benefiting his son's business venture last week in Washington, D.C.

Adding to the portfolio of products the mayor endorses, Goodman, in Washington to attend the U.S. Conference of Mayors, distributed invitations bearing his name and title to conference attendees and other political types. He also greeted guests at the party.

The Jan. 22 gathering at the Capital Hilton was to promote a product created by IPolitix that measures constituents' interests in various political issues. The company is a venture among mayoral son Ross Goodman, Councilman Michael Mack and IMedia International Inc.

IPolitix picked up the tab for the party and the mayor received no compensation.

Though no one had raised the issue, the mayor, who in 2002 became a paid pitchman for Bombay Sapphire gin, spent a portion of his weekly news conference defending his involvement in the gathering.

"I invited certain guests there, various mayors, Republican and Democrat; Jon Porter showed up and Jim Gibbons was there," he said. "I went in and told everybody `Have a good time, I'm a good father,' and I went on to imbibe and went onto dinner feeling no pain. ... The party was paid for by my son's venture. It didn't cost the city anything. Nobody was forced to attend."

Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert, a group opposed to the commercialization of federal, state and local government, said the mayor's actions were "certainly not illegal."

However, they weren't appropriate for an elected official either, he added.

"Oscar Goodman has a great future in advertising," Ruskin said. "He conducts his office like a tacky-o-rama. He doesn't want to be mayor. He wants to be a huckster."

UNLV ethics professor Craig Walton agreed the mayor's actions didn't violate any "published legal rule."

But, he said, they could be considered unethical because they blurred the line between his role as a mayor, who should act in the best interest of the electorate, and a father, who's interested in his son's success.

"If he were acting solely as the father of the son in whom he has pride, then he didn't make that clear," Walton said. "If the (promotional) message, on the other hand, was from the mayor of Las Vegas, then I don't get it. What was the tie? ...

"I think the question is the separation. Does he see any distinction between Oscar Goodman the mayor and Oscar Goodman the friend and family member and father?"

The mayor said he saw no conflict of interest from his promoting the gathering. As a mayor among mayors "my office wasn't being used to influence anybody," he said.

"I said, `I think it's a very interesting product, I hope you take a look at it' and went right to the bar and said make it a triple," the mayor said.

The mayor said he made it clear he was there as a father. "The truth is, I'd do it tomorrow," he said.

But Ruskin said the public should be concerned about conflicts that can arise from an elected official's involvement with commercial endorsements or ventures.

"There are potential conflicts of interest," he said. "It brings a moment of disgrace on the city of Las Vegas and the office of its mayor."