Sunday, May 16, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

STEVE SEBELIUS: Goodman guilty after all

Well, readers, it turns out I was wrong.

If I were an intelligence agency, I'd be the CIA, pre-Iraq war. It I were a government body, I'd be the Board of Regents. If I were a movie producer, I'd be green-lighting "Ishtar."

The state Ethics Commission this week ruled Mayor Oscar Goodman was guilty of breaking the only law I said he hadn't broken, and that he was innocent of breaking several other laws I said he broke. If the Ethics Commission is right -- and that body is generally the final word on these matters -- I'm batting .000.

Goodman is doing slightly better: The commission said he did break state law by using his name and title to host a cocktail party thrown by a company in which his son, Ross, and Las Vegas Councilman Michael Mack are partners. Many guests at the Washington, D.C., party -- Goodman's fellow mayors attending a national conference -- wouldn't have shown up but for the mayoral moniker on the invite, the commission ruled.

That's contrary to what I said back on Feb. 8, when I penned a column saying the mayor didn't violate statutes prohibiting a public official from using his "position in government" to confer an unwarranted privilege on members of his family. Since Goodman took no official action, and since no one at the party was from Las Vegas and in a situation to curry favor with Goodman, I argued he hadn't used his position to help his son's company. (This was a large part of the mayor's unsuccessful defense during the hearing.)

But as more information about the January cocktail party came out, I said Goodman did break the law in other areas. For example, Goodman loaned city-purchased videotapes of his TV appearances to Ross Goodman's business partners, footage that was later used to make a demonstration CD for the Washington party in an attempt to sell high-tech software to mayors. But the commission decided that because Goodman had originally loaned out the tapes so the company would make him a CD for use in a Las Vegas-promoting press kit, and only later decided to use it on the demonstration CD, he hadn't done anything wrong.

I suggested that the use of city workers, equipment, time and materials to film a party at which Goodman endorsed Bombay Sapphire gin and later fashion a video news release was wrong, because the promotion was mostly about Goodman, not the city or Bombay. And while it appears that the filming may have violated a city policy prohibiting the promotion of commercial products, it didn't violate ethics statutes, the commission ruled.

To my scant credit, back on May 23, 2002, I wrote that the endorsement of the gin itself -- in exchange for $100,000 donated to the city and to The Meadows School -- was not an ethical issue. The commission agreed.

But with a legal-opinion record like this, I'm just a law degree away from appointment to the oft-reversed 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

At the very least, however, I can say I made my decisions based upon the facts and the law. The same cannot be said for hosts of others, like the Wednesday talk radio show caller who identified himself only as "Big John." According to Big John, Goodman is the gold standard for all mayors, and if he did anything wrong, it's no big deal because of all the publicity he's won for the city. The mayor himself is fond of saying that his popularity hasn't waned during the scandal.

But opinion polls can't be substituted for justice: The question always was -- and always should have been -- did the mayor break the law? If he did, then no matter how popular he is or what he's done for the city, he should face punishment. And even if he were the least popular politician in all of Nevada (just where is Erin Kenny these days, anyway?), if he didn't do anything wrong he was entitled to exoneration. It's a little concept known as "equal justice under law."

And those who suggest otherwise are the worst kind of enablers.

Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist. His column runs Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at 383-0283 or by e-mail at ssebelius@reviewjournal.com.