Free F1 tickets worth $10,900 will drive county commissioners to ethics board

Five current and former Clark County commissioners will face the state ethics commission in connection with accepting free Formula One racing tickets, a panel has determined.

Each accepted a four-day ticket worth $10,900 to the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix in November 2023. Some later described the event as an opportunity to better understand race operations. Leading up to the event, commissioners approved the use of public roads for the race and streamlined the permitting process.

A panel of the Nevada Commission on Ethics determined there is sufficient cause for the full commission to render an opinion on whether there was a violation of the state ethics law by current commissioners Jim Gibson, Justin Jones, William McCurdy III and Tick Segerblom, and former Commissioner Ross Miller, according to a Thursday post on the ethics board’s website.

In June of 2024, four of the commissioners — Gibson, Jones, Miller and Segerblom — confirmed to the Review-Journal that they had received a notice of the investigation from the ethics board. In January of that year, the five commissioners reported accepting the tickets in an annual disclosure form, though in some instances incorrectly or belatedly.

The ethics board will consider whether there were violations of a state ethics statute prohibiting a public officer from accepting a gift that would tend to improperly influence a reasonable person to depart from their public duties. The board also will consider a claim that commissioners failed to disclose acceptance of the tickets before acting on agenda items regarding the Las Vegas Grand Prix days after the inaugural race.

The ethics panel did not find sufficient credible evidence of a claim that commissioners used their office to secure unwarranted privileges.

Segerblom, the commission chairman, declined to comment, saying he had not yet read the panel’s determination. The four other subjects of the complaint did not respond to requests for comment late Thursday.

Ross Armstrong, executive director of the ethics commission, said he could not comment on a pending complaint.

Formula One and Clark County have entered into a multiyear partnership, with the next Las Vegas Grand Prix scheduled for November. The inaugural race had an economic impact estimated at $1.5 billion and the race in 2024 just under $1 billion. However, businesses on the race circuit have complained of losing significant revenue because of road closures and traffic disruption, and residents have seen their commutes extended.

If a violation of state ethics law is found, among the possible remedies by the ethics board are levying a fine, issuing a reprimand and requiring ethics training.

An earlier headline for this story misstated the value of the F1 tickets. They were worth $10,900 each.

Contact Mary Hynes at mhynes@reviewjournal.com or at 702-383-0336. Follow @MaryHynes1 on X. Hynes is a member of the Review-Journal’s investigative team, focusing on reporting that holds leaders and agencies accountable and exposes wrongdoing.