Wife of top Clark County official on team of lucrative government project

The wife of a key Clark County public works official is part of a team that received a multimillion-dollar contract from the department, fueling concerns about a potential conflict of interest in the bidding process and a failure of transparency in the use of public funds.

In December, the county awarded a $10 million construction management contract to Diversified Consulting Services, which teamed up on its proposal with Rock Solid Project Solutions. Rock Solid is owned by Raquel Floyd, the wife of Jimmy Floyd, who heads the county’s construction management division and managed the bidding process.

The contract’s requirements were unusually specific and appeared to give Rock Solid’s team a decisive advantage, according to an anonymous complaint sent to county officials in December and obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Multiple sources made the same claim to the newspaper, which granted them anonymity to protect them from retaliation by the county.

The County Commission approved the contract without discussion as part of its consent agenda, where ostensibly routine items are authorized in a single vote. The staff report accompanying the agenda item does not reference Jimmy Floyd’s financial interest in Rock Solid.

A government watchdog described the county’s handling of the contract as a failure of internal controls.

“You should have procedures to evaluate conflicts of interest with any employee who has control over a budget,” said Geoffrey Lawrence, director of research for Nevada Policy, a nonpartisan, libertarian-leaning think tank that scrutinizes government spending. “Either that does not exist or it has failed.”

County spokesperson Jennifer Cooper and County Commission Chairman Tick Segerblom initially said they could not comment on the issue, describing it as a personnel matter.

When told a government watchdog said the process showed a failure of county internal controls, Cooper said the matter had been under investigation since the county received the anonymous complaint.

The county “works to mitigate conflicts of interest” with a primary contractor awarded work through its county bid or request for proposal, she said.

“Public Works did not directly contract with Rock Solid,” a subcontractor, Cooper said in a statement. She went on to say the county is working to put in place procedures to review whether there are conflicts of interest related to subcontractors, which the county has not done it the past.

A publicly traded company must disclose to its investors the award of a contract to a family member of an officer, a red flag that the company’s assets may be being managed for personal gain, said Lawrence, who has worked as a financial executive in the private and public sectors.

With taxpayer dollars at stake, “you would certainly expect in the public sector that you’d have an even higher standard,” he said.

Jimmy Floyd, reached by phone at his county office last week, declined to comment and directed the Review-Journal to the county’s public information officer. Raquel Floyd did not respond to a request for comment.

The construction management division, currently overseeing $938 million in public works construction in the county, hires construction management firms to help manage its larger projects, including providing engineering services for construction inspection and verification of contract compliance.

Over the past four years, Rock Solid has been paid $442,200 as a subcontractor on county construction management contracts, primarily as a scheduling consultant, according to documents obtained from the county through a Review-Journal records request.

Bonus points awarded

Concerns about a perceived conflict of interest in the division boiled over with the award of the $10 million construction management contract for the Clark County 215 Beltway & Summerlin Parkway Interchange Project, which at $130 million is the largest of the county’s current projects.

The construction project requires the existing interchange in the northwest valley to be reconstructed through roadway improvements, reconfiguration of existing ramps and construction of new ones, and other modifications.

The qualifications required for the project’s construction management contract were “unusually specific and difficult to meet, raising suspicions that the process was tailored to favor DCS (Diversified Consulting Services) and Rock Solid,” the complaint alleges.

The county’s request for qualifications for the contract states that the most qualified teams would be interviewed. However, interviews were not conducted and Jimmy Floyd informed the firms that they had not been selected, according to the complaint.

Chad McDermott, vice president of Diversified Consulting Services, said he wanted Rock Solid on his team for the contract because “in my opinion, they have the best schedule reviewer in the valley.”

He also said Rock Solid representatives told him they had met with the director of county public works, who told them it would pose no conflict to have the firm on the team. The county declined to provide Public Works Director Denis Cederburg for an interview.

Other firms that submitted their qualifications for the contract declined to comment.

The request for qualifications states that in scoring submissions, up to a 10 percent bonus would be awarded based on incorporating disadvantaged business enterprises. A disadvantaged business enterprise is a firm owned by women or minorities.

The condition was unusual, said several insiders who reviewed the request, in part because the county government, unlike the federal government, does not have a requirement to use disadvantaged business enterprises for its projects.

Diversified Consulting Services’ proposal stated it would include certified disadvantaged business enterprise Rock Solid, which would provide construction inspection staff and schedule-review services.

“It is anticipated that (Rock Solid’s) percentage of involvement on the project will be no less than 15 percent,” the proposal said.

On a $10 million contract, that translates to $1.5 million. Records show that for work this year through March 7, Rock Solid was paid $100,300 in connection with the interchange project. The project broke ground in February.

Diversified Consulting Services listed a second disadvantaged business enterprise as part of its team, with an anticipated 8 percent involvement.

By a wide margin, the county scored Diversified Consulting Services highest of the four firms submitting proposals. In terms of incorporating disadvantaged business enterprises, it scored one point lower than the company ranked highest in this category, gaining no clear advantage.

Online documents show that one or two employees with the construction management division are assigned to oversee each of the county’s public works projects. As recently as the end of March, Jimmy Floyd was personally overseeing the interchange project.

‘Put yourself in my shoes’

Jimmy Floyd, who rose quickly within the county’s ranks, has been in his current position since November 2018, according to his profile on LinkedIn. In April 2019, he reported in a county financial disclosure statement that Rock Solid is a business entity in which he has a direct financial interest. In the handwritten disclosure statement, he said his wife is the sole owner and operator of the business, adding, “However, I have released all ownership rights.”

The county ethics policy requires the filing of an annual disclosure statement for employees in positions “that exercise significant discretionary authority in the provision of service within a department.” Jimmy Floyd did not file a subsequent statement until March 20, 2025, when he again reported a direct financial interest in Rock Solid.

The filing of an annual disclosure statement is generally insufficient for compliance with Nevada’s ethics statutes pertaining to a conflict of interest, said Ross Armstrong, executive director of the Nevada Commission on Ethics.

“Disclosure has to be made at the time a matter is considered,” he said, citing state law.

Several other statutes within the ethics law also apply to a conflict of interest. The law states that public officers or employees shall not use their position in government to secure or grant unwarranted advantages for any business entity in which they have a significant pecuniary interest or for any person to whom they have a commitment in a private capacity.

They also are prohibited from using information obtained through their position to further their or another person’s financial interest.

Furthermore, the ethics law states that they shall not seek contracts for any person to whom they have a commitment in a private capacity through the use of their official position.

Armstrong said he could not comment specifically on the county matter or any issue that might come before the commission.

However, when a public employee has a personal relationship that “collides” with their professional duties, “they need to be very cautious about taking action that may benefit that individual,” he said.

Cooper, the county’s spokesperson, said the county is taking steps to improve its guardrails surrounding conflicts of interest, but she was not specific.

“These improvements are actively being instituted and additional measures may still be enacted,” she said.

Meanwhile, one member of the construction industry said the close ties between Rock Solid and the construction management division make for a quandary.

“Put yourself in my shoes,” the industry representative said. “Wouldn’t you include them in your contract?”

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Diversified Consulting Services tied with another company for the highest numbers of points awarded for incorporating disadvantaged business enterprises into its proposal.

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