Friendly Vistaña board steered millions in repair work to Leon Benzer

Leon Benzer has no shortage of friends. A guy needs all the friends he can get in this world.

Trouble for Benzer is he has friends in some rather intriguing places.

Take the Vistaña Homeowners Association board as it existed in the months leading up to this year's whopping $19 million construction defect lawsuit settlement that is now part of an FBI and Metro criminal investigation. Millions in repair work was steered to Benzer's Silver Lining Construction.

When the Vistaña board voted to embrace Benzer's company, he was well acquainted with at least three of its members.

There was Steve Wark, the veteran Republican political strategist and medical spa operator. Last week following the issuance of FBI search warrants, Wark said he's known Benzer a decade and had only the highest regard for his friend, calling him "a good, solid individual" and "a good, hard businessman, very generous."

Wark clearly was comfortable vouching for Benzer and Silver Lining. In fact, Wark sounded just like a guy who has spent the past 25 years in the business of polishing political campaigns.

Friendship aside, Wark went to a lot of effort, considering he didn't actually live at Vistaña. Nor did he actually own all of the condominium in question.

Records I've obtained show Wark's Blue Sky Business Management once owned the condo, but in November 2005 he held just 1 percent of the unit. Sheila Heidt is listed as the owner of the other 99 percent. It's almost as if Wark bought back into Vistaña in order to help campaign at close range for his pal Benzer.

Maybe that's what friends are for.

If Wark owned only 1 percent of the unit, does that mean he slept there only 1 percent of the time?

That's only 3.65 days per year, or less than one official sleepover for every change of season. But winter, spring, summer, or fall, all Wark has to do is call and he knows he's got a friend in Leon Benzer.

But just so I get this straight, Wark owned 1 percent of a condominium unit. That means he owned the equivalent of 10 square feet of a 1,000-square-foot unit.

In other words, Wark owned a piece of a condo about the size of a closet -- and not a walk-in closet.

Not much of an investment for a guy on the homeowners' board, but I guess nothing in the rules prevented Wark from being a non-resident member of a board that steered so much business to a select few. Now some of them find themselves under law enforcement scrutiny these days as the FBI and Metro investigate allegations of HOA board election fixing and kickbacks.

Despite having his name dropped into some search warrant-related documents, Wark told reporters he's never been contacted by law enforcement, has done nothing wrong, and knows of nothing untoward. That's a relief because it allows us to move on to another Benzer associate who served on the Vistaña board, former Metro cop Morris Mattingly.

Mattingly, who put in 20 years with the department, was elected to the Vistaña board in October 2004 at a time when he also worked as the director of security for Benzer at Silver Lining. In a 2005 deposition, Mattingly said he also helped with accounting despite lacking any official credentials.

Benzer had no shortage of friends at Vistaña. There was Charles Hawkins, who also worked for Benzer at Silver Lining. According to Mattingly's deposition, Hawkins worked as a purchasing agent for the construction company.

Speaking of friendships, Mattingly has known Metro Lt. Ben Kim more than 20 years. Kim's wife, Lisa Kim, is an official at Platinum Community Services, which managed the Vistaña HOA at the time it was locked in that construction defect litigation with developer Rhodes Homes. I don't know if Lisa Kim is friendly with Benzer, but according to the Secretary of State's Web site a Benjamin Kim is listed as Benzer's business partner in Courthouse Café.

Then there's board member Rodolfo Alvarez. According to the Clark County Assessor's office, his condo unit was once owned by Benzer Companies.

That's a lot of friends connected to the Vistaña HOA.

In the coming months, I suspect Leon Benzer is going to need all the friends he can get.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0295.