EDITORIAL: A jet-setting councilwoman’s inappropriate behavior

Discomfort and adversity reveal plenty about individual character. Take Michele Fiore, for instance.

The Las Vegas city councilwoman was none too happy with a recent Review-Journal investigative report highlighting her extensive travel on the taxpayer dime as a member of the board overseeing the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Reporters Arthur Kane and Jeff German revealed that Ms. Fiore had taken four trips in seven months to various corners of the globe at a total cost of $33,000 and in defiance of a convention authority policy to limit board member junkets.

The policy was implemented in response to earlier Review-Journal exposés on the authority’s lavish spending.

During an interview, Ms. Fiore was unapologetic about her jet-setting. “I went into this knowing this was a traveling board,” she said. “We are in 14 countries and, just for the record, I plan on going to all 14 countries.”

She eventually cut the meeting short and left the room.

Ms. Fiore is under no obligation to answer questions from the media even if she is a public official. She is also free to vigorously defend herself and to justify her activities to her constituents. But Ms. Fiore did more than simply go on the offensive.

Following publication of the report on Sunday, the councilwomposted a constituent newsletter containing a bizarre, puerile and threatening rant rife with false implications concerning Mr. Kane and Mr. German while hinting she’s prepared to engage in an online campaign to smear them.

“Putting a couple of dollars on social media with facts available to the public is so possible today even if some might think they’re safe,” she wrote, adding: “It’s the technology age, boys, anyone can find out anything about anybody and then post it. … Think about who you write about because some of us fight back.”

This is ugly, petulant and inappropriate — not to mention embarrassing. Ms. Fiore is an elected official and not immune to scrutiny. The fact she would even send such a missive to those in her district as some sort of defense betrays a woeful lack of judgment and self-awareness.

Ms. Fiore should remember the old adage about the heat and the kitchen. Because if this is how she responds to the rigors that accompany her public office, perhaps the next time she jets off to some far-off locale courtesy of the taxpayers, the convention authority should issue her a one-way ticket.