Moose’s juice is on the loose

Just when you're sure Southern Nevada's political establishment can't stoop any lower, our elected officials drop the limbo bar to the dirt. Just when you think the stink from Clark County government can't get any fouler, the sewer backs up from a fresh load of depravity.

It took all of two weeks for state Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford's pay-to-play fundraising fumble to look like a touchdown. The county's courts -- the arbiters of the law, the branch of government that's supposed to be beyond reproach -- want to sell their integrity by blowing your money on a giant jug of Moose Juice.

If county commissioners approve on Tuesday, District Court judges and Las Vegas justices of the peace will have a new face representing their interests in the corridors of Carson City: tax-avoiding, debt-ducking, double-dipping, carpetbagging former Assemblyman Morse "Moose" Arberry.

Arberry resigned his Assembly seat last week, two months before term limits would have forced him out.

But over the past two months, while still holding a seat in the Legislature, Arberry incorporated a lobbying business, Titan Partners, and secured an agreement with judges that would pay him up to $10,000 per month, now through June, to persuade former colleagues to leave judicial salaries and benefits and court staffing levels alone when the ax falls on state expenditures. Arberry, who as an assemblyman voted to expand the courts and raise judges' pay, didn't leave his Assembly post until he was sure he had a deal.

Many states and Congress have "cooling off" periods to prevent politicians from using the power of their offices to cash in, as Arberry clearly did. Nevada is not among them.

The fact Arberry transitioned from legislator to legislative lobbyist in a single day is disgusting enough by itself. That elected judges who should know better sought out and promised to enrich a fellow office holder was disgraceful. But local governments absolutely, positively shouldn't be in the business of hiring contracted lobbyists -- not in this economy, not ever. Our well-compensated elected representatives and appointed administrators are expected to be able to speak for themselves.

Government lobbyists are paid by the public to advocate against the public's financial interests. They are totally unaccountable and unavailable to voters, tasked with protecting and growing empires and the taxes that sustain them.

"It's ludicrous," said Commissioner Steve Sisolak, who has determined that all local government entities in Southern Nevada spend a combined $75,000 per month on lobbying expenses.

"It makes no sense to me to use taxpayer dollars to pay for lobbyists to represent taxpayers before legislators that are elected and have their salaries paid by the same taxpayers."

Each of these concerns, standing alone, should be enough to kill the contract. But what has anyone who respects the black robe running for the showers is Arberry's record of arrogance and flagrant disrespect for the public and the institutions he purportedly served, as a legislator, a city of Las Vegas employee and a Clark County resident.

He is a cheat who treats the public purse as his personal piggy bank. He is the last person who should represent the valley's judiciary. Consider:

-- Arberry has a history of not paying his bills, including the taxes he expected the rest of the citizenry to cough up as the longtime chairman of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee. On Friday, in desperate move to save his gravy, Arberry paid more than $3,000 in years-overdue county property taxes and city sewer fees for one of his houses. He pays only when he absolutely has to.

-- It's long been known that Arberry lives far away from his West Las Vegas constituents, in Canyon Gate Country Club, in defiance of the law intended to ensure our elected representatives reside among us. He has admitted that mail sent to the Bonanza Village house piles up for months at a time.

-- He made a mockery of the Ethics Commission and himself testifying in a 2006 case against County Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald, claiming he didn't remember much of anything from a few years before.

-- As a city of Las Vegas employee in 2001, Arberry drew full pay, in addition to his legislative salary, by lying on his city time cards, falsely claiming sick pay and hours worked.

Clark County judges routinely deal with issues surrounding debt and unpaid taxes. They have thrown candidates off ballots for lying about their primary residence. They confront all types of dishonest schemers.

And now they want to pay someone who carries all that baggage at least $100,000 to be their voice?

"We intend to go forward with the expenditure," Chief District Judge T. Arthur Ritchie Jr. said Friday, rejecting the idea of doing the right thing and asking to withdraw the contract from the commission's agenda.

"I'm aware that there has been discussion of some of these issues (about Arberry), but I don't know the specifics of them," Ritchie said.

You do now.

Ann Zimmerman, chief justice of the peace for Las Vegas Justice Court, who with Ritchie brokered the Arberry deal, was similarly unconcerned with Arberry's hostility to taxpayers.

"When you look for a lobbyist, you want to hire someone who has experience and relationships. He fits the bill in that regard," she said, adding that she wasn't familiar with Arberry's very public shortcomings.

Thankfully, it appears that county commissioners, in an election year, want no part of this slimy pact. Any judges who resent the proposal, the fact that they weren't consulted about it and what it means for their reputations, might want to consider electing new chiefs -- and volunteering to meet with lawmakers themselves.

Arberry already has his city and legislative pensions to live off. Make him get a real job if he needs the dough. It's time to cut the Moose loose.

Glenn Cook (gcook@reviewjournal.com) is a Review-Journal editorial writer.