The local face of public corruption

For years, the county's public corruption case has slogged through the federal courts, with sexy tales of bribery being replaced with the costs of business drudgery.

At the heart of it all, and yet somehow on the periphery, has been former Clark County Commissioner Erin Kenny.

And if her sentencing goes on as scheduled Wednesday, Kenny will continue to be the public face of corruption here in Clark County for years, if not decades, to come.

Nothing has compared to her kneeling to strip club bosses for more payola or, after leaving office, conniving her way onto the official payroll of businesses she was once charged with overseeing.

And nothing, shamefully, will compare to the sentence she is likely to receive for "assisting the government" despite her claims of memory loss and her continued $200,000-a-year, do-nothing job for homebuilder Jim Rhodes.

The others -- even bagman and former Commissioner Lance Malone, who is serving a six-year term for acting as go-between from here to San Diego -- are all pikers by comparison.

Grandma Mary Kincaid-Chauncey, a former commissioner, is serving 30 months for accepting cash bribes and favors from strip club owner Michael Galardi. Former Commissioner Dario Herrera, who used all the services Galardi provided, will likely be able to return to his family and job after his 51 months in prison.

Kenny could get 60 months. But, in fact, she's more likely to do less time than Galardi, who reported Friday to a prison in Colorado for 30 months.

Kenny has been the star witness of this debacle, testifying against Kincaid-Chauncey and Herrera in ways only she could.

"I do not recall," she said this past week, again claiming memory loss caused by vertigo.

This time it was about her shameless lobbying back in 2002 to push a zoning change that would allow homes to be built in McCarran International Airport's flight path. At the time, fellow commissioners and county staff were outwardly amazed at her lame-duck actions and ultimately exposed her proposal for all its stupidity. Funny she doesn't remember that tempest.

She doesn't recall much and seems to purposely forget some of her biggest crimes, from off-book campaign finance donations to an offshore account set up to accept the bribe money.

"I didn't want to know," she said in court last week during the public corruption trial of developer Don Davidson. "It was such a bad thing, I refused to look at it deeply."

If there's no memory, there can be no remorse. And it's not as if shelving that memory is really possible, considering she hasn't exactly stopped the flow of cash.

She's still getting more than $16,000 a month from Sugar Daddy ... er, developer ... Rhodes. (Ironically, Rhodes upped the ante after Kenny's bribe money from Galardi and Davidson dried up.)

But it's not clear what she could possibly do at this point for this legal bribery. How insightful she can be as a consultant, given her inability to recall anything related to zoning or development?

Poor pitiful Kenny. It must be torture to be living with her family in a "public jail," unable to harass residents with threats of zone changes or bully staff to do Rhodes' bidding.

Kenny will remain the face of public corruption not simply because of the hundreds of thousands (the exact amount is really unknown) she has taken, but because of her amazing makeover from menace to meek.

Her sentence will only fuel more blanket disgust about elected officials, because even if she got the unimaginable 60 months, it would be years too few for the public's satisfaction.

In addition, she hasn't been fined for her behavior and is required to forfeit just $70,000 of the cash she took. We can only hope for a tax case to be brought by the IRS.

Galardi has been fined in San Diego and Nevada to the tune of half a million. He also turned over $3.85 million to the feds.

It's doubtful Kenny could get more time than Galardi, who also accepted a plea deal. And there's no way she'd do more time than the two former commissioners who fought the charges.

Kenny's gotten the best deal possible so far. Don't expect anything more than 24 months. After all, who would make a deal with the feds in the future if Kenny had to do hard time?

It's fair to say that without Kenny's testimony, the case against Kincaid-Chauncey and Herrera would have been more difficult to make. And if jurors find Davidson guilty in his ongoing trial, it will be because they believed Kenny more than Davidson.

Kenny had already been adjudicated guilty by the public before she struck any deal with the feds to plead guilty. She will survive prison. And who knows, given the hardship, Rhodes may raise her salary again.

Erin Neff's column runs Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. She can be reached at (702) 387-2906 or by e-mail at eneff@reviewjounal.com.