Coming Sunday: Inside the county’s road to ruin

When the Clark County Commission last year twice voted to grant Las Vegas Paving a $116 million beltway expansion contract despite the fact rival Fisher Sand and Gravel have underbid its competitor by more than $4 million, there was talk of corruption and juice politics down at the government center.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Robert C. Jones stripped Paving of its contract and handed it to Fisher. The angry and animated Jones made it clear he believed the county was attempting an “end run” on the court when, instead of granting Fisher its due process rights, it decided to void the road contract and start the bidding process over. Las Vegas Paving General Counsel James Barker said Friday afternoon his company is in the process of filing an emergency appeal on the grounds that Jones overstepped his bounds. Fisher attorney Stan Parry countered that Paving has no standing since it wasn’t the low bidder in the process to begin with.

But here’s where the story gets juicy. Paving has every intention of attacking Fisher’s credibility, or “responsibility,” as a bidder in the process. This despite the fact Fisher already has hundreds of millions of dollars in government contracts in play in Nevada.

“We believe that serious questions regarding their responsibility need to be answered by the (County Commission) before this contract is awarded,” Barker said.

I believe you haven’t heard the last of this one.

Read more in my Sunday column in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.