Thursday, March 27, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
The Las Vegas business community is kicking in for outgoing Clark County Manager Pat Shalmy's going-away hoedown, while county department heads have been asked to help pay for a retirement gift.
The country-western-themed party -- a hommage to Shalmy's Arkansas roots and musical leanings -- is set for April 8 at the Tournament Players Club at Summerlin.
Shalmy, who served as county manager for 12 years, will step down April 4.
"It's going to be fun, not your typical high-tone party," said Terry Murphy, the county's former administrative services director who left last month to start her own consulting firm with former County Commissioners Paul Christensen and Jay Bingham.
Murphy is using office space at a building owned by Falcon Homes. Bingham is a co-owner and top executive of Falcon Homes.
Murphy said "various contributors in the community" were paying for the party, but she would identify them only as "local businesses." She did say the Howard Hughes Corp. was sponsoring the event to allow access to the private facilities.
Mark Brown, government affairs vice president for Hughes, said the company was making the clubhouse available as a gesture of appreciation for Shalmy's work.
"Pat Shalmy has been a great public servant, and has done a lot for the community," Brown said. "We would do it for anybody, this is no special payback or payout for Shalmy."
Brown said it wasn't even a thank-you for the assistance from Shalmy and his staff in making possible the 6,138-acre Summerlin South development, which is expected to bring an additional 45,000 people into the valley.
"Believe me, the county got far more from us than a going-away party," Brown said.
About 250 invitations have gone out, Murphy said, far fewer than the people invited to the combined blow-out for Christensen and Bingham at the Clark County Government Center because of TPC's limited capacity.
The list of invites includes local business leaders and county brass, including the department heads and their underlings who were asked to donate to Shalmy's going-away party.
Murphy, who was in charge of collecting the donations, said there was no arm-twisting or coercion.
But at least one department memo, from General Services Director Earl Hawkes to his division chiefs, said they were expected to make a donation to Shalmy.
"I won't be shy about this. ... Earl is expecting that at LEAST each of you will send in a donation," said an e-mail memo sent from the computer of Cheri Perlman, Hawkes' assistant. "Pat's party is being handled by members of the business community, however his gift will be coming from the people who have worked for him all these years, and who have been served so well by his leadership."
The memo also gives a 3:30 p.m. March 14 deadline for contributions, which had to be turned over to the sixth floor by March 17. The county manager's office is on the sixth floor of the government center.
Hawkes said the message was not intended to sound like a mandatory donation.
"We didn't ask anybody or ask for any specific amount," Hawkes said. "I've never seen a time anyone was ever expected to give anything."
If the memo was interpreted as coercion, he said, it wasn't very effective because his department raised only about $150.
Said Hawkes: "I think our department didn't do really great."
archive
