Ethics hearings to investigate alleged conflicts of interest by commissioners

Almost half of the 21 witnesses scheduled to appear at next week's state ethics hearings will testify on the role County Commissioner Lance Malone played in selecting candidates recommended for airport concessions.

The state Ethics Commission has scheduled four days of hearings starting Wednesday to investigate allegations of cronyism by Malone and commissioners Yvonne Atkinson Gates and Myrna Williams.

The ethics panel is focusing on whether the commissioners should have disclosed their relationships to certain candidates or abstained from voting altogether when the concessions were awarded for the new D gates at McCarran International Airport.

Senior Deputy Attorney General Louis Ling said it was clear when the Ethics Commission issued subpoenas last month that it wanted to know more about Malone's connection to one of the concessionaires, Tammy Starring.

Questions also were raised about what relationship Starring might have with Malone's brother Mark and sister-in-law Melody.

Ethics Commission Chairwoman Mary Boetsch downplayed the preponderance of witnesses being called regarding Malone.

"I don't think he's being pinpointed by any stretch of the imagination," Boetsch said. "He was just the last one through a just and sufficient cause hearing, so it just seems that way. My sense is the commission is interested in all three equally."

Don Campbell, a lawyer representing Malone, said he understood from Boetsch that the commission was trying to clarify a point of law -- specifically, at what point a public official must make full disclosure of a relationship and abstain from voting on matters affecting that person or business.

"I don't see anything in the subpoenaing of these witnesses that would suggest they're doing anything other than that," Campbell said. "They have to find by clear and convincing evidence that someone knowingly and willfully engaged in unethical behavior, and they can't say that if there isn't such a bright line."

Starring is one of 10 people, including Malone's brother and sister-in-law, called to testify about Malone's role in screening candidates and compiling a list of recommendations the county commission ultimately approved on Aug. 19 for the new D gates.

Others include Doug Driggs, a lawyer who had lobbied commissioners (including Malone) on behalf of several people who lost their bids for airport concessions, and some of the candidates who had met with Malone.

Twelve companies, including Starring's, won leases that were reserved for businesses owned by minorities and women to operate concessions at the new D gates.

All the concessionaires meet the federal guidelines to qualify for Disadvantaged Business Enterprise certification, Cynthia Cicero said. She is the DBE liaison coordinator for the Department of Aviation.

But allegations have been raised about four of the concessionaires having a relationship that should have been disclosed or that required the commissioners to abstain from voting to give them leases.

Williams is under scrutiny for voting to give two coffee kiosk locations to her longtime friend Judy Klein and her business partner in JV Ventures, Vicki Richardson. Gates is being questioned about her relationship to Klein, too. Klein organized fund-raisers for Gates, Williams and Commissioner Lorraine Hunt when Klein was an executive assistant to lawyer Frank Schreck.

Gates is also under investigation for voting to give a concession to Michael Chambliss, a city planner who has known Gates for 17 years and was paid $50,000 for campaign consulting over a three-year period.

A similar complaint against Commissioner Lorraine Hunt has been dismissed.

Malone was already under investigation for his role in awarding two kiosk locations to Gay Reber without disclosing that she had been friends with his wife since high school.

But at a May 27 ethics commission hearing to determine whether to proceed with a complaint against Malone, he brought up the name of Tammy Starring, who won a beverage kiosk at the D gates.

According to the transcript of that meeting, when Boetsch asked how he had come up with the name of Tammy Starring, Malone explained: "My brother knows Tammy Starring. And my brother stated that they were good people, and that they were trying to get out to the airport before."

Malone told the ethics panel that his sister-in-law Melody had told him she intended to apply for an airport lease, too. Malone tried to discourage her from applying because of the potential conflict of interest.

"And I said, 'Well, I just want you to know ... if you do that I will not be able to vote for you, I will have to abstain,' and she understood," Malone told the panel.

However, Malone said that his brother had called him "stating that her (sic) and her partner were not going to submit an application because they couldn't come up with the money."

Malone testified that he was "furious" to read a report by investigators for the ethics commission who had interviewed two franchise officers of a juice-bar company based in Salt Lake City.

According to the investigative report, franchise-development manager Jeff Briggs of Zuka Juice said he received a call last July from a woman identifying herself as "Melony Malone." Briggs said the woman said she and a partner, Jenny Batty, were interested in a Zuka Juice franchise, but he made no commitment to them.

Jackie Enman, the franchise-development coordinator, said a woman identifying herself as "Melony Malone" called in August or September to introduce Enman to a new partner named Tammy. Enman said her last name sounded like Starring.

According to the report, Enman told investigators the caller was able to assure her that "she and Tammy had a concession in terminal D because she had a relationship with one of the Clark County commissioners."

Enman, contacted at her Salt Lake City office, said that everything in the report was correct.

"My client followed the instruction of county counsel," Campbell said. "Anyone who believes he gained anything of value from any of this is sadly and grossly mistaken."

archive