Editorial: Lobbyist veers bill off course

Senate Bill 192 innocently started out as legislation to ensure that homeowners associations would be more accountable to their members. But as sometimes happens in the Nevada Legislature, the bill's original purpose has been clouded by an amendment sought by a powerful lobbyist.

Harvey Whittemore, arguably the most influential lobbyist in the Nevada Legislature, is in a dispute with his homeowners association in the affluent Glenbrook community on the shores of Lake Tahoe. Whittemore and some of his neighbors want to build a pier, but the homeowners association believes it would hurt the lake's aesthetics. In an effort to sidestep the association, Whittemore used his clout to get an amendment tacked onto SB192 that specifically states that the owners of property within the Lake Tahoe basin can build a pier without getting prior approval from their homeowners association.

The Legislature has already been used this year by some casino lobbyists to get involved unnecessarily in a business dispute between some casinos and slot machine makers. There is no need in this instance, either, for the Legislature to enter such a narrow dispute affecting a handful of homeowners. Besides, members belonging to associations elsewhere in the state probably could point to at least one pending action by their boards that they believe might be resolved contrary to their wishes. Do we really want each one of these conflicts to be addressed in Carson City?

Whittemore's involvement isn't the only noteworthy aspect of SB192's path through the legislative process. While all the other bills in the Senate addressing homeowners issues have been routed through the Commerce and Labor Committee, this bill was sent to the Judiciary Committee. The chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Mark James, R-Las Vegas, is an attorney who represents homeowners in the Glenbrook community who support SB192, which the Glenbrook Homeowners Association opposes.

When he was initially asked about the Judiciary Committee's handling of the legislation, James responded that the committee voted without his participation. But the Associated Press reported last week that a videotape of the proceedings contradicted his previous assertion and showed that James was anything but a disinterested observer. The videotape showed that at one point James was so involved in the debate that the acting chairman, Sen. Jon Porter, R-Boulder City, had to remind James that he wasn't in charge.

SB192, with the Lake Tahoe amendments, was passed in the Senate almost two weeks ago. The Assembly should clean up this bill and remove all of the language allowing piers to be built at Lake Tahoe. There is no need for Whittemore's amendment to stain this otherwise valuable legislation that would require homeowners associations to be more open to their members by following Robert's Rules of Order and adhering to the requirements of the state's open meeting law.

archive