Assembly panel considers Tahoe 'Piergate' bill

CARSON CITY - The head of an Assembly panel studying a bill revising rules for Nevada homeowners' associations says she won't tolerate any special deals - including a private Tahoe pier for a prominent lobbyist.

Assembly Commerce and Labor Chairwoman Barbara Buckley made the comment as the committee opened a hearing Monday on SB192, a measure criticized as a way for casino lobbyist Harvey Whittemore to get a legal leg up in his battle for the pier.

Whittemore and partner Larry Ruvo are fighting with the Glenbrook Homeowners Association over the pier and over an entertainment facility that Ruvo wants to build in the upscale Tahoe resort community.

Whittemore didn't show for the "piergate" session. He was attending another legislative hearing. Contacted afterward, he deferred to Billy Vassiliadis, another casino lobbyist who represented Ruvo at the hearing.

Vassiliadis, with casino lobbyist Morgan Baumgartner, brought in new amendments to SB192 that they insisted would have help all homeowner associations in the state.

That followed the blunt warning from Buckley, D-Las Vegas, that the committee wouldn't tolerate proposals to help one individual or a small group of individuals.

Because of the controversy over SB192, Buckley said there's no way she would consider it in the form approved recently by the state Senate.

Rights of homeowners and rights of associations have to be fairly balanced, said Buckley, adding that "nothing more and nothing less" would be discussed.

Baumgartner said the amendments to SB192 would protect "islands" of land that are within an area governed by a homeowners association but aren't actually part of that association.

The changes, she added, would assure that an association can't unfairly "impose its will" on property that's not under its control.

But Bud Hicks, a Reno lawyer who has a home in Glenbrook, said Ruvo and Whittemore bought their property knowing it was subject to terms designed to protect and preserve the Glenbrook community.

Even with the latest amendments, Hicks said the measure "smacks of special interests and power politics" and should be rejected.

Mark Gunderson, attorney for the Glenbrook association, added that the measure was carefully drafted to help Ruvo and Whittemore and "ought not to be countenanced."

Some committee members said there have been problems with overbearing homeowners associations around the state, especially in Las Vegas, and part of the bill limiting proxy voting on association issues seemed like a good idea.

But Gunderson and other opponents of SB192 said micromanagement by the state Legislature isn't the answer.

Glenbrook representatives also said a survey of nearly 200 residents in the community showed that nearly 90 percent of them opposed terms of SB192.

Buckley said that whatever survives of SB192 will probably get rolled into SB451, another bill dealing with homeowner associations that also is moving through the Legislature this session.

Whatever happens must occur by Friday. That's the deadline for all committees other than money panels to vote out bills.

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