McDonald lawyer wants Miller fined for 'frivolous' complaint

CARSON CITY -- An attorney for Las Vegas Councilman Michael McDonald believes former Councilman Steve Miller should be punished for filing a frivolous complaint with the state Ethics Commission.

"You don't get to file frivolous complaints with impunity and think you can go in and wreak havoc in people's lives and not be held accountable and responsible for that," said Louis Palazzo after a panel of the Ethics Commission Friday dismissed Miller's complaint against McDonald.

But Miller said he would never pay a fine. He was assessed a $2,500 penalty previously for filing a frivolous complaint against former Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones and he hasn't paid.

"I never intend to pay the fine," he said Friday.

Miller did not show up for the scheduled hearing in Carson City or arrange for a telephone conference call.

The complaint, filed in October, alleged McDonald violated the ethics law by failing to disclose conflicts when he voted for an extension of the trash-collection contract for Silver State Disposal Service.

"I think he realized again he filed another frivolous complaint, and perhaps he may find himself subject to additional sanctions once the commission considers those matters," Palazzo said. In addition to a fine, Palazzo said, the commission could order Miller to pay McDonald's legal costs.

Miller, contacted after the closed-door ethics meeting, said he did not appear because "I felt the evidence spoke for itself." The commission's decision, he said, "proves again they are a kangaroo court and should be disbanned. They are a waste of taxpayer money."

"I lost confidence in the commission a year ago," Miller said, "and they proved my theory to be correct again. But they are all we have."

He said he would continue to file complaints with the commission, "but I would not expect much from them."

After the hearing McDonald said he has been vindicated. He noted he has twice beaten Miller in the city elections and suggested the complaint was filed as vengeance on Miller's part.

Miller, in his complaint to the commission, said the councilman should have disclosed his ties to Silver State before voting to extend the trash collector's contract 15 years.

McDonald received $36,800 from Silver State and its related firms during his re-election campaign. Silver State President Steve Kalish held a private fund-raiser for McDonald, and McDonald is a friend of Silver State's corporate counsel Robert Groesbeck.

Miller said McDonald also should have revealed his former romance with Jennifer Simich, who was a government affairs representative for Silver State.

Palazzo said McDonald followed the law in disclosing he had received the campaign contributions before he voted.

"It was 5 percent of the three quarters of a million dollars" McDonald received in the campaign, Palazzo said.

"Silver State gives to a lot of politicians," Palazzo said. And he said McDonald was not dating Simich "during the relative time frame." He said Miller mischaracterized her job.

"He (McDonald) disclosed what he was required to," Palazzo said.

While he lost on the complaint, Miller said the process does "a bit of good."

"There is public dissemination of the information," Miller said. "The request does make the newspapers. And it does cause citizens to think about the issue."

This is at least the fifth complaint Miller has filed with the Ethics Commission.

"I do it because it's a sport for me," he said. "Some people play golf. I like to expose public officials who are corrupt."

This was the first time a new law was used that provided that a panel of the commission would first hear the case to decide if there was probable cause to send the issue to the full commission. While the panel dismissed the case, it could recommend the full commission sanction Miller.

This is at least the second time McDonald has been before the Ethics Commission. In 1998 the commission cleared him and council members Arnie Adamsen and Larry Brown in a complaint that they acted unethically in voting against allowing Nick's Fish Market to be built on West Sahara Avenue. That complaint was also filed by Miller.

archive