Sense of entitlement

Friday, April 4, 2008 | 2:07 a.m.

It seems Clark County Commissioner Tom Collins could use some instruction in common courtesy and anger management.

As the Las Vegas Sun reported Thursday, Collins attended a Zoning Commission meeting at the Clark County Government Center on Wednesday, where he parked his supersized Ford F-350 pickup truck in a space reserved for customers.

According to Clark County policy, ”customers” are people who have business in the government center or in the Regional Transportation Commission and Regional Flood Control buildings.

Employees are prohibited from using the spaces and must use a lot much farther away. A closer, covered parking lot with key-card access is reserved for Clark County commissioners.

Sun reporter Tony Cook asked county spokesman Erik Pappa on Wednesday whether the restrictions for customer spaces also applied to county commissioners. Upon receiving the inquiry in a note from Pappa, Collins left the zoning meeting and burst into Cook’s county building office, declaring, “I can park anywhere (expletive) I want to,” “I park like regular people,” and Cook’s inquiry “is (expletive).”

Collins then threw Pappa’s note and a copy of the parking regulations on Cook’s desk and stormed out.

He also left his truck parked in the customer spot all day.

Pappa later told the Sun that County Manager Virginia Valentine has the authority to tell county employees where to park, but cannot do the same for commissioners because they are technically her bosses.

Collins is forgetting who his bosses are. The commissioners work for the people of Clark County the “customers” for whom those spots closest to the building are reserved.

Collins’ astonishing lack of professionalism and emotional restraint is eclipsed only by his arrogant sense of entitlement. He was wrong. An adult would have admitted it and moved on.