Collins’ head too big for his crown

Rob Thewes, Henderson

Sunday, April 6, 2008 | 2:03 a.m.

I’m confused. Should Tom Collins be addressed as Commissioner Collins or King Tom? Tony Cook had the temerity to question why the Clark County commissioner parked in a customer lot at the government center rather than in the private commissioners’ lot.

Luckily for Collins, he was just sitting in on an unimportant zoning meeting when the query was presented to him. This allowed him to let Cook know who is important (Collins), and who isn’t (Cook).

At least Collins was nice enough to throw a copy of the parking rules at Cook, which indicated that customer lots are for customers only, but rules are meant to be broken when you’re a commissioner or a king.

I’m glad Cook didn’t ask anything important, such as who was asleep at the switch while Lacy Thomas was ripping off millions of dollars at University Medical Center or when Dr. Dipak Desai was negotiating a million-dollar contract to essentially refer patients to his own practice. King Tom, or Commissioner Collins, might have called for Cook’s head.

Collins should get it into his head that he’s not as important as he thinks he is. He’s a member of the same government body that gave us Dario Herrera, Erin Kenny and friends.

Although I don’t live in his commission district, if I did I would vote for, to paraphrase Collins, “anyone I (expletive) want to.” Rest assured, it wouldn’t be King Tom.