The Southern Nevada Tourism and Infrastructure Committee, the group created by Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval and that is now considering the Oakland Raiders and Las Vegas Sands NFL stadium proposal, is starting to look like part of its membership has a political financial relationship with the same Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which is the same Sheldon Adelson-ran developer working with the Oakland Raiders.
We can add Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman to the list of Nevada elected officials who took campaign contributions from Las Vegas Sands Corporation and during the time they sat and still are members of the Southern Nevada Tourism and Infrastructure Committee, and have evaluated and made decisions regarding the Oakland Raiders / Las Vegas Sands planned NFL Football Stadium.
That list is at two: Mayor Goodman joins Clark County Commissioner and Chairman Steve Sisolak as the pair who have received a total of $25,000 last year from Las Vegas Sands Corporation, yet sit as members of the SNTIC this year and since its formation 11 months ago. That means two major SNTIC members have failed to disclose Las Vegas Sands campaign contributions at least since Oakland Raiders Owner Mark Davis and his Las Vegas Sands partners arrived on April 28th, 2016.
(Not that I like reporting this, and because I like Mayor Goodman a ton and Commissioner Sisolak’s a standup guy from what I’ve read. But this has to be put out there for evaluation.)
According to Nevada Secretary of State Records as reported by Ralston Reports Blog (https://www.ralstonreports.com/blog/owner-newspaper-gives-200000-last-year) and Carson Now (http://carsonnow.org/xfeed/01/18/2016/owner-newspaper-gives-200000-last-year), but can be seen via a search of the Nevada Secretary of State records database, Mayor Goodman received $15,000 in contributions from Las Vegas Sands, but divided into three $5,000 gives each: one from The Venetian, another from Sands Expo, and the other from Las Vegas Sands directly (Las Vegas Sands is the owner operator of The Venetian Hotel and the Sands Expo).
Now, while Nevada ethics laws do say that public officials (excluding state legislature members) are not required to disclose campaign contributions, in this case, where Las Vegas Sands is the donor one year and yet will be impacted by the SNTIC’s recommendations in the very next year, the appearance of some kind of relationship that skirts Nevada ethics laws should be enough to at least conduct some homework so as to allow both Mayor Goodman and Commissioner Sisolak to operate on the SNTIC without further negative scrutiny.
Every person I’ve talked to who’s staffed to the SNTIC agrees this is a problem. UPDATE: SNTIC staffer has to me that they believe Mayor Goodman and Commissioner Sisolak would have to recuse if a binding vote comes up. So far, one has not.
Oh, and overall, Adelson via Las Vegas Sands or his other organizations, gave over $200,000 to local Las Vegas and Nevada political races during 2015, alone.
Stay tuned.