Former Assemblyman Morse Arberry admitted he broke Nevada ethics laws when he solicited, negotiated and signed a contract to lobby for the Clark County District Court, a contract that was ultimately rejected by the Clark County Commission in September.
As a result, Arberry will pay a $750 fine — less than the $1,000 usually assessed for willful violations of the law — and will not face a full public hearing before the Ethics Commission.”We did not need to have a public hearing” because of Arberry’s cooperation, said Ethics Commission Executive Director Caren Jenkins.
Reached at his Las Vegas office, Arberry acknowledged the stipulation but said he didn’t have much more to add. “I don’t want to say much, because I don’t want to bring any more attention to it,” he said. Arberry currently works as president of the Las Vegas Urban League.
The stipulation was approved by the commission Friday, after Arberry waived his rights to fight an ethics complaint filed against him by ex-Attorney General candidate Jacob Hafter. (You can read a copy for yourself here: Arberry Ethics Commission stipulation.)
Arberry stood accused of violating NRS 281(A).020(1)(b), which says “a public officer or employee must commit himself or herself to avoid conflicts between the private interests of the public officer or employee and those of the general public whom the public officer or employee serves.” He was also accused of violation of NRS281A.430(1), which prohibits public officers or employees from entering into contracts between a government agency and any any business entity in which the officer or employee has “a significant pecuniary interest.”
Arberry, while serving his final term as a state assemblyman, formed a company called Titan Partners on June 21, 2010, for the purposes of lobbying the Legislature. He was a 100 percent owner. He began negotiating with then-Clark County District Court Chief Judge Arthur “Art” Ritchie to lobby for the Clark County court on the same day, according to the stipulation. On Aug. 26, 2010, he signed the contract with the courts.
But he didn’t resign from his position in the Legislature until Aug. 31, 2010, the day the Clark County Commission agenda was published containing the contract. It was rejected Sept. 7, 2010, after a contentious meeting at which judges insisted the county was obligated to pay for court lobbyists under the separation of powers doctrine, while the county balked at hiring Arberry because of ethical questions and the fact that he’d likely be advocating positions contrary to the county’s economic interests.
“Arberry’s acts of negotiating and bidding on the lobbying contract with the court for his private interests constitutes a single course of conduct which amounts to a single violation of NRS 281A.430(1) of the Ethics in Government Law,” the stipulation reads. “Arberry’s violation of NRS281A was willful under NRS281A.170.”
Arberry was first elected in 1984, and said today he’d have quit the Legislature after the last session, even if term limits hadn’t forced him out of office. He said he may still do some lobbying in Carson City, despite the controversy over his ill-fated courts contract. (Arberry is registered with the Legislative Counsel Bureau as a paid lobbyist but lists only Nevada Youth Care Providers as a client.)
Arberry is hardly the only state or local lawmaker to seek or accept outside employment that created a conflict with an official position. Former state Sen. Mark Amodei once solicited a mining lobbyist for a job as head of the Nevada Mining Association during a legislative session when he sat as vice chairman of the Senate Natural Resources Committee. He later got the job and continued to serve as a senator, but later resigned. (Amodei, after an abortive run for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination, was elected chairman of the state Republican Party.)
State Sen. Warren Hardy served as both a senator and as the president of the Las Vegas Associated General Contractors, before leaving his elected job to focus on his full-time work. And Clark County Commissioner Tom Collins accepted a job lobbying for an entity owned by developer Harvey Whittemore, creating conflicts with Collins’s service on the Southern Nevada Water Authority board.
Former Las Vegas Councilwoman Lynette Boggs accepted a position on the board of Station Casinos while she was on the council, despite the fact that several Station-owned properties were located inside city limits. And current Councilman Steve Ross — a candidate for Las Vegas mayor — sought election as secretary treasurer of the Southern Nevada Building and Construction Trades Council. Ross was encouraged not to take the position by the state Ethics Commission, which later found he’d violate ethics laws by votes related to the union position.
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