SEARCH NEWS:

 

Governor Gibbons trumps Guinn's choice

by Molly Batt and Howard Stutz

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- There were two men in one seat on the Gaming Control Board on Thursday, and it was unclear which one was entitled to the position.

In an escalation of the palace intrigue that started with his midnight swearing-in Monday, Gov. Jim Gibbons on Thursday made his own appointments to the two board seats to which his predecessor already had appointed people, leaving unclear whether his picks or those made by former Gov. Kenny Guinn were legal.

Gibbons announced he was re-appointing board Chairman Dennis Neilander, just as Guinn had sought to do. But Gibbons tapped Randall Sayre, currently chief of the board's Investigations Division, for the position to which Guinn had appointed former Guinn Chief of Staff Keith Munro.

Gibbons spokeswoman Melissa Subbotin said the governor felt Munro was unqualified for the position and was put in place for political reasons. His removal was necessary to ensure the gaming board's integrity, she said.

"Mr. Gibbons believes Keith Munro is an upstanding individual, a fine public servant and a good Republican, he's just not the person for the job," Subbotin said. "This was a political appointment made by Governor Guinn without the interests of the people in mind. Mr. Gibbons' intention in this (Sayre's) appointment was to make this an apolitical position."

Munro's presence on the board was potentially corrupting, Subbotin said.

"Mr. Gibbons feels that moving forward with Keith Munro's politically motivated appointment would be undermining the tradition of the Gaming Control Board being apolitical," she said. "That would be moving back to the dark ages when politics and personal interests ruled the Gaming Control Board. This administration is not for sale."

Munro, who took an oath of office for the position when he was appointed by Guinn in November, has been reporting to work at the board since Monday. But Gibbons said he acted on his belief that Guinn's appointments were invalid and made his own choices.

Secretary of State Ross Miller, whose job it is to sign off on appointments, on Thursday sent Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto a letter asking what he should do with Gibbons' appointments.

"It appears that there may be a question as to whether or not any vacancies exist on such board," Miller's letter said.

But Cortez Masto said Miller's job was to certify that the signature on the paperwork was Gibbons', not whether its contents were valid.

"The ... language provided by the Legislature indicates that the secretary has no duty to ensure the accuracy of, or the legality of, documents which are filed," Cortez Masto's opinion said.

Thus, both appointments have been filed, leaving it unclear which man legally holds the job paying $125,112 a year.

Also unclear was how the situation would be resolved.

The board is the state's enforcement and investigative agency for gaming and its members are full-time state employees.

Gibbons said in an interview Thursday that he believes the positions were his to appoint because he took the oath of office at midnight.

"I believe the constitution and the laws are specific: The governor has the choice of making appointments that take effect during his administration," Gibbons said in an interview. "This was very important, very personal to me. It was the first day of the year. The constitution requires the term to begin the first Monday in January. I was sworn in at midnight."

By his own clock, Gibbons began taking the oath of office in a surprise ceremony just before midnight Dec. 31, completing the words 12 seconds past the hour. He argues that means the appointments were his to make because the board seats in question, whose terms expired at midnight, were never vacant while Guinn was governor.

Both Guinn and Gibbons have pointed to the same 2005 attorney general's opinion to justify their appointments, but the opinion does not address the unique circumstance of a midnight oath. Gibbons is the first Nevada governor to be sworn in at midnight on Dec. 31.

The 2005 opinion assumes that the new governor would be sworn in at 10 a.m., as previous governors have been.

The counter-argument to Gibbons' claim is that during the 12 seconds when the positions were vacant, Guinn was still governor and his appointments took effect.

To political observers, the headline-grabbing fight over an appointee seemed unnecessary.

"Why are you (Gibbons) picking this fight and bogging down your administration when you're going into a (legislative) session, drafting a budget, facing major policy issues?" University of Nevada, Reno, political scientist Eric Herzik said.

Whether Gibbons or Guinn wins the legal argument does not matter, he said. "The question is, why are you doing this? I don't have an answer for that. I don't think the stakes are that high to get into this fight."

Neither Munro nor Sayre returned phone calls Thursday.

Sayre was said to be Guinn's second choice if Munro had not agreed in November to take the board position. In addition to the Investigations Division job he has held since 1990, Sayre was until June 2006 the commander of the Nevada Army National Guard.

Neilander said he had a brief phone conversation with Gibbons on Thursday morning and was asked whether he wanted to be reappointed to the panel. Neilander has been a member of the control board since 1998 and its chairman since 2003.

"I told the governor I wished to be reappointed," said Neilander, who added that they did not discuss Munro's position.

Now, he and board member Mark Clayton are readying for the possibility that next week's scheduled monthly control board meeting in Las Vegas might have only two of the three members at the session if the appointment has not been resolved.

"We're preparing for next week's meeting, and that's all we can really do at this time," Clayton said.

Having just two board members make recommendations to the Nevada Gaming Commission is not an unusual occurrence.

Clayton, a former general counsel for Caesars Entertainment, recused himself from the hearing in 2005 on Harrah's Entertainment's $9 billion buyout of Caesars. The issue was heard by Neilander and former board member Bobby Siller.

Meanwhile, several Las Vegas attorneys who specialize in gaming matters said it was unfortunate that an appointment to the Gaming Control Board had become a political football.

"Clearly, this has done a disservice to an agency that benefits from a high degree of stability," said Tony Cabot, who has two clients with matters to be considered by gaming regulators next week.

"Obviously, Chairman Neilander and member Clayton are very capable of carrying out the agency's business," Cabot said. "But this is a huge distraction, and it's unfortunate that an agency so critical to the economic success of the state has to go through these circumstances."

Gaming attorney Greg Giordano, who has represented clients in front of Nevada gaming regulators for 20 years, said a position on the control board was "one of the key political plum appointments that a governor can make."

Giordano said he has never experienced this type of controversy involving a gaming regulatory position.

"It's unfortunate that the bad blood between Guinn and Gibbons has spilled over into the appointment to such an important panel," Giordano said.

Review-Journal Carson City Bureau Chief Ed Vogel contributed to this report.

Copyright GamingWire. All rights reserved.

< Gaming News