Judge to Clark County: ‘Hand it over’

A district judge admonished Clark County officials on Wednesday to turn over “any and all” records related to their investigations into a conflict of interest in the Public Works Department.

“Hand it over,” Judge Bita Yeager told attorneys for the county.

Yeager made the demand during a morning hearing on the status of her May order for the county to provide records to the Las Vegas Review-Journal related to its investigations last year of a public works official and the process that allowed lucrative public works contracts to be awarded to his wife.

The news organization sued the county for the records in March. Since last year it has been requesting records related to the county’s investigations that resulted in the firing of Public Works Manager Jimmy Floyd, whose wife’s firm, Rock Solid Project Solutions, had received county contracts. The county refused to release what it described as confidential personnel records.

After Yeager’s order, the county turned over some additional records, while withholding others that it said were from a second, related investigation. The Review-Journal then filed a motion for the court to enforce its order, or order the county to show cause why it should not be held in contempt.

Deputy District Attorney Scott Davis argued that the county had turned over the documents specified in Yeager’s order. He also said records related to a second investigation were not within the scope of the order.

Yeager disagreed. She made clear Wednesday that the county must release “any and all records related to, arising from, the conflict of interest and any subsequent investigations from the time they (the Review-Journal) made their initial request to today.”

She noted that the county had a legal obligation, under the Nevada Public Records Act, to assist in identifying relevant records.

“It’s like the fox watching the hen house, when you’re saying, ‘Oh well, you know what? You didn’t ask for the second investigation material,’” the judge said. “Because they don’t even know what the second investigation material is.”

County attorneys told Yeager that records related to the second investigation would include an investigative summary and at least one witness statement.

County Counsel Lisa Logsdon said the second investigation, which stemmed from information uncovered in the first, pertained to “misuse of county resources,” such as the use of county email for personal matters.

A county spokesperson previously said the first investigation resulted in Floyd’s suspension and the second his firing.

Colleen McCarty, outside counsel for the news organization, told the judge, “The Review-Journal has lost all confidence at this point that there may not be other items that are being withheld that we don’t know about.”

Emails provided by the county to the Review-Journal this week show that early last year, a law firm also conducted an inquiry into the conflict-of-interest allegations.

“How do we know that there isn’t a third investigation?” McCarty said.

She suggested that perhaps a special master should review all the county’s materials at the county’s expense.

At the hearing’s conclusion, Yeager asked the parties to confer on an approach for moving forward, and set the next hearing date for June 24.