The need to know

Public demands answers from politicians at town hall meeting on ethics

Craig Walton introduces the panel at a town hall meeting held Aug. 19 at UNLV.

BY CATHY SCOTT
Sparks flew over the weekend during a public discussion with four state lawmakers about ethics.

The town hall meeting -- organized by the Nevada Center for Public Ethics, a newly formed watchdog group -- started out civil enough. Moderator Mitch Fox began the 2 1/2-hour session by tossing lawmakers softball questions about staying accessible to their constituencies. State Sens. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, and Terry Care, D-Las Vegas, and Assemblymen Marcus Conklin, D-Las Vegas, and Bob Seale, R-Henderson, each talked about how they make themselves equally available to both constituents and lobbyists.

Care said that if he knows a citizen lives in his district, he'll meet with that person if they show up at his office. Seale, on the other hand, said he prefers appointments made in advance.

For Conklin, when someone takes the time to visit his office at the state capitol, "The answer is always, 'Yes.' My door is open to everyone. It doesn't matter if they've given me a [campaign] contribution. I want to talk to them."

It was the same for Townsend. "We give anyone access at any time," he said.

And when lobbyists knock on their doors, they all said, they see them, too. That's when Fox started throwing out tougher questions.

Sometimes, Townsend explained, lobbyists are difficult to dodge. During plane flights to Carson City, "You like to think you can read a few bills. Wrong. There are 50 stinking lobbyists on that plane you have to listen to."

Still, Townsend said, "They have information we don't have. Most of them, you'd like to be able to avoid. But the key is to get information from both sides. [But] you know they come from advocacy backgrounds."

Seale, who said he isn't running for office again, was candid when it came to talking about lobbyists.

"Let's face it, folks," he said, "those people are probably writing some big checks. [But] they have the facts. Some are really ruthless and they can twist the facts. I know what their contribution was and how they helped to get me elected. I try to put that aside, but they still have an impact on me."

But the toughest questions came from the public.

"How on earth did the system get this bad?" Robin Drew asked from the gallery, but didn't receive an answer because she wasn't at a microphone.

A UNLV history student, standing at the mike, asked what politicians do -- if anything -- to encourage people to vote.

"Is it the role of the government to make it easier [to vote]?" Care asked her, and then answered his own question with, "It's up to citizens to vote."

Seale said getting voters to the polls isn't easy. "It's very difficult to get the attention of citizens," he said. "A very small number of people are voting. It's shameful."

Townsend said that even though just "28 percent of the people vote, the other 72 percent sit around and bitch about us."

All four lawmakers talked about the difficulty of reading and understanding the 2,000 bills they see during their 120-day legislative session every other year, especially when the part-time lawmakers hold down jobs while serving public office.

"I cannot be expected to know the nuts and bolts of bills," Care said. "We are a citizens' legislature. We have jobs just like you."

Because of the high number of bills, Conklin said, "We have to rely on good people to make good decisions."

The audience of 35 showed little sympathy.

"I hold you responsible for understanding an issue," one man told the panel. "The problem I have found is that the problem is with you in the Legislature."

As for campaign contributions influencing politicians, the same man told Townsend, who is a businessman, "My suggestion is quit playing the pay-to-play game. I don't care about [Care's] law practice. I don't care about your business."

Another man asked, "Why are you depending on lobbyists for your information? You're handicapping yourselves."

Voters are the ones who, in the end, Townsend said, have the last word and can decide to either keep a legislator in office or vote him or her out. Performing public service duties ethically is the key to longevity, he said.

"Don't think we're all corrupt because someone went to see the Rolling Stones," Townsend said, referring to the revelation earlier this year that some legislators accepted pricey concert tickets last year from Ameriquest.

"We have an obligation to behave," he continued. "Some people think if you get elected, you're a crook because someone wrote a check. If you can't look someone in the eye and vote against a bill that stinks, you don't belong up there in Carson City."

Cathy Scott is a nonfiction author and freelance journalist based in Las Vegas. You may e-mail her at cathy@cathyscott.com.