White Pine County commissioner Gary Perea received no apologies or explanation from the Gaming Control Board when he met with them Tuesday and indeed that if there was fault in a gaming agent erroneous advice to resign from the commission and withdraw from the race, it probably belonged to Perea for taking it.
click link for complete transcript: Gaming Control Board Meeting December 5, 2012
With less than a month before the November election Perea was forced to resign from the White Pine County following a ruling from the Nevada Gaming Commission that the two term commissioner could not serve as a county commissioner and hold a gaming licensee.
Three weeks later and well after early voting had begun, Perea was given a clean bill of health by the Nevada Gaming commission not only to remain on the commission but to seek reelection.
The commission made its ruling after receiving a letter from White Pine District Attorney Kelly Brown that stated that Perea was in no way in violation of any Nevada revised statute or had a conflict of interest being a county commissioner and a gaming licensee.
According to that ruling of the Gaming commission Perea need not apply for a waiver and does not face the threat of fines.
Perea owns the Border Inn in Baker Nevada, a small tourist hotel that also sports a tiny casino and bar.
Perea revived his campaign but with less than two weeks before the election and with early voting all but completed the damage proved fatal. He lost his race by about five percentage points.
A series of e-mails and letters to and from the Gaming Commission appears to confirm Perea’s contention that he was given a choice by gaming investigators to either resign his office and withdraw from reelection or pay $18,000 for waiver to continue his political career.
The correspondence obtained by the Advocate begin in July and end in mid October shortly after Perea publicly announced that he was withdrawing from the race and resigning from the commission.
When interviewed earlier this month, Frank Streshley Chief of Gaming Tax and License insisted that Perea resignation and withdrawal were mostly of Perea own making and implied the white Pine Commissioner perhaps over reacted.
The correspondence however suggests that Perea was acting in accordance to and under the advice of gaming agent Jason Molitz from Las Vegas.
One of the most active White Pine Commissioners Perea was one of a handful of reformers that brought the county out of bankruptcy eight years ago and back into solvency. He also led the fight against the Las Vegas water grab and several sources speculated that the sudden interest in his 40 slot machines was politically motivated by the Las Vegas dominated Gaming control Board.
While not disputing Perea’s version of events Gaming Commission Chairman A.G. Burnett told the soon to be former County commissioner that it was Perea’s obligation not to follow the Gaming commission’s own personnel directives.
In this excerpt from the transcripts
CHAIRMAN BURNETT: “I certainly commend you for your service on the White Pine County Commission, and it looks like, to me, you are a very dedicated individual who really wishes to serve. I am personally sorry that you did not get elected. I don’t know who your opponent was, and I don’t want to speak on behalf of the voters or what occurred there. However, I’ll just give you a little blanket overview of the Gaming Control Board’s processes and procedures as it relates to this regulation.
You were licensed in 1999. Upon your licensure, as with every licensee, there is an affirmative duty to understand the regulations that you operate under. When you ran for White Pine County Commission, I think attorneys would have advised you to be aware of Regulation 11.010 sub (3), and this would have been about three years later, if I’m not mistaken. And that regulation does contain some requirements for elected officials. However, it also does contain some ways out of the regulation. You mentioned that you sought counsel in all of this, and you also received an opinion from the DA. However, unfortunately, it was too late. You had already tendered your resignation. So I don’t know if there is any blame to be placed anywhere, actually. This is a regulation, at least in my 14 years of experience here, isn’t activated that often. However, I will say that I think you had an affirmative duty to be aware of that regulation when you sought that first election. That said, you probably would have been granted a waiver because your duties wouldn’t have conflicted in any way going to the opinion that you sought and received.”
Burnett’s opinion may not however be the end of the matter.
Both Assemblymen John Ellison and state Senator Pete Goichochea said they would call for and support a full scale investigation of the Gaming Control board and give special attention to any relationship official or unofficial of the SNWA.
“I think it stinks,” Ellison said. “And if there is SNWA involvement heads might role.”
The fact that a Republican Assemblyman and a Republican Senator are taking up the cause of a Democrat County commissioner also illustrates that the political division in Nevada is less about party lines than it is about county lines.
“I am going to call for it, if no one else does,” Ellison said. “What happened to Mr. Perea is simply outrageous. And if there was something illegal about this someone should go to jail.”