EDITORIAL: Conflict tarnishes Clark County highway project

Government officials shouldn’t dole out lucrative taxpayer-funded contracts to their family members. This is a basic principle, but it wasn’t followed in Clark County.

The Review-Journal’s Mary Hynes recently detailed a story involving the Clark County Public Works Department. One of the firms involved in a $10 million construction management contract is owned by the wife of the county official who managed the bidding process.

The construction management division, which oversees nearly $1 billion in projects, regularly seeks the help of construction management firms. There’s nothing wrong with this in theory. The government routinely relies on the services of private companies.

The county’s biggest current project is the $130 million construction of a complete interchange at the 215 Beltway and the Summerlin Parkway. Late last year, the county selected Diversified Consulting Services as the winner of a $10 million contract for the project. That company worked with Rock Solid Project Solutions on its proposal. It disclosed that Rock Solid’s involvement would be at least 15 percent. That equates to $1.5 million on a contract of that size. Raquel Floyd owns Rock Solid. She’s the wife of Jimmy Floyd, who oversaw the bidding process on that contract.

The conflict of interest is obvious. By selecting Diversified Consulting as the winner, Mr. Floyd helped his wife’s business and likely himself. In a March 20 annual disclosure statement, Mr. Floyd said he had a direct financial interest in his wife’s company. Through March 7, Rock Solid had already received more than $100,000 from the project.

That this occurred without any apparent checks reflects poorly on the Clark County Commission.

An anonymous complaint obtained by the Review-Journal alleges the contract was “unusually specific and difficult to meet, raising suspicions that the process was tailored to favor” Diversified Consulting Services and Rock Solid.

The request for proposals said there would be an up to 10 percent bonus in scoring for proposals that included firms owned by women or minorities. Remember that Nevada’s Equal Rights Amendment prohibits abridging “equality of rights” based on sex or race.

In the end, Diversified Consulting Services received the highest score, although that provision didn’t end up giving it a clear edge. One suspects the biggest advantage it had was the husband of the owner of Rock Solid awarding the contract.

County officials are in full spin mode. Commission Chair Tick Segerblom called it a personnel issue. A county spokeswoman said the county is working to address conflicts of interest. That’s weak. County officials need to take quick, decisive and public action to correct this and prevent future occurrences. A failure to do so will only encourage more malfeasance.