Column: No collusion in appointment to Airport Authority

Since our ex-mayor Marv Teixeira, in his recent column, "Endorsement on day of appointment looks bad," has raised questions concerning the integrity and sound judgment of Mayor Ray Masayko, while using me as the goat, you citizens are entitled to an explanation from me.

First of all, do any of you think that Mayor Masayko would risk his re-election by appointing me to the Airport Authority Board, deliberately short-circuiting the appointment "system?" He isn't stupid! And he isn't in collusion with me or anybody else.

Here's what happened. In early September, I called Supervisor Kay Bennett and told her that I would be making application to once again serve on the Airport Authority Board, and that I would be delivering my application to one of the supervisors, not Personnel.

Why? Because for the past few years, the Airport Authority Board has been pre-screening applications and eliminating those they didn't like. This was illegal and I blew the whistle this year.

How do I know? I wrote the legislation creating the Carson City Airport Authority and that legislation only allows Carson City Board of Supervisors (including the mayor) to appoint members to the Airport Authority Board. How can the supervisors be sure of appointing the best applicants if some of the applications fail to reach them? I didn't want my application to be prescreened by the Airport Authority Board and discarded without ever reaching the supervisors, which I knew would happen because the majority on the Airport Authority Board wanted Neil Weaver instead of me.

So, in mid September, well before the October deadline, I took my application to City Hall. The only member of the board of supervisors who happened to be there at the time was Masayko. I asked for him and he came out and met me at the front desk. This was only the second time I had ever met the mayor.

I handed him my application and explained why I didn't just take it to Personnel; that I wanted to make sure that a member of the board of supervisors saw it before bringing it to Personnel. After he looked over my application, I asked if he would kindly put it into the system, and he said he would.

He gave it to someone to give to Personnel, but she thought it was only a copy and filed it. At any rate, my application got filed in the mayor's office and didn't get into the "system." An honest mistake.

The day before the board of supervisors' appointment hearings, I got a call from Personnel telling me that my application had been lost, and that I wasn't on the program to be interviewed by the supervisors the next day. I was out!

But an hour later, she called again to say that my application had been found, and that one of two things would probably happen: 1) I wouldn't be considered for appointment this year, or 2) the supervisors may elect to postpone the hearing on the fixed-base operator slot for a month, go out again for applications, and then interview the applicants sometime in November, including me.

So, I went to the hearing on Thursday, the same day my column was published recommending another four-year term for Masayko. I didn't think that under any circumstances I would be interviewed. The best I could hope for was a postponement.

However, at that meeting I was publicly asked why I had submitted my application to the mayor. I told the supervisors the same story I'm repeating here, all of which is on the record and was on television. I then returned to my seat to see what would happen.

Following some discussion, the supervisors asked their legal counsel, District Attorney Noel Waters, what the options were. Waters said there was no legal impediment to interviewing and considering me for appointment during the meeting. He said that although it may be customary for applications to be delivered to Personnel, and all mailed applications were stamped in by Personnel, there was no legal requirement.

He also said that if the board was satisfied that I had, indeed, delivered a timely application to city hall, then it wasn't my fault it got lost. I was entitled to be considered for appointment that day.

To make a long story as short as possible, I was interviewed along with four other applicants. I was selected by a vote of 5 -0 to once again hold the fixed-base operator seat on the Airport Authority board. The mayor was only one of those five votes.

Should the mayor have abstained from voting because of my column backing him for reelection? Perhaps. But it wouldn't have made any difference on the outcome. I must again call your attention to the fact that the legal authority of the Carson City Board of Supervisors, Waters, was there and made no recommendation that the mayor abstain from voting.

Should I have printed a disclaimer in my column wherein I backed Masayko for another term as mayor explaining that I had made application to again serve on the Airport Authority Board, and that I would be appearing before him (the mayor) and the supervisors to be interviewed and hopefully selected?

Yes, in retrospect I should have. Why didn't I? Because I didn't even think about it. My mind doesn't work that way. But you can be sure of one thing; had I been in collusion with our mayor or had I purposely done anything questionable, I would have covered my fanny with not only a disclaimer, but I would have waited another week to publish my column supporting the mayor.

As far as I'm concerned, Teixeira knew the facts as I've outlined them here. His column was a cheap shot to embarrass Mayor Masayko, using me as the colluding bad guy. Now, I'm not concerned for myself. I'm a big boy. I can handle this kind of revenge any day of the week. But I resent Teixeira, whom I've praised as our best mayor many times in this newspaper, resorting to such a desperate tactic in order to make his boy, Tom Tatro, look good by comparison. Tom Tatro doesn't need that kind of help. Tom is a class act. But I'm still backing Masayko for the many reasons I've outlined before.

Bob Thomas is a Carson City businessman, local curmudgeon and former member of the Carson City School Board and Nevada State Assembly.