5 Clark County commissioners accepted F1 tickets worth nearly $11K

Five Clark County commissioners accepted “educational” tickets worth nearly $11,000 to attend November’s Formula 1 race activities, records show.

Las Vegas Grand Prix offered all seven commissioners a ticket to the Skybox area, according to a letter sent to commissioners. Commissioners William McCurdy, Tick Segerblom, Jim Gibson, Justin Jones and Ross Miller accepted the tickets. Commissioners Marilyn Kirkpatrick and Michael Naft declined the offer.

The tickets were valued at $10,000, with an additional $900 tacked on to account for Nevada’s 9 percent Live Entertainment Tax. They granted admission to Formula 1 race events from Nov. 15 to Nov. 18, according to the letter.

McCurdy said the tickets were provided for educational reasons — so officials could understand race operations, services and infrastructure.

“We brought the race here. It’s important to see how it operates,” McCurdy said. “It would be irresponsible for us to not see how it works.”

Segerblom said attending the race was “definitely educational.”

“The county — its employees and residents — made the event happen and suffered lots of adverse consequences as a result,” Segerblom said in a text to the Review-Journal. “If we’re going to keep doing it for nine more years, we need to learn everything we can.”

Miller said he attended one practice to understand the size, permitting and licensing required to bring the race to life.

“It’s important that commissioners have a firsthand perspective of the scale of this event to ensure we’re making future county decisions from an educated perspective,” Miller said in a statement.

When reached for comment, Jones referred to the letter sent to commissioners that said the tickets were intended to educate commissioners about the Grand Prix and how they can best work with the organization in the future.

But not all the commissioners attended the race. Kirkpatrick said she attended the opening ceremony but declined the tickets because she had a personal event planned on Saturday. Naft also declined the tickets, but said he was at the first responder command center located at the Switch building on the night of the race.

All the commissioners who attended the race disclosed the tickets on their 2024 financial disclosure report, except Segerblom, who said he had been advised that the tickets did not need to be disclosed. Segerblom said he intended to amend his report.

Gibson reported the $10,900 ticket on his campaign and expenditure report as an in-kind contribution. State law limits campaign contributions to $10,000.

Kami Dempsey, Gibson’s campaign manager, said Formula 1 was “an unprecedented event” and said the Secretary of State’s office and the county commission are “working through the details” about how best to categorize the ticket.

Contact Taylor R. Avery at TAvery@reviewjournal.com. Follow @travery98 on X.