Corporate arrogance plus county laziness equals serious public danger

Arrogance is not unique to Harrah's Entertainment.

But in recent weeks, the company's actions have been the most flagrantly arrogant in a company town known for corporate arrogance.

Harrah's hadn't been following the basic rules like the rest of us. Harrah's didn't get county permits for its remodeling at the Rio and its namesake hotel on the Strip.

It wasn't just an oversight. It was a deliberate decision that they don't need no stinkin' permits. The company apparently deceived itself into believing permits and inspections weren't required. Of course, now the newly humbled Harrah's sees the errors of its ways.

Company officials can't cower behind the claim of ignorance. Whistle-blower Fred Frazzetta, an electrician working on remodeling of 17 floors at the Rio, told company officials the work had gone on without permits, but they weren't interested, according to the investigative reporting by the Las Vegas Review-Journal's Joan Whitely.

Harrah's ignored him. Clark County officials ignored him. But the Review-Journal took him seriously, putting the time, effort and money into verifying his allegations.

And now we learn that, oops, the gaming giant didn't get permits for its remodeling at Harrah's Las Vegas on the Strip either.

Confession is good for the corporate soul. Harrah's was smart to 'fess up fast about the failure to get permits at Harrah's Las Vegas. It beats getting outed.

Two floors of rooms at the Rio's Ipanema Tower were closed Saturday by the no-longer-somnolent county officials (currently 140 rooms are closed), and more than 500 rooms were voluntarily taken out of commission at Harrah's Las Vegas on Monday.

Arrogance isn't admirable, but incompetence and sloth aren't so terribly commendable.

Our crack officials at the Clark County Development Services couldn't find there was a problem at the Rio when Frazzetta came to them in August 2006 and said the Rio had undergone major remodeling without permits or inspections. Sure they checked six months after he complained. But all that the keenly perceptive supervisory building inspector Rick Maddox could find was that the work was original and not remodeled. Case closed.

Now he's in charge of the Rio reinspection, with supervision of course. That's just so reassuring. How hard will he look for the things he couldn't see before?

Those of us who were in Las Vegas when the MGM Grand burned 27 years ago remember that 83 building code violations were found ... after the fact.

Also after the fact, Las Vegas became top notch in fire safety and retrofitting. Officials loved to brag about how safe our hotels became. But if building inspectors don't answer calls to check safety, they won't find safety problems.

Oh that's right, Maddox was called in and didn't see the problems that the Review-Journal's out-of-state expert found. Maddox is going to "receive appropriate guidance." Hopefully that guidance is more along the lines of butt kicking and less like hand holding.

Corporate arrogance isn't unique to Harrah's.

Remember, the 1980 fire at the MGM Grand (the present-day Bally's hotel) could have been extinguished if hotel officials had put sprinklers in the casino and the deli when it was under construction.

The cost: $192,000.

A helpful county building inspector said MGM Grand officials didn't have to put sprinklers in those areas. So they didn't.

The final cost: 87 dead and thousands of injuries.

Plus $223 million to settle the lawsuits.

So when I fume about arrogance and incompetence, or even sloth, it's not just based on what might happen. It's based on what did happen.

Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani is outraged by how the county responded to Frazzetta's complaint of construction without permits or inspections. "With the type of construction we have going on, the problem is more widespread than we know of," she said. "This is a call to us in county government. We need to be more assertive."

She mentioned her husband is building a shed. County officials scheduled it for six inspections over two weeks.

But if her husband's shed gets six inspections and claims of remodeling a major hotel without permits and inspection draws nothing more than an inspector who doesn't see that any remodeling occurred, then something is seriously wrong with Clark County's priorities and abilities. From a public safety perspective, that's worse than arrogance.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0275.