Las Vegas official faces complaint over vacation rental lobbying

Las Vegas Planning Commissioner Christina Roush supported a ban on new short-term rentals in October as her husband had been discreetly pressing to overhaul city policy so she could acquire a home-sharing license, a state ethics complaint claims.

Roush’s husband, real estate agent Greg Clemens, hired lobbyist Nathan Taylor to assist with the acquisition of a special-use permit for a home in the Medical District owned by Roush, Taylor claims in the complaint he filed with the Nevada Commission on Ethics.

“The problem is that when you engage in a business relationship outside the scope of your planning commission appointment, you need to disclose that relationship” and seek legal advice on whether a potential conflict exists in voting on the dais, said Taylor, who filed the complaint Jan. 10.

Roush voted both favorably and frequently on items in relation to which Taylor was jockeying to obtain a short-term rental license for other clients. The failure to recuse herself raises red flags because she previously ran a vacation rental, and her Las Vegas property was being targeted as her next such venture.

Taylor entered into a consulting agreement, which was viewed by the Review-Journal, with the Roush-linked company Hamilton Rose LLC on April 11. But a month into his work, Taylor learned that city rules preclude short-term rentals in the district, so the effort pivoted to lobbying the City Council to amend the law to allow short-term rentals there.

The complaint accuses Roush of a monthslong effort to obtain the license while continuing to vote on other applications before the commission, including from clients represented by Taylor, without disclosing that she was seeking a permit.

It wasn’t until Jan. 8, when Taylor was asking the commission to approve three applications, that Roush disclosed a tie to the lobbyist.

“I wanted to recuse myself from this vote,” she said at the meeting. “I have had past business dealings with this representative, and I don’t feel that I can be objective, so I’m going to excuse myself from the meeting.”

But from April 11 until then, Roush voted on 17 of 19 items presented by Taylor.

Roush did not return phone messages or an email requesting comment. On Friday, Clemens said that both he and Roush “absolutely would not be willing to speak until we have some guidance from legal counsel.”

City Attorney Brad Jerbic said in a statement that his office “was only aware of what we have read in the media, and we do not have a copy of the complaint,” adding that he had no further comment.

Taylor said he filed the complaint to protect his business after Roush said in the meeting that she had “a conflict, and I have bias” regarding the Taylor-related items before the commission. To Taylor, the admission sounded as if her acknowledged bias was directed toward him.

Hamilton Rose

Roush, a planning commissioner since August 2017, has owned a single-family residence in the city’s Medical District, on Hamilton Lane, since Jan. 31, 2018, for which she paid $245,000 through Hamilton Rose LLC, a company that lists her as a registered agent and a managing member as late as April 9, according to Clark County property and state business records.

Taylor suggested that Clemens approached him at the request of Roush and sought from the beginning to keep Roush’s name out of lobbying discussions. Nothing viewed by the Review-Journal shows Roush explicitly involved in the effort. Clemens’ name and apparent signature are on the consulting agreement between Taylor and Hamilton Rose.

Taylor insisted, however, that Roush’s involvement was clear, adding that business communication with Clemens ceased in August.

“Christina Roush, being the very smart, intelligent, successful businesswoman she is, she thought this through,” Taylor said. “She knew what she was doing.”

Lobbying efforts

Taylor, who says he has represented about 50 clients seeking special-use permits, visited with Las Vegas policymakers 10 times in 2018, predominantly to talk short-term rentals, city records show.

On June 5, Taylor met with Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian, who represents Ward 1 where the medical district is located. It was during that visit, he said, where he broached the medical district amendment that would allow the Roush property to be eligible for a short-term rental permit: “I do remember very clearly I spoke to her about the Hamilton property.”

“Nobody remembers him bringing up her. We do remember something about the amendment to the short-term rental situation,” Tarkanian said Friday. “I just told him that’s been a rule there for a long time and we wouldn’t change it.”

Without Tarkanian’s support, Taylor believed the effort was dead until a new council was seated. Tarkanian, who is term limited, will leave office in June.

An amendment to the law was never brought before the commission, nor was a permit application for Roush’s property. Such items typically must be green-lighted by the commission before they advance to the council.

A wavering opinion

“You’ve heard me vacillate back and forth in the beginning and then start to firm up my opinions about the neighbors and the way that I really want to see this shape up,” Roush said during the Oct. 9 planning commission meeting, at which she was part of a 4-3 majority to outright ban new short-term rentals.

On Taylor-represented applications, she sided with a unanimous commission each time, voting 14 times to approve, twice to deny and once to grant an abeyance.

Two months after the commission’s ban recommendation, the City Council narrowly passed a bill that eliminated any exemptions to rules for new vacation rentals that must be owner-occupied, 660 feet apart and in properties with no more than three bedrooms.

For Roush, short-term rentals were not a foreign concept — she operated one in Southern California for two years — but the feedback from Las Vegans had made it clear: Airbnb, she said, “does not belong in a neighborhood.”

Roush also understood by August that vacation rentals weren’t welcome in the Medical District as she sought clarification from staffers in a meeting about whether the Arts District, where she had stake in an apartment complex, maintained the same restriction.

When told it did not, Roush cast a vote on 13 related special-use permits represented by Taylor, saying she would have abstained but didn’t have a conflict because short-term rentals are permitted there.

The Nevada Commission on Ethics has 45 days from the complaint filing to determine whether the jurisdiction is proper and whether there is sufficient evidence to launch an investigation.

Contact Shea Johnson at sjohnson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272. Follow @Shea_LVRJ on Twitter.