Another payoff detailed

Land broker Tommy Fehrman testified Tuesday that he paid another lobbyist to advance his $1.5 million deal. Fehrman wrote a $10,000 check to Mark Kincaid, the son of then-Commissioner Mary Kincaid-Chauncey who was one of the four votes that paved the way for the contentious project.

“Don asked that I pay Mark Kincaid because he would lobby his mother on this matter,” Fehrman testified during Davidson’s corruption trial. “She could be influential in helping.”

Commissioners Kenny, Kincaid-Chauncey, Dario Herrera and Myrna Williams supported Fehrman’s request to change the zoning from residential to commercial on a five-acre parcel at Buffalo Drive and Desert Inn Road.

They then approved a “special use permit” that allowed CVS Pharmacy to erect larger signs and build a driveway off a residential street. CVS would not have bought the land without those amenities.

With the exception of Williams, the commissioners who voted in favor of the project are in federal prison or headed to jail for accepting cash bribes from strip club owner Michael Galardi.

Fehrman testified Tuesday that he didn’t mind paying Mark Kincaid $10,000 after his mother voted in favor of the zone change and the code amendments. Because of the commission’s rulings, Fehrman’s deal with CVS went through. CVS paid his company, Desert West Plaza II, $1.5 million for 1.5 acres of land.

“(We ) basically threw him a bone on the deal,” Fehrman told Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Schiess. “He was a struggling real estate agent. It was a nice score for him.”

At the time Mark Kincaid was alleged to be lobbying his mother, he was running for a seat on the North Las Vegas City Council. He lost in the primary. Kincaid could not be reached for comment Tuesday, but his name appears on the government’s witness list.

Davidson, 73, was charged in 2005 with paying Kenny $200,000 for the commissioner’s help in pushing through the zone change needed for the lucrative pharmacy deal. He was also charged with delivering $3,000 a month to Kenny after she voted in support of a casino in Spring Valley.

Testimony on Tuesday zeroed in on the Buffalo-Desert Inn property now home to the CVS Pharmacy.

Fehrman was in negotiations to buy the land when he hired Davidson as a lobbyist in spring 2001. Because the sale was contingent on the zone change, he said, he recruited some of the most influential land use experts in the Las Vegas Valley.

Fehrman testified that he offered Davidson $100,000 if he helped execute the zone change and $100,000 if commissioners secured a “special use permit” to allow CVS to build large signs and a driveway on a residential street. He also said he gave Davidson a 15 percent interest in his company, which amounted to $300,000.

Fehrman testified that Davidson requested that both of his “success fees” for successfully lobbying for the zone change and special use permit be sent to his son, Lawrence Davidson. The government claims that Lawrence Davidson, an attorney, set up a trust fund to hide Kenny’s ill-gotten funds from Donald Davidson.

Donald Davidson’s accountant, James Hoeppner, said Davidson called him in 2001 and inquired about whether Hoeppner could open a bank account in the Caribbean. Hoeppner said Davidson told him the account was for Kenny.

“I said I didn’t have any expertise in that area,” said Hoeppner, who added that he did not believe it was an out-of-the-ordinary request.

Kenny signed a plea agreement in 2003 and is assisting prosecutors. During last year’s trial of Kincaid-Chauncey and Herrera, Kenny testified that Davidson’s son established an offshore bank account to deposit the $200,000 she received after voting in favor of the CVS Pharmacy project.

“It was illegal because it wasn’t a loan and it wasn’t a campaign contribution,” Kenny testified.

Hoeppner also reviewed Davidson’s tax returns from 2001, 2002 and 2003. Schiess used Hoeppner’s testimony to show that Davidson did not declare all the income he received from Fehrman. Davidson has not been charged with failing to pay taxes.

Dominic Gentile, who is Donald Davidson’s attorney, showed jurors that Davidson was not the only participant in the CVS land deal who had connections to Kenny. Using Kenny’s campaign contribution records, Gentile noted that Fehrman and other investors in the property contributed a total of about $42,000 to Kenny’s campaign between May 2001 and October 2001.

Fehrman acknowledged that in 2002, he attended a one-on-one, meet-and-greet with Kenny at the law offices of Kummer Kaempfer Bonner Renshaw.

“Basically KKBR, they’ve always had fundraisers and have one-on-ones with her (Kenny),” Fehrman said. “You basically bring your checkbook.”

That Kenny received money from and was working closely with the developers of the CVS land was not a surprise to everyone. Neighbors who fought the project questioned Kenny’s relationship with the developers during the Nov. 7, 2001, meeting when commissioners approved the zone change.

“Why are you meeting with CVS and trying to make concessions so it will work for you?” resident Carolyn Edwards recalled asking Kenny. “She wasn’t even representing us, and it wasn’t her problem.”

According to transcripts of the November 2001 meeting, Commissioner Chip Maxfield also voiced concerns about Kenny’s role in the proposal.

“This is my area now,” Maxfield said, referring to the land that prior to redistricting was in Kenny’s jurisdiction. “I’ve met with neighbors and Commissioner Kenny, I understand, has worked with developers and whatever, trying to fashion something to work there.”

Commissioner Williams took offense to neighbors’ suggestion that Kenny had a cozy relationship with the developers.

“I find it disconcerting to hear someone say something that I think could have been taken in a pejorative manner about one of our commissioners,” Williams said, according to transcripts of the meeting.