Affable Arberry was always slipshod about paperwork

The indictment of former Assemblyman Morse Arberry Jr. on charges he failed to report $121,545 in contributions to his 2008 campaign was no shocker.

It always was suspicious that the chairman of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee would report relatively small contribution totals year after year.

In his final election in 2008 — and he’d been elected 12 times before — Arberry’s reports claimed he collected $42,300 in contributions above $100.

An investigation by Secretary of State Ross Miller’s office alleged the entrenched Democrat underreported those contributions by $121,545. At least that’s the basis for a criminal complaint filed Friday in Las Vegas Justice Court by Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto.

The investigation began in October 2010, one month after Arberry made news by trying to negotiate a $124,000 lobbying contract with Clark County to represent district judges and justices of the peace during the 2011 session. County commissioners rejected the contract after it became public he began negotiations while still a legislator.

Arberry was always slipshod when it came to paperwork. Since the late 1980s, I’ve reviewed his campaign reports and personal finance reports and found them barely legible. He was one of the lawmakers who inevitably showed up on lists of homeowners who failed to pay property taxes on time.

The affable “Moose” Arberry will face his judgment in court, and his attorney George Kelesis may have a fine defense. But since the six-count indictment (three each of perjury and filing false campaign reports) is based on bank records and there’s a paper trail, this is going to be a tough case to defend.

In my court, the guilty ones are the donors.

They will say they never check lawmakers’ reports to see whether their contributions are properly reported. Yet these folks know exactly who received their money, how much and when, and they knew damn well they had given Arberry money. But they never cared whether he reported it.

Shame on them.

Shame on the contributors representing banks, law firms, gaming companies, unions, political action committees, utilities and businesses who looked the other way.

The largest unreported donation was $7,500 from the MGM Grand. The next largest contributions, at $5,000 each, came from Boyd Gaming, IGT, Republic Services and the Clark County Education Association.

Those records showed up in Arberry’s Wells Fargo personal account, but not in the campaign finance report filed under penalty of perjury with the Clark County Election Department, according to Scott Balder, chief investigator for the secretary of state.

Nevada lawmakers routinely have refused to adopt a system of checks and balances in how donors report their contributions. While it would be burdensome, it would force lawmakers to honestly list their contributions, knowing it also would be reported by the donor.

The 2011 Legislature passed a law requiring campaign finance reports to be filed electronically so they’re searchable. That’s fine, along with other changes Miller fought for over three legislative sessions. But until major contributors are required to report their donations, Nevada’s campaign finance reporting procedures remain laughable.

For decades, I’ve been bashing legislators from both parties for emasculating campaign finance reform bills.

I take pride in exposing a practice that allowed lawmakers to convert excess funds to personal use by paying taxes on the money before slipping it into their pockets.

It was legal in 1990 when retiring Clark County Sheriff John Moran converted $192,000 from his campaign to his personal use. The law was changed after that so the money must be donated in specific ways. But it works on a trust system.

Nevada’s campaign finance laws were crafted to conceal, not reveal.

Shame on anyone who takes advantage of that, and shame on the enablers.

Jane Ann Morrison’s column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. Email her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call her at (702) 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/Morrison