MESA — Arizona regulators want a Las Vegas developer to testify about his relationship with a former Nevada politician who admitted taking bribes.
They are seeking the testimony before they approve permits for a project in rural Northwestern Arizona.
Developer Jim Rhodes will be asked to give sworn testimony before an Arizona Corporation Commission administrative judge about why he continued paying former Clark County Commissioner Erin Kenny for years after she admitted taking bribes from a Las Vegas strip-club owner, according to an order from Judge Dwight Nodes of the Arizona Corporation Commission.
Rhodes paid Kenny more than $200,000 a year starting the day after she left her county post in January 2003.
Kenny testified in a criminal trial in Nevada last month that she was still being paid by Rhodes as a government affairs consultant. Rhodes filed an affidavit with the Corporation Commission last week stating that he has severed his relationship with Kenny and that she had no involvement with any of his Arizona projects.
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Though Rhodes testified in March to the Arizona commission, which regulates utilities, he was not asked about his relationship with Kenny, and it was not known then that she was on his payroll.
Nodes' order reopens the investigative portion of the commission's case involving permits Rhodes is seeking to operate water and sewer companies to serve more than 50,000 homes he plans to build in a rural part of Mohave County.
Rhodes also owns more than 1,000 acres of prime former state trust land east of Phoenix and has the rights to master-plan the adjacent 6,700 acres of state holdings.
Five months after Kenny left the Clark County commission, she admitted to federal agents that she had been taking payoffs from the strip-club owner and a real estate consultant. She ultimately pleaded guilty to three counts of conspiracy and fraud and testified against others who were taking bribes. Kenny was sentenced to 30 months in prison earlier this month.
Rhodes has not been charged with any crime.
Neither Rhodes' lawyer, Jeff Crockett, nor his spokeswoman, Lisa Urias, could be reached for comment.
Corporation Commissioner Kris Mayes said Rhodes' affidavit that he had severed ties with Kenny is not enough.
"We need to know what the nature of the relationship between Mr. Rhodes and Kenny was, and why he was paying her $200,000," said Mayes, who earlier this month asked that the hearings be reopened in light of Kenny's Nevada testimony.
Commissioner Gary Pierce also said it is important to have Rhodes explain why he kept paying Kenny as a consultant for four years after she cut a plea deal in which she admitted taking bribes.