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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
Steve Hill wears many hats.
The former concrete business owner is CEO of Las Vegas’ public tourism agency, the visitors and convention authority here in Sin City.
He also chairs the local stadium authority board in Las Vegas. The board oversees the Raiders stadium and the Athletics’ planned stadium.
And just a few months ago in June, there was Hill in Carson City. He represented the Oakland Athletics before state legislative committee in the MLB team’s bid for $380 million in government assistance to build a $1.5 billion baseball stadium on the Strip under a state bill that would be approved by the Nevada Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Joe Lombardo.
Those three roles converged Tuesday at a stadium board meeting where the public panel that oversees Las Vegas publicly-funded stadiums hired Hill’s tourism agency for up to $600,000 for staff work that will include reviewing the Athletics ballpark plans.
Even Hill realized his three-way relationship with the tourism agency, the stadium authority and the Athletics was a conflict of interest, so at Tuesday’s stadium meeting he handed the reins to stadium board vice chairman Ike Lawrence Epstein for the stadium board to approve the LVCVA staffing job for the stadium authority.
Hill believed by stepping aside for the stadium board’s decision to hire the LVCVA to do work for the stadium agency would remove any appearance of a conflict.
Alex Marks of Schools Over Stadiums and Chris Daly, political director of the Nevada State Education Association, attended the brief stadium board meeting to argue that the hiring of the LVCVA by the stadium board was a clear conflict that has been par for the course in a government process that saw the A’s receive the government money in lightning speed.
The conflict of interest hardly caused a ripple for the stadium board, which routinely approved the hiring of the LVCVA tourism agency to serve as the staff for the stadium authority. The stadium board members, including Hills and Epstein, attended their 4 PM meeting via zoom-style.
The Jeremy Aguero-led Applied Analysis was the stadium board’s previous work consultant. But Applied Analysis dropped out effective Oct. 1 because Aguero is working for the Athletics as a consultant.