As Las Vegas City Hall conflagrations go, an ethics complaint filed against a planning commissioner would qualify as barely a brushfire in normal times.

But these aren’t normal times at City Hall.

Lobbyist and GOP activist Nathan Taylor has filed a complaint with the State Commission on Ethics accusing Planning Commissioner Christina Roush of self-dealing after she announced at a Jan. 8 meeting that she couldn’t vote on a matter involving one of Taylor’s clients because she was “biased against the representative.” She then declined to elaborate.

Her statement is made more intriguing, Taylor alleges, because Roush’s husband, realtor Greg Clemens, hired him in April 2018 to lobby the city in an effort to win approval of a short-term rental application for a piece of family-owned property. It was a matter that would eventually need to go before the planning commission. Taylor said Roush didn’t disclose that relationship, which ended after the lobbyist failed to secure the zoning exception.

In his complaint, Taylor alleges Roush violated ethics laws when she declined to explain her bias and disclose the financial relationship.

City Hall cynics will cluck that this isn’t the first time a commissioner and lobbyist have had a dustup, and that’s certainly true. And given the highly-charged atmosphere around Las Vegas government, every move is jaundiced by the haze of politics.

The Roush complaint appears different in several respects. She’s well connected in the community as the managing principal for commercial realty giant Cushman & Wakefield’s Nevada office, and has a higher profile than other planning commissioners.

Roush ran a competitive third in the ugly 2017 Ward 2 primary. After Steve Seroka edged incumbent Bob Beers, the new councilman named Roush as his planning commissioner. I’ll ask Roush if she’s begun to regret accepting the position — if she ever returns a phone call.

That proximity to Seroka has enlisted her in the ongoing war between the councilman and developer Yohan Lowie over the fate of his proposed condominium development on part of the Badlands Golf Course at Queensridge. Roush is named as a defendant in one of the more than one--dozen lawsuits filed in the matter that’s costing the city a small fortune in legal fees, is crushing the comity on the council, and could even help force Seroka into a spring recall election.

Lowie has alleged everything from inverse condemnation to anti-Semitism as he’s fought to develop part of the once-idyllic Badlands course, which now resembles its parched and forbidding namesake. Knowledgeable city officials say they see no end in sight for the warring parties.

Given all the chaos and ill feelings, it would be easy to write off Taylor’s complaint as another political stone thrown at the city’s castle. It makes sense given all the allegations and sharp elbows being thrown.

Not so fast.

In an interview, Taylor said that he was contacted on April 9, 2018 by Roush’s husband at her request in an attempt to get a family-owned residence located inside the city’s Ward 1 medical district (at 2013 Hamilton Lane) approved as a vacation rental. So-called short-term rentals have been extremely controversial in the city, and Ward 1 City Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian has been adamantly opposed to their proliferation.

Taylor said he lobbied Tarkanian and her staff on Roush/Clemens’ behalf in an unsuccessful attempt to soften her opposition. Although Tarkanian said she doesn’t precisely remember such a meeting, she’s well acquainted with Taylor and, in any event, no lobbyist would have been able to change her mind on the issue. In December, the council voted to toughen its short-term rental ordinance and limited short-term rentals to owner-occupied homes only.

Then came January’s meeting and Roush’s blow-up.

Neither Roush nor Clemens returned phone calls seeking comment. Seroka also declined comment.

Taylor, however, is speaking out. He’s not only a longtime zoning and land-use consultant with a small business on the line, but also is a veteran Republican Party loyalist who was one of the unsuccessful applicants for the Assembly District 36 seat vacated by the death of brothel operator Dennis Hof.

“I felt compelled to file this complaint because once someone said they were biased against me, my business was being attacked and my personal character was being attacked,” Taylor says.

The lobbyist adds he has no affiliation with developer Lowie, and although he supports GOP activist Victoria Seaman’s goal of winning the Ward 2 seat should the recall effort result in a special election, he’s not agitating on her behalf.

“I have never done any work for Yohan Lowie and have never been involved in anything involving Badlands,” Taylor says. “And this has nothing to do with politics, and has nothing to do with Victoria Seaman. This has everything to do with protecting my business.”

While Roush is accused of violating ethics laws, Taylor acknowledges he also has plenty at stake. Filing an ethics complaint against a well-connected planning commissioner is a novel marketing plan for a guy who depends on his relationships to make a living.

Regular observers of the planning commission know its high potential for conflict. Council members traditionally pack the planning commission with realtors and friends of the development community. Those same appointees who know zoning regulation often have allies and enemies coming before them on the commission.

While commercial realtor and Seroka-appointee Roush may be an abstention waiting to happen or even a walking conflict of interest, she’s not unique. That’s why transparency is essential to the process.

It not only keeps the meetings within the law, it can prevent them from degrading into ethically shabby sideshows.

This ethics complaint only adds to the smoke of controversy at City Hall and arrives at the wrong time for troubled councilman Seroka.

John L. Smith is an author and longtime columnist. Contact him at [email protected]. On Twitter: @jlnevadasmith