By Jack Johnson, Boulder City Review
The special City Council meeting to discuss issues surrounding a vehicle driven by City Manager Vicki Mayes and husband Denny Mayes has been set for Sept. 9 at 8 a.m.
The Mayeses received criticism for the 2010 Nissan GT-R Premium sports car’s out-of-state registration.
They set up a limited liability company in Montana and by registering the vehicle to it, saved thousands of dollars in Nevada sales tax and registration fees.
The car has since been registered in Nevada and all the fees paid, Vicki Mayes said.
Montana has no state sales tax, which is usually paid when a vehicle is registered, and its registration fees are low, so many people register vehicles there to avoid paying their home state’s tax.
Vicki Mayes has said that the car is her husband’s name and that the LLC, Amayesd, is for a legitimate business he plans to start — but they don’t know what, exactly — and two attorneys, including former Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, told them the registration was legal.
But numerous agencies and the Nevada Revised Statutes said that if you live in Nevada and drive here, you must register your car here.
Because of the apparent confusion, and the public outrage of a highly tax-dollar-paid public official and her tax-dollar-paid, retired city employee husband not paying their own family’s tax on the vehicle, Mayor Roger Tobler decided to call a special council meeting to set the record straight and discuss any possible disciplinary action.
“It had to be discussed in an open meeting, where Vicki will have a chance to give her explanation of what happened and the city council will decide what they want to do,” Tobler said.
Tobler can’t say what he thinks will happen at the meeting, but he is expecting lots of public comment, both supporting and condemning Vicki Mayes.
Tobler did say he believes the registration was the fault of Denny Mayes, not Vicki, and won’t be calling for her resignation. However, he did not comment further on the details of the meeting.
“I think people are wanting to hear answers now and I just don’t know if (commenting) is appropriate before the special meeting, that’s why I called it,” he said.
Councilwoman Linda Strickland said she is concerned, not only with the vehicle’s initial registration, but Vicki Mayes’ lack of being forthcoming with information she requested.
“She’s in a position where we need to be able to trust her judgment, and we need to be able to trust what she says is correct. And for the information that has been presented thus far, I really have some doubts,” she said.
Strickland does not know what sort of action she will call for until more information is revealed, but she does feel it was more than a simple mistake on behalf of Denny Mayes.
“The bottom line is I want to be able to give her a fair shot to explain, because we are talking about her job and we are talking about her integrity, and hopefully we can get to the bottom of this and resolve it in a fair matter,” she said. “But this is a little more than a mistake in my opinion.”
Vicki Mayes said she recently consulted Woodbury herself — only her husband spoke to Woodbury the first time — after a local tax attorney contacted her to explain her mistake, and Woodbury told her that Nevada taxes were due upon registering the car in Montana.
Woodbury could not be reached for comment Tuesday evening.
However, according to Vicki Mayes, even though Nevada law requires paying taxes, she does not think she broke the law.
“It’s clear to me that the taxes should have been paid,” she said. But, “I don’t think you can still jump to this whole illegal thing.”
Vicki Mayes said she would hate to lose her job over something her husband did and is looking forward to it all being behind her.
“For now I’m just trying to pay attention to my job,” she said. “But ultimately the council gets to decide.”
