There were 24 cards received in protest of the Echelon Project's (Boyd Gaming) zoning expansion. There was no discussion of the reasons these 24 individuals took their time to protest what would seem to be a reasonable request. Collins thought an important comment on the record should be "They took out the rodeo what's going on". Collins could have discussed why these 24 protest cards were sent in and why he was voting on a project that he knew had given $10,000 to his campaign for Clark County Commissioner in October 2004.Instead he makes a comment that makes no sense except to a cowboy like himself.
Jon Ralston in an August 19, 2007 article titled "Jon Ralston imagines a capital city debate on ethics, conflicts of interest" wrote of the different point of view between many of our elected officials and the residents of Nevada. This article was written with a future date of May 2009. City Councilman Steve Ross whom Collins Campaign donated $2500 on 3/24/05 to chimed in "People wondered if that was a conflict when I made that approval of John Ritter's development contingent on him hiring union labor. Conflict? What conflict? I am committed to my labor peeps and the public knows that". Senator Bob Beers ?This is a great day reaffirming Nevada's citizen legislature and transparent system of government. This is yet another example of us telling the public that we don't need laws to tell us what's ethical."
Collins is not the only elected official that does not see anything wrong with our unethical government, but do you think that would make Collins' August 2007 vote for Echelon Project (Boyd Gaming) right? Who does Collins represent in this case the 24 individuals that protested this zoning variance or the residents of Clark County or Echelon Project (Boyd Gaming)?