A labor union secretary-treasurer sits on the public board overseeing the A’s stadium project. His union’s members are the ones doing the construction work the board is supposed to be scrutinizing.
Tommy White, secretary-treasurer of the Laborers International Union, Local 872, serves as a voting member of the Las Vegas Stadium Authority Board, according to the board’s own published roster. White was originally appointed by the Clark County Commission and was reappointed by Gov. Joe Lombardo in 2023.
Geoconda Argüello-Kline, former leader of the Culinary Workers Union, also served on the Stadium Authority board as a governor’s appointment under then-Gov. Sisolak, according to board meeting records.
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The Stadium Authority board is responsible for overseeing construction-related decisions on the Athletics’ domed stadium project, including the bond financing and capital improvement spending tied to its roughly $380 million public subsidy. Construction trade unions, including the Laborers, have a direct financial interest in how large a construction project becomes and how it’s staffed.
At a 2023 board meeting, Aubrey Branch, treasurer of the National Association of Minority Contractors’ Nevada chapter, specifically referenced an agreement reached with board member White regarding future construction cooperation on the project, according to the meeting’s official minutes.
Nevada law does not prohibit a union official with a direct financial stake in a project’s construction labor from simultaneously serving on the public board overseeing that same project’s development.
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The Stadium Authority board also includes representatives from the gaming and hospitality industries, UFC and Caesars executives among them, placing a mix of labor and industry interests with direct financial stakes in the project on the same oversight body responsible for scrutinizing it on the public’s behalf.
The Stadium Authority board isn’t secretly conflicted — its own meeting minutes show industry and labor representatives sitting on it openly, by design. Whether that structure produces genuine oversight or simply gives every stakeholder with a financial interest in the stadium a seat at the table deciding how it gets built is a question the board’s own composition doesn’t answer.
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