The Las Vegas Review-Journal on Thursday sued Clark County to obtain records related to the government’s investigation of a high-ranking public works official and the awarding of millions of dollars in government contracts.
The lawsuit asks the court to order the county to release records related to its investigation of Jimmy Floyd, the fired head of the county’s construction management division, “and to the process that allowed lucrative construction management contracts to be awarded to Mr. Floyd’s wife.”
For nearly a year, the county has refused to release important records sought by the news organization for its own investigation.
“Clark County has gone to extreme lengths, flagrantly misrepresenting the law, to keep secret major elements of this scandal,” Review-Journal Executive Editor Glenn Cook said. “This kind of obstruction is too common across Nevada governments, but this story, this case, is too important to be hidden from public eyes. That’s why we’re suing.”
A county spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit seeks an expedited hearing, civil penalties for willful violations of the Nevada Public Records Act, and the award of costs associated with the news organization’s efforts to obtain the records. The lawsuit identifies seven violations.
“The records are not confidential by statute and the public’s interest in transparency far outweighs any conceivable interest in nondisclosure,” states the lawsuit filed in District Court.
In May, the Review-Journal first reported on the county’s award of a $10 million contract to a team that included Rock Solid Project Solutions, a firm owned by Floyd’s wife, Raquel. Rock Solid stood to make $1.5 million on the contract to provide construction management services for the 215 Beltway & Summerlin Parkway Interchange Project. The $130 million public works project was the county’s largest at the time.
The county awarded the contract without interviewing other top-ranked teams, a decision that ran counter to its stated procedures. Jimmy Floyd managed the bidding process, which observers said was skewed to favor the Rock Solid team’s proposal. He also was among the evaluators who ranked the proposals, the county confirmed.
The Review-Journal reported that as of early 2025, Rock Solid had been paid $442,200 as a subcontractor on county construction management contracts.
One industry representative said, “Put yourself in my shoes. Wouldn’t you include them in your contract?”
The news organization also reported how the county prequalified Rock Solid to be a primary contractor for construction management contracts on smaller public works projects.
‘A scandal involving millions of taxpayer dollars’
The county suspended Jimmy Floyd in May and fired him in August. It released documents on how it would be improving its process for identifying conflicts of interest in awarding contracts. However, it did not provide records about the findings of what it described as two investigations, stating they were confidential “personnel records.”
According to the lawsuit, the requested records are not designated as confidential by statute. The suit also states that the county cannot claim the records are confidential under county code because local government can’t create exemptions to the public records act.
Even if personnel records were categorically exempt, “the County’s effort to hide records of a scandal involving millions of taxpayer dollars by characterizing them as ‘personnel records’ contradicts the purpose of the NPRA,” the lawsuit states.
The county provided the evaluations of proposals for the 215-Summerlin contract but did not provide the names of all evaluators, nor did it link the names it provided to specific evaluations.
Likewise, it did not link names to evaluations in connection with the ranking of Rock Solid as a primary contractor or consultant for construction management contracts.
The county did provide hundreds of other documents, including emails that, for the most part, were irrelevant. Three emails titled “Investigation update” were redacted in their entirety. After the news organization objected, the county provided new redactions that provided scant information.
Ben Lipman, chief legal counsel for the Review-Journal, repeatedly asked county attorney Lisa Logsdon to identify what investigation documents the county was withholding. Logsdon eventually identified records of a dozen interviews, a draft summary of the interviews and a confidential investigative summary. She also said that more than 2,500 emails would need to be reviewed and redacted.
In her most recent communication in late December, Logsdon said this review would take another six weeks. However, the documents were never produced, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit, filed by attorney and former television reporter Colleen McCarty with the firm of Ballard Spahr, states that without these records, many important questions remain unanswered:
— How did Jimmy Floyd rate the proposal by his wife’s team and those of other teams in the 215-Summerlin bidding process?
— Did supervisors know that his wife owned Rock Solid?
— Did the county follow its own policies regarding conflicts of interest?
— Were any employees other than Jimmy Floyd disciplined?
“It is disappointing that after all this time, the government is still hiding public documents from the public,” Lipman said. “We filed this lawsuit because people need to know what happened, how it happened and who was involved.”
Contact Mary Hynes at mhynes@reviewjournal.com or at 702-383-0336. Follow @MaryHynes1 on X. Hynes is a member of the Review-Journal’s investigative team, focusing on reporting that holds leaders and agencies accountable and exposes wrongdoing.
