A now-fired Clark County manager was “heavily involved” in public works projects that included his wife’s firm, which likely resulted in the firm receiving preferential treatment, according to a summary of an early investigation into conflict-of-interest allegations.
The county’s investigation found that the evidence supports that Jimmy Floyd, former head of the construction management division, was “heavily involved in the selection, project management, and invoice processing of projects” that included Rock Solid Project Solutions as a subconsultant/subcontractor, the summary states.
Floyd’s wife, Raquel, owns the firm, where her husband is now a vice president, according to Rock Solid’s website. The county fired him in August.
“The evidence supports that it is likely that Rock Solid Solutions did receive some level of preferential treatment, whether directly or indirectly, due to Jimmy Floyd’s position with Clark County,” according to the redacted “draft” document dated May 6, 2025.
Raquel Floyd deferred comment to her husband, who declined to comment for this story.
The county released the investigation summary last week following a May 22 District Court ruling that it had violated the Nevada Public Records Act by withholding records about Jimmy Floyd’s firing. In March, the Las Vegas Review-Journal sued the county for records tied to its probe of Jimmy Floyd and the process that allowed his wife to receive lucrative contracts.
However, the county continues to withhold documents from later in its investigation process, according to a new Review-Journal motion. The matter is scheduled to be heard during a court hearing Wednesday.
Anonymous complaint triggers inquiries
The county’s investigation stemmed from an anonymous complaint about conflicts of interest sent to county officials and later obtained by the Review-Journal, which began publishing stories on its own findings in May of last year.
Among other issues, the complaint alleged irregularities in the county’s award in December 2024 of a $10 million construction management contract to a team that included Rock Solid. The contract was to manage the construction of the 215 Beltway & Summerlin Parkway Interchange Project.
Jimmy Floyd oversaw the award process and served as an evaluator of the contract proposals, the county confirmed last year.
The Review-Journal two weeks ago received unredacted documents showing that of the five evaluators, Floyd was one of two who gave the top ranking to Diversified Consulting Services, a firm whose proposal specifically stated that it would be using Rock Solid as a major subconsultant/subcontractor. The three others gave their top ranking to a competing firm, WSP. However, Diversified had the highest number of overall points and received the contract.
Sources familiar with the bid process said that its requirements were skewed to give the Diversified/Rock Solid team an advantage. And in a break from protocol, the county did not conduct interviews with the highest-scoring firms before awarding the contract to Diversified, the sources said. Rock Solid stands to make at least $1.5 million on the contract.
The investigative summary states that Jimmy Floyd said he took the contract proposals to Denis Cederburg, his boss and the director of public works, to ask if he needed to recuse himself, and that Cederburg stated that he did not. The report states, “Denis did not confirm this but shared that Jimmy was removed from the project after the complaints were received.”
For several years, Rock Solid had been a scheduling subcontractor on county projects and as of early last year, had been paid $422,200 on county projects, according to records that were obtained last year by the Review-Journal through a public records request.
According to the investigation summary, “Jimmy Floyd did not disclose each incident of Jimmy’s Clark County work interactions with Rock Solid Project Solutions to supervisor Denis Cederburg, particularly when Rock Solid Solutions expanded their services to include construction management and inspection services.”
The county approved Rock Solid for a short list of companies eligible to be the primary construction management consultant/contractor on smaller public works projects.
As previously reported by the Review-Journal, Jimmy Floyd on two occasions filed an annual disclosure report with the county that stated his connection to Rock Solid.
In an interview with county investigators, Jimmy Floyd said his wife had received permission from Cederburg to work on county projects, according to redacted audio of the interview. He also said he had requested guidance from Cederburg and a representative of the district attorney’s office about a possible conflict of interest, and they had not seen an issue. He acknowledged that he could not find documentation of the meeting.
Cederburg could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Information that may be related to this meeting has been redacted from the investigation summary.
In an email to county officials a year ago, county Chief Financial Officer Jessica Colvin said the department head — Cederburg — was aware of Jimmy Floyd’s connection to Rock Solid, but that a personnel directive prohibits employees from engaging in activities that represent a conflict of interest.
She said that after reviewing several emails she believed that Jimmy Floyd had regularly violated the directive’s overarching purpose of prohibiting employees from using their county positions “to secure or grant privileges, exemptions, advantages, contracts, or preferential treatment for themselves or others.”
The emails show “recurring instances of Rock Solid’s access to Jimmy in his position” as a public works manager, Colvin states in the email.
In a redacted email dated May 15, 2025, one of the county investigators, employee and labor relations manager Ashley Mazzone, asked Colvin if she should also draft a summary of concerns related to Cederburg, a decades-long county employee who remains in his position.
Such a document has not been provided by the county to the Review-Journal. It’s unclear whether such a document exists.
Motion seeks records release
On Monday, District Judge Bita Yeager ordered that a new Review-Journal motion be heard Wednesday. The motion asks the court to enforce the release of investigation records, or as an alternative, order the county to show cause why it should not be held in contempt for failing to release records.
After Yeager’s May 22 ruling regarding the release of records, the county has provided select documents to the news organization. However, Deputy District Attorney Scott Davis asserted last week that the county had conducted not one but two investigations into the matter, and was required to provide documents related to the first investigation only, according to the Review-Journal’s motion.
Davis advised “that it was the County’s position that the LVRJ’s public records requests did not apply to both investigations of Floyd and, therefore, the County had not and would not produce records related to both Investigations,” according to the motion.
Colleen McCarty, an attorney for the Review-Journal, advised Davis that the news organization disagreed “because the requests litigated in this matter were sufficiently broad to encompass records relating to both Floyd investigations and because the Court had already ordered production of the responsive investigative records and email Communications,” according to the motion.
Additionally, she asserted “based on the myriad communications between LVRJ and the County over many months, that there could be no doubt LVRJ requested records relating to the entirety of the County’s review of the matters involving Floyd and the award of construction contracts.”
County spokesperson Jennifer Cooper wrote in an email to the Review-Journal on Monday, “The County disputes the accuracy of the latest RJ filing, and our full arguments will be presented before the Court on Wednesday.”
Contact investigative reporter Mary Hynes at mhynes@reviewjournal.com or at 702-383-0336. Follow @MaryHynes1 on X.
