LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Rossi Ralenkotter, one of many individuals who helped form fashionable Las Vegas, died Friday after a protracted struggle with most cancers. Ralenkotter labored for the Las Vegas Conference and Guests Authority for 45 years, together with 16 years as its president.
The advertising and marketing methods he oversaw had been wildly profitable, however his departure from public life tarnished an in any other case sterling repute.
Ralenkotter knew he had solely a short while to dwell when he sat down with our Chief Investigator, George Knapp.
For 16 years, he put a optimistic face on his battle with most cancers. 5 occasions, docs informed him the tip was close to. 5 occasions, the most cancers went into remission. Chemotherapy obliterated his hair. 5 occasions, it grew again, every time in a special coloration.
“The first time a doctor says to you, ‘you have cancer,’ it takes you a couple of days to kind of assimilate all that and figure out, okay, what’s going on,” Rossi mentioned. “But I wasn’t going to let it define me or let it define who we are or who my family is, really like that, and stayed positive from the beginning.”
Throughout his 40-plus years with the Conference Authority, Ralenkotter’s workforce and principal advert company R and R Companions fine-tuned the advertising and marketing of Las Vegas as a one-of-a-kind vacation spot and set in movement explosive progress in customer numbers and commerce reveals, which fueled a wave of recent mega resorts and game-changing points of interest, together with main sports activities franchises.
Within the final interview he ever gave, Ralenkotter hoped that folks would bear in mind him within the massive image.
“You got to look at the ‘what was the total impact of this person and what was the total impact of this organization or whatever, over 45 years?’ And I’ll stand up with mine against anything. And unfortunately, you know, it happened, but I’m not ashamed of anything I did.”
The “it” that occurred was a scandal that led to his departure. It started years earlier when Sheldon Adelson, one of many richest males on the planet, staked out his place that the Conference Authority was pointless. On the time, Adelson owned the Venetian Lodge and the Sands Expo Middle, a rival conference facility.
“Sheldon always believed that, you know, his opinion was that the hotels market Las Vegas, Las Vegas sells itself, and we don’t need the convention center,” Ralenkotter mentioned. “And so that was his opinion. Fine. But we worked with him all the time.”
Ralenkotter mentioned Adelson wished the Conference Authority to purchase his expo heart. LVCVA mentioned no. After Adelson bought the Evaluate-Journal, Nevada’s largest newspaper, the LVCVA grew to become the goal of intense media scrutiny.
Dozens of public data requests had been filed by the Evaluate-Journal, and a flurry of tales had been printed. Most fizzled… however one landed.
It revealed that staff, together with Ralenkotter, had accepted hundreds of {dollars}’ value of present playing cards from airways and had used them for private journey.
Ralenkotter mentioned the authority had labored laborious to woo greater than a dozen extra airways to service Las Vegas and, within the course of, developed partnerships, even friendships. In many years previous, comps, favors, and freebies had been frequent in Las Vegas enterprise circles.
“So, you work with the airline table. There were times, from time to time, you go to one of their lunches or whatever, there’d be a card for flights, you know, and $100 card to an hour card,” Ralenkotter defined. “I probably should have looked into a little bit more.”
Ultimately, although, it was revealed that key staff contained in the authority had bought tens of hundreds of {dollars}’ value of present playing cards over a five-year interval and used them for private journey, together with Ralenkotter.
That story blew up, and police started investigating.
An inside audit was launched, and a grand jury convened. Ralenkotter reimbursed the $17,000 value of present playing cards he had used, then retired.
A 12 months later, in 2019, he and two others had been charged with two counts of felony theft. The felony counts had been broadly seen as overkill and had been dropped.
Ralenkotter pleaded to a misdemeanor and paid a $1000 advantageous. He then went earlier than the ethics fee and was hit with one other bigger advantageous. The fee famous there had been no different black marks in his many years of public service.
As Ralenkotter neared the tip of his life, he knew the story in regards to the present playing cards can be talked about in information stories upon his impending loss of life. He spoke with 8 Information Now, partially, as a result of he hoped folks would bear in mind him for multiple incident.
As for contrition?
“I’m not ashamed of anything I did,” Ralenkotter mentioned. “And I’m not ashamed of the success that [Las Vegas] has had going from 23,000 rooms to 155,000, 43 million visitors.”
“All those years there, I didn’t have two days the same,” he reminisced. “I love this place. And I was, I’m still proud of every single thing that happened.”
Ralenkotter was additionally a lifelong baseball fan, cheering on the Cincinnati Reds, and helped lay the groundwork for Las Vegas to get its personal main league workforce.
Though he was already in hospice care and didn’t have lengthy to dwell, he held on lengthy sufficient to attend a particular ceremony on the Aviators recreation on Sept 19. He was too weak to throw out the primary pitch, however was there to see them hand out Rossi bobbleheads to followers.
