Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman is downplaying problems with the city’s deal last week to allow developer Billy Walters to turn another golf course into a subdivision and quadruple its value. He tells the Review Journal that after Wednesday’s council meeting, he hopes “this is a matter that is old news.”

Sad to say, the happiest mayor will probably get his way.

On the other hand, the mayor’s confession that he knew about the malfeasance before he voted to approve the deed change on the land, raises serious questions about what he and the council are doing. Is it better to look dumb or to look like you approved an insider deal that is smelling more rancid by the day?

The mayor has tried to blame it on the previous administration but he now seems to have given this quasi-criminal deal his seal of approval too.

Of course, Walters’ magical machine that changes green space into golf courses that then go broke if they are not remade into subdivisions has hoodwinked the County Commission as well. Stallion Mountain at the end of East Flamingo Road is now being remade into a housing estate.

Councilman Steve Wolfson may have opened a Pandora’s box by putting the issue back on the agenda. If other council members knew about the memos outlining criminal activity, as the mayor says he knew about the memos, and still voted to approve the deal, then the ethics of the people’s representatives are in a really sad state.

And who’d have thought re-zoning could become such a profit center?