A two-member state panel Wednesday dismissed an ethics complaint filed by TV talk show host Harley Kulkin against Nye County Commissioner Peter Liakopoulos.

The panel, consisting of two members of the Nevada Commission on Ethics, decides whether to recommend for or against full ethics board consideration of a complaint.

"It probably would have to be the fastest ethics hearing I've ever heard of," said Liakopoulos. "I was cleared in 14 minutes."

The meeting was closed to the public, but Liakopoulos said he was allowed to listen in by phone.

The complaint involved the same county commission action upon which he was cleared of ethics charges by the full ethics commission June 13: voting on the chip-sealing of Higley Road to the KPVM-TV offices and studio, on which Liakopoulos airs various television shows.

At the first meeting, which exonerated Liakopoulos of the charges by a 6-1 vote, Chairman Jim Kosinski suggested Kulkin, who was in attendance, file ethics charges himself. The first ethics complaint was filed by Steve Johnson.

Liakopoulos said, however, that Kosinski suggested Kulkin file the ethics charges against all the commissioners who voted on the chip-sealing project March 20. He only singled out Liakopoulos for his business relationship with the station.

"The man will say anything to get attention or do anything to push himself ahead," Liakopoulos said of his accuser.

Kulkin alleged Liakopoulos didn't follow proper procedures in getting the 600 feet chip-sealed to the TV station. The road department already had scheduled the chip-sealing of nearby East Charleston Park Avenue on the 2007 program.

Kulkin said most people who want their street chip-sealed file petition to be on the county's list. An annual meeting is held to discuss the chip-seal list.

KPVM-TV owner Vern Van Winkle had been requesting for years that the street to his station in a remote area of Pahrump east of Highway 160 be chip-sealed. It didn't become a reality until after Liakopoulos took office in January.

However, an investigator for the ethics commission then made an apparently amazing discovery, while interviewing Nye County Public Works Director Samson Yao.

"There was a (chip-seal request) petition from 2003 and Harley said there wasn't," Liakopoulos said. "In fact, one of the signers of the 2003 petition was Harley Kulkin."

"The ethics board wanted to know why in 2003 the paving of Higley Road was for the good of Pahrump. What changed from 2003 to 2007 to make the paving of Higley Road bad for Pahrump and only for Peter Liakopoulos? They found that to be a great amount of hypocrisy," the commissioner said.

Liakopoulos also attacked Kulkin for violating rules of confidentiality in releasing details about his ethics complaint. They are normally kept secret until the two-member panel decides whether to forward the complaint to the full ethics board.

County commissioners said the TV station provides a public service to Pahrump in communicating emergencies or other announcements, in their rationale for approving the chip-seal amendment. Kosinski cast the sole vote against exonerating Liakopoulos in his prior ethics hearing, saying he should have provided a better disclosure at the commission meeting, of his relationship with the station.