UNLV student president aims to fight impeachment

Debra D. Bass

Friday, Aug. 1, 1997 | 10:47 a.m.

UNLV's student body president, Joe Mills, has won a temporary restraining order against the university to ward off possible impeachment proceedings.

On July 14, the Student Senate appointed a committee to investigate eight counts of malfeasance and nonfeasance against Mills -- meaning he allegedly did things he wasn't supposed to and didn't do things he should have done.

Contending that the Student Senate was scheduled to conduct an impeachment hearing Monday, Mills filed a petition with District Court last Friday. Judge Myron Leavitt granted him a temporary restraining order Monday.

Levitt said the order, which was served on the Student Senate at its meeting Monday, prohibits the student government from conducting any impeachment hearings for 15 days from the date the order was issued. However, it does not prevent student government from continuing to investigate charges against Mills.

Mills' suit cited 34 defendants by name, including the entire student government body -- Consolidated Students of the University of Nevada.

Mills said an "impeachment committee" was created for the sole purpose of removing him from office because it could not prevent him from "being elected by an overwhelming majority of students in the election process, despite the attempts by the defendants to manipulate the election process."

Terry Moore, Student Senate president, says the committee was charged with investigating whether impeachment should be considered, but was not expected to make any recommendations for some time.

Moore said no impeachment hearing was planned or implied. Monday's meeting was merely to be a discussion and possible presentation by the committee investigating the charges against Mills, Moore added.

Leavitt said he granted the restraining order because of Mills' allegations that he had been denied due process, legal counsel and an adequate discovery period.

"What I figured was that you have to have a fair hearing before you hang a man," Leavitt said, having not yet heard the university's side of the story.

Among the charges being considered by the Student Senate, which could warrant impeachment proceedings, are: "willfully and knowingly violating the nepotism policy" on two separate occasions; violating student handbook policy; neglecting his duties and violating University and Community College System of Nevada policy.

Specifically, Mills appointed his sister, Donna Mills, as receptionist in the student body office in May. She was only employed about four days. She was never paid for her time, because a two-thirds majority of the Student Senate voted against it. There is also a question of whether Donna Mills was enrolled as a student at UNLV at the time, even though she was categorized as a student hire.

Mills writes in his complaint that it was "an emergency temporary" situation.

Mills is said to have drafted a memo in July recommending his sister for director of entertainment and programming, Nevada student affairs director, office of student information director and organizations board director -- all positions with student government for which she had applied.

Nevada's nepotism law prohibits a person in a public executive position from employing or recommending for hire an immediate relative who would work under them.

Mills issued letters firing the general manager, program manager and development director of KUNV-91.5 FM, the campus radio station, which receives partial funding from student government. Mills had no such authority, but believes he was acting in the best interest of students.

Among the people affiliated with the university who are included in the restraining order: The Consolidated Students of the University of Nevada, Multicultural Student Affairs Director Velicia McMillian-Haron, KUNV-91.5 General Manager Don Fuller, associate vice president for student life Terry Piper and Vice President for Student Services Robert Ackerman.

Carl Armstrong, one of two attorneys employed by the university system, will provide counsel to the student government.

"The university is not planning on getting involved. I don't know why some of the people named were named," Ackerman said.