Regent’s remarks anger attorney general’s office

Tuesday, June 6, 2000 | 11:15 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The state attorney general's office is miffed at a university regent who suggests the office is either incompetent or being used for political purposes.

The attorney general has told the Board of Regents it violated the open-meeting law twice when considering issues involving Richard Moore, president of the proposed state college in Henderson and former president of the Community College of Southern Nevada.

The attorney general's office issued two warning letters to the regents instead of filing a civil suit, which it has done on some occasions with other government agencies.

Regent Douglas Hill, a Reno attorney, said in a letter to the Las Vegas Sun that there are only two reasons why a suit was not filed. The first possibility, he wrote, is that the "district attorney" is incompetent. The second, he wrote, is that the "district attorney" does not have a case but has decided to exploit the power of her office to throw mud for political reasons.

In each case Hill actually meant the attorney general, not the district attorney.

"If the attorney general fails to institute a prosecution, it is obvious that she cannot prove a violation of the law ..." Hill wrote.

Deputy Attorney General Victoria Oldenburg, who handled the case, said it is disappointing that Hill, as a lawyer, did not understand the concept of prosecutorial discretion.

She said that since 1991 the attorney general's office has found 95 violations of the open-meeting law by various public boards and issued 53 warning letters. It has filed 17 civil lawsuits.

Oldenburg, in a letter to Hill on Monday, said, "In many cases this office has chosen to provide guidance and issue warnings for open-meeting law violations and use our resources in educating public bodies rather than expending significant tax dollars in engaging in unwieldy litigation. For this, we should not be criticized."