Columnist Ruthe Deskin: Taking a hard look at nepotism

Ruthe Deskin

Thursday, June 15, 2000 | 9:01 a.m.

Ruthe Deskin is assistant to the publisher. Her column appears Thursdays. Reach her at deskin@lasvegassun.com.

Shocking? It sure is.

The amount of nepotism in Southern Nevada's publicly-funded colleges and universities, as disclosed recently, is shameful.

Members of the Board of Regents, who approve these hirings, would disagree. Everything is proper, they claim -- except for Regents Steve Sisolak, Tom Kirkpatrick and David Phillips, who questioned the manner in which Richard Moore was named founding president of the still-to-be-constructed Nevada State College in Henderson. This was followed by the naming of Orlando Sandoval as vice president of the same institution. He had no competition.

The husband of UNLV President Carol Harter also received appointment to a job without any competition, and wives of vice presidents are also on the payrolls. None have been required to follow normal hiring procedures. This is what has been bothering Sisolak -- the university system's lack of standard overall hiring practices.

How the Board of Regents can be so cavalier about not opening key jobs to competition is mind-boggling. Almost every government agency and even private businesses announce job openings and initiate job searches for candidates. The opportunity to apply and compete for top jobs in the university system should be available to the public and current employees. Jill Derby, chairwoman of the Board of Regents, and others on the board do not share the concern of Sisolak, Kirkpatrick and Phillips.

This is not to question the abilities of the appointees but we do disagree with the lack of standard hiring procedures as practiced by most agencies of government.

Referring to the hirings as "emergencies" to avoid going through proper channels is insulting to those who would have competed were the jobs openly advertised.

Or are we in an era where it's not what you know but who you know?

The monthly newsletter of a local housing complex offers some good advice: If you receive a call from an individual identifying himself as an AT&T service technician running a test on your telephone lines, beware. If he tells you that to complete the test you must touch nine, zero and the pound sign and then hang up -- don't do it.

By following those instructions you end up giving individuals who call you access to your telephone line and it allows them to place a long distance telephone call with the charge appearing on your telephone bill. Do not press 9-0-# for anyone.

Author and critic Joe Queenan is a true intellectual snob, a very funny man, or both.

In "Red Lobster, White Trash and the Blue Lagoon" he takes a caustic approach to what he considers "awful things."

Queenan riles the reader as he reviles such things and people as the musical "Cats," John Tesh, "The Celestine Prophecy," Joe Pesci, Liza Minnelli, assorted best-sellers, Liberace, Kenny G, Bobby Vinton, Atlantic City, bad cappuccino, David Cassidy and an assortment of authors, entertainers and educators.

Ironically, he found Las Vegas to be "merely absurd." Here's what he has to say about our city:

"I had never visited Las Vegas in the first 46 years of my existence because I had always assumed that it would be repulsive and depressing. It was not. Vegas was astonishingly middle class and ordinary. ... teeming with average Americans at all hours of the day or night. ... I had come here expecting pathetic and instead it was merely absurd."

Other ways he described Las Vegas were "wholesome" and "an urban theme park" with a "sense of its own absurdity."

We're had much worse reviews.

In spite of the fact that I find the author guilty of the most flagrant arrogance and snobbery, the book is a fun read if you like critics who "skewer with a meat axe."

A stray bird tells me Richard Branson delighted guests at a party celebrating Virgin Atlantic Airlines' nonstop flight from Las Vegas to London by donning a bright red suit and flying through the air with the greatest of ease with the Elvi sky divers.

Branson is the fun-loving owner of Virgin and other prosperous ventures. Virgin's alliance with National Airlines in a frequent flier partnership promises to be a big boon for Las Vegas international air travel.

Thought for the day: Beware lest your footprints in the sands of time leave only a heel.