Lobbying firm drops college

Friday, March 17, 2000 | 12:24 p.m.

In his final weeks as president of the Community College of Southern Nevada, Richard Moore committed the two-year college to paying Laxalt's firm $10,000 a month to find federal money. The first payment to the firm had been scheduled for this month.

On Thursday, before the firm backed out of the agreement, two regents questioned whether the university system should add community college representation to a costly Washington lobbying endeavor aimed at getting research dollars for Nevada's two universities.

"That's a lot of money," said Regent Thalia Dondero, who did not know about the agreement until contacted by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "I guess when money is as scarce as it is right now, we need to find out more about these lobbying costs."

Regent Steve Sisolak said he was amazed that a college claiming to be broke a year ago could come up with $120,000 to pay for lobbying.

"I do not know where all this money comes from," he said. "I'd like an accounting of all of this discretionary money the campuses seem to come up with. It's crazy."

A retainer agreement between Moore and Laxalt was stamped "confidential" and dated Nov. 17, one month before Moore was named founding president of the proposed Nevada State College at Henderson.

Three days before his formal appointment on Dec. 17, Moore told Laxalt he also wanted to hire the former senator and Nevada governor for the Henderson college.

Moore defended his hiring of Laxalt and said he thought the community college would have benefited greatly from Laxalt's influence.