CCSN interviews to be conducted in public

Jeffrey Libby

Friday, Sept. 29, 2000 | 11:07 a.m.

Interviews with the remaining candidates for president of the Community College of Southern Nevada will be conducted out in the open, District Judge Michael Douglas ruled this morning.

The decision came less than two days after the Las Vegas Review-Journal filed suit against state higher education officials to open the interview process. Interviews scheduled for this week were initially noticed as closed to the public.

In another abrupt shift in the final weeks of a five-month search process, CCSN Interim President Robert Silverman announced Thursday that he was withdrawing his name from consideration, reducing the number of remaining candidates to five.

Silverman, who served more than four years as vice president of academic affairs at CCSN before signing on as interim president in January, told faculty by e-mail that he could best serve the community college by returning to his role as senior vice president.

Silverman said he would use the experience gained as interim president "to help the new president to understand the culture of the college and community, the complexity of the legislative funding issues, and the commitment we all share to the innovative programs we have created."

In District Court this morning, the crux of arguments on both sides came down to the definition of a public official. According to the open meeting law, public officials must be appointed under public scrutiny.

University attorneys argued unsuccessfully that the community college president was not created by state statute or state constitution and therefore, as an employee, not an official, was exempt from open meetings.

University attorney Tom Ray argued that the newspaper was in reality asking for changes in policy that the Legislature would have to enact. The closed-door meetings allowed for a balance of applicants' privacy and the public's right to know, Ray said.

The newspaper cited the fact that the university system chancellor, the superintendent of the school district and the president of UNLV had all been selected through open meetings in the recent past.

"It's a victory for the public," said attorney Donald Campbell.

Campbell said the hiring process for public officials "has to be held in the light of day. And frankly, I wonder why they fought so hard."

Open interviews for community college president will likely be delayed until Oct. 6 in order to allow the university system to re-notice the interviews as required by law. But the search committee still expects to make a final recommendation to the full Board of Regents by mid-October as previously planned.

The remaining candidates, some of whom are staying longer in Las Vegas than expected due to the court case, are: Robert Anderson Jr., president of Northwest Community College in Rangely, Colo.; Deborah Floyd, executive assistant to the chancellor for special projects at the University of Kentucky; Shirley Reed, founding president of South Texas Community College in McAllen; Diana Sloane, vice chancellor of education and technology at Los Rios Community Collegeg in Sacramento, and Frank Vivelo, president of Wharton County Junior College in Wharton, Texas.

The new president will oversee three campuses, about 35,000 students and a school budget in excess of $62 million. The salary pays between $117,000 and $200,000.