College letterhead not enough to deliver chamber seats

Jennifer Knight

Thursday, Dec. 20, 2001 | 10 a.m.

Two university system officials who sparked controversy for using state mailing supplies to garner votes for the Latin Chamber of Commerce board lost their bids, chamber officials said.

George Cantu, site manager with the provost's office at Community College of Southern Nevada, and Fernando Romero, special assistant to the vice president of administration at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, used institutional letterhead, stamps and college time to mail letters to Latin Chamber members to solicit votes.

Both candidates claim they were acting on official business, but the issue left lingering questions about the appropriate use of school resources for personal gain.

"I think they're both wrong," said Regent Steve Sisolak of the University and Community College System of Nevada. "First of all, it's a conflict of interest. When you put the name of a state institution behind a personal endeavor, it's unfair."

Sisolak said that Cantu had even more to gain. Cantu is running in 2002 for the state Legislature in District 11, a district with the highest concentration of Hispanics in the state.

A position on the Latin chamber would have meant greater exposure to the Hispanic voting population.

Cantu said his bid for a chamber seat came because the community college is an institutional member of the organization. He never made the connection between exposure on the chamber and additional votes for Legislature, he said.

"I never thought a position on the board would help me (in his bid for the Legislature). God strike me dead," Cantu said. "In fact, I thought the opposite might have happened because I figured I had bitten off more than I could chew."

Cantu sent about 350 letters to different chamber members at a cost of $119 in postage, money he says he has paid back.

Theo Byrns, Cantu's supervisor, said Cantu was never authorized to use the college's resources, but there is no official policy on the use of college stationery.

"Generally, we disapprove of the use of letterhead and stamps," Byrns said. "Mr. Cantu says I approved that. I approved his being a member of the board."

Romero's supervisor, however, did give him approval to send out 500 letters, using UNLV postage, letterhead and staff time, he said.

"Being on the board is an effort in part by the university to reach out to young people," Romero said.

There is no total cost estimate for either mailing.

Regents Mark Alden and Linda Howard also have come out against Cantu and Romero's actions, slating the discussion at their next board meeting in January in hopes of establishing a uniform policy for the university system.

The Latin Chamber of Commerce is considered an important link in the political food chain, despite the fact that it claims to be politically neutral.

Though the 950-member chamber doesn't endorse candidates, its sister organization, Hispanics in Politics, does.

"It is great to have (the Latin Chamber) on a resume," said David Griego, vice president-elect of the Latin Chamber of Commerce. "In terms of raising your visibility in the community, it does do that, but it's not enough to give him (Cantu) an inordinate boost."

The chamber has a list of recent board members who have gone on to higher office. Among them are state Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, and District Judge Valorie Vega, Griego said.

The race for a legislative seat next year will get interesting. That's because the district has literally changed overnight. After redistricting, the percentage of Hispanics jumped from 46.04 percent to 65.97 percent.

Cantu is Hispanic and his opponent, incumbent state Sen. Doug Bache, D-Las Vegas, is not. Ethnicity may play a big role in who wins the election, said Andres Ramirez, president of the Hispanic Democratic Caucus.