Court to rule on regents meetings

Jennifer Knight

Friday, Jan. 26, 2001 | 11:37 a.m.

After nearly six months of waiting for a Nevada Supreme Court decision, one of five viable candidates has already dropped out of contention for the president's job at Community College of Southern Nevada, but the case is drawing to an end.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments Feb. 8 on whether the interview process of university presidents should be open to the public or not.

The case came about after regents began the selection process for a new CCSN president and held the interviews of five candidates in closed session. The Las Vegas Review-Journal filed suit, claiming that the meetings should be held in public.

"We probably were going to do (the interviews) in open session, but we were never asked," said Regent Doug Seastrand, chairman of the 19-member search committee. "This case is all about precedent. It has nothing to do with this particular search."

The issue hinges on who is a public official and who is not. The university system will argue that a president does not meet the criteria of someone who holds public office, Ray said.

Current open meeting laws allow for all interviews for positions such as board members or other public officials to be available to the public, according to Tom Ray, general counsel for the University and Community College System of Nevada.

Since the suit was filed last September, all candidates for the position were placed on hold. There were five people contending for the job. One person, Frank Vivelo, is no longer in the running, said his wife, Jackie Vivelo. He has since taken a job at Santa Fe Community College.

Of the remaining four, Dr. Robert Anderson Jr. of Northwest Community College in Rangely, Colo.; Deborah Floyd, of the University of Kentucky, and Diana Sloane, of Los Rios Community College in Sacramento, have all confirmed their desire to wait until the court case is settled. The fourth remaining candidate, Shirley Reed, founding president of South Texas Community College in McAllen, Texas, could not be reached for comment.

The university and community college system lost its case in a lower court. If the Supreme Court finds for the plaintiff again, it could effectively nullify the search efforts thus far. If that scenario happens, regents would be asked to go back to the drawing board, Seastrand said.

"If we did have to start again, we would advertise and ask that the people (who we've interviewed) submit their resumes again."

The timeline for finding a replacement is tight. CCSN's Interim President Bob Silverman is the lead candidate for a job in Oregon and if chosen could leave as early as May.

The court's decision is expected to be made by the end of February, Ray said, which would only give regents roughly two months to find Silverman's replacement.