Dairy chief named to ethics position

Friday, May 3, 2002 | 9:18 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- By a 4-2 vote, the state Ethics Commission decided it wanted an experienced administrator rather than a lawyer to be its next executive director.

The commission Thursday chose Stacy M. Jennings, who is currently executive director of the Nevada Dairy Commission, to take over the $78,326-a-year job and succeed Polly Hamilton, who resigned earlier this year.

After interviewing the four finalists, Commission Chairman Todd Russell said each was qualified and that any of the four would make a good executive director.

But Russell said he preferred an administrator because most of the problems confronting the commission in the past had been administrative.

Jennings, before her job with the Dairy Commission, was vice president and interim president of the Nevada Hospital Association. She also worked as a senior research analyst for the Legislative Counsel Bureau.

Other finalists were D. Michael Clasen, a contract staff attorney for Nevada Legal Services in Reno; Caren Jenkins of Washoe Valley, who was an associate attorney with a San Francisco law firm and prior to that held the same position with a Las Vegas law firm; and Thomas Henderson, who worked as a financial advisor for Morgan Stanley from 1997 to 2001 and prior to that was a senior analyst for 11 years with the state Public Utilities Commission in Carson City.

Commissioner Jim Rogers of Las Vegas said he preferred an attorney for the position. He nominated Clasen but did not get a second. Commissioner Jim Kosinski of Reno also preferred a lawyer. He nominated Jenkins but did not get a second.

Commissioner Tom Sheets then nominated Jennings, who got four of the six votes.

Sheets, of Las Vegas, said he initially favored a lawyer but changed his mind during the interview process. He said Commission Counsel Nancy Lee Varnum "could flesh out the legal issues."

Commissioner Rick Hsu of Reno said he wanted to see the next executive director do more education of public bodies about the ethics law.

Hsu said he had already received good comments from the governor's office that Jennings "did a great job" in her present position.