Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Firing of nursing home director may be legal, but not fair

Friday, Sept. 20, 2002 | 2:52 a.m.

Chuck Fulkerson, state Veterans Affairs commissioner, pressured Jon Sias to resign as director of the Nevada Veterans Nursing Home in Boulder City. Very simply, without the decency of an explanation, he was told to clean out his desk by the close of business on Wednesday, Sept. 4. Sias was shocked and requested, in writing, additional time. "I cannot in good conscience make such a momentous decision without careful consideration for its long term effect on my career," he wrote Fulkerson. His request fell on deaf ears and his written words had no effect on a closed mind.

My first reaction would have been to tell Fulkerson to take the job and shove it where the sun doesn't shine. I never have been very tolerant of people with less knowledge treating me as a little boy. A professional like Sias doesn't react like me, because this is the Navy veteran's first big job as a nursing home director. He doesn't need a blemish on his record and from what I have been able to learn, he doesn't deserve anything on his record in Boulder City other than high praise.

Sias arrived in Boulder City in May of 1999 and found the new facility being built with flaws and a staffing plan that would never meet the demands of any licensing authority. During the next three years it was a continuous struggle with the State Public Works Board and a budget analyst to make things right. Show me a state administrator who hasn't had problems with the Public Works Board and I'll show you one who hasn't had a deadline to open a new facility. Until recently, after some badly needed changes, that outfit had done more to hold up progress than any other public body.

In the meantime, where was Fulkerson when his help was needed to push the public works and budget people? Sias admitted he was a novice and needed help with the state budget program. What he got from the budget analyst wasn't an education but an overdose of micromanagement and more irritation. Of course, this problem with budget analysts isn't anything new in state government, but to Sias it was just one more unnecessary roadblock. He hadn't learned to play bureaucratic politics and all he thought about was getting the nursing home open.

After reviewing several problems originating in Carson City, my attention turned to the local people who have been helpful in opening the nursing home. What is their view of Sias?

Boulder City Mayor Bob Ferraro is eager to talk about the good relationship he and the residents of the city have with Sias. "We helped him and he always was cordial and willing to sit down and to discuss changes suggested by the city," the mayor told me.

Mitch Kuhn, a Jewish War Veteran leader, called Sias "a very capable man who ran into a pack of trouble that wasn't his fault. He deserved more support than he received from Carson City." Mitch and the JWV made large financial and volunteer contributions to the nursing home.

Bob Waits and the Elks in Boulder City have adopted the nursing home and it has the support of the Grand Lodge. He found Sias easy to work with and very congenial. Waits added, "He didn't play the political game."

Ken Braker of the Vietnam Vets also found Sias good to work with when his veterans helped the nursing home. Dan Selmela, speaking from his wheelchair as a past commander of the Disabled American Veterans, referred to Sias as a "man of his word" and most cooperative.

A couple of people interviewed remarked that Gov. Kenny Guinn had ordered Sias fired. Not true. The governor learned about him being forced out from a member of the press.

Sias answered the advertisement for his job that said it was a protected, classified position, comparable to a civil service job in the federal government. Later it was changed to an unclassified position, which means he can be fired at the will of his boss, Fulkerson. I'm not sure that just because a person can be legally dismissed without recourse always makes it right. Most of us have learned over the years that sometimes there is a big gap between something being legal and true justice. Never has this gap been wider than the forced resignation of Jon Sias. This isn't the way we used to treat people in Nevada and even today it should make even the most calloused person blush with shame. Not true. The governor learned about him being forced out from a member of the press.