Monday, Dec. 8, 2003 | 11:06 a.m.
The investigation into hiring practices at the Community College of Southern Nevada tried to link a payment to Assemblyman Wendell Williams' wife with political favors, according to sources and the investigator's report.
The 1,026-page report, a copy of which was obtained by the Sun, tried to establish a link between CCSN's payment of $49,900 to settle a lawsuit by Zelda Williams over a former administrator's racial comment and Assemblyman Williams' work on legislation for CCSN.
Private investigator Jeffrey Cohen included portions of transcripts from interviews with 10 people, copies of e-mails, memos, contracts and other documents in the report.
The report covered several different areas, including allegations of political influence peddling, harassment and political patronage in hiring. The report also looked at CCSN's lobbying expenses and the awarding of the college's advertising contract.
The report centered on the hiring, firing and reinstatement of Topazia "Briget" Jones, who described herself as the special assistant to Williams, D-Las Vegas. She was hired as a clerical trainee and said she was assigned to work with Williams on bills related to CCSN.
After hearing the report in two closed sessions last month, a split university system Board of Regents voted to oust President Ron Remington and John Cummings, his aide and lobbyist, returning them both to faculty jobs. The regents also voted to start the process to remove Cummings' tenure.
The main section of the report looks into allegations that Cummings went against policy set by the university regents by trying to push for a bill that would establish a four-year degree program at CCSN. Williams sponsored the bill to do so.
In a somewhat tense exchange in a transcript of their interview, Cohen asks Cummings, "...I'm asking if there was an agreement, an understanding between him, meaning Professor Cummings, and Assemblyman Williams regarding the settlement of Mrs. Williams' suit against the University and Community College System of Nevada."
Cummings explained that he had several conversations with Williams during the session about the suit and Cummings was asked by the system to be an intermediary. University system Chancellor Jane Nichols asked Cummings and Remington for advice on a lawsuit by Zelda Williams.
In an e-mail, Nichols wrote to a university attorney that "this just smells like a settlement to me."
"If this goes to trial, it is a no-win for us and Wendell knows that," she wrote on Aug. 8, 2002. "I do not want to air this dirty linen in a courtroom, I think. But you may have other perspectives I am not aware of."
The university attorney suggested fighting the claim, and the claim was not settled as the Legislature started in February of this year. Cummings said he had several conversations with Williams during the session.
"Most of those (conversations) had to do with if the lawsuit is not settled and I'm sure going to have a problem hearing system bills," Cummings told the investigator. "It's going to be interesting to see how those bills go in the drawer. I believe there was a threat of separating the community colleges, breaking in up into separate campuses if the lawsuit was not settled."
Cummings later said he was approached by Williams and was told, "I didn't need you anyway. I've got the chancellor and I have (John) Pappageorge (the university system's lobbyist). Pappageorge took care of it for me."
Sections of Williams' interview with Cohen don't show a response.
At the end of the section of the report about the alleged link between CCSN and Williams, Cohen included the law on extortion, wire fraud, bribery or other corrupt influence of a legislator, a legislator asking or receiving bribes and grafting by a public officer or employee.
Regents sent the report to the state attorney general's office, the U.S. Attorney's office and the FBI.
Board Chairman Stavros Anthony said system attorneys advised the the board to forward the allegations to the authorities.
"Apparently our attorneys decided there was enough of a link to refer it to the proper authorities," said Anthony, who is a Metro Police Department captain.
Regent Steve Sisolak said the investigator attempted to make several connections between Williams, Remington and Cummings, but missed.
"Quite honestly, I was not that impressed with the links he made," Sisolak said. "He attempted to make a lot of links but I don't think he made the connection."
Williams and Jones could not be reached for comment. Their attorney, Larry Semenza, said he hasn't seen the report and said the investigator never completed the interview with Jones.
Regent Mark Alden said the investigation was an attempt to discolor the reputation of Cummings and Remington.
"The investigator tried to link hires, insinuating they were juiced but they all went through the proper searches."
Regent Tom Kirkpatrick, who voted to oust both Cummings and Remington, said he did not know why the report was turned over to the authorities for further investigation.
"I don't know where there is a link or not," he said. "I'm assuming that's the way investigators work, they ask leading questions."
Regents said little about their split vote to oust the Remington and Cummings. Regents voted 7-6 to oust Remington and 9-4 to oust Cummings following 17 hours of closed personnel session on Nov. 17 and 20.
Cohen was hired after the university system received a complaint from Jones.
She alleged she was wrongly terminated and harassed. She also complained about the hiring procedure, Cummings' work and said she was never promoted, as promised.
Cohen's investigation focused on Cummings' alleged involvement in drafting a bill to create four-year degrees in nursing and teaching at CCSN, his legislative expenditures, his tenure as an English professor, CCSN's contract with Paladin Advertising and the hiring, promotion, alleged sexual harassment and termination of Jones.
Jones was fired by CCSN due to poor attendance and work performance. Nichols intervened in her termination, reversed the action and ordered an investigation into the matter.
In her original complaint Jones alleged improper hiring practices and improper lobbying practices.
The report attempts to establish that Jones was a lobbyist yet never registered as such and that Cummings went against university policy by pushing Assembly Bill 511, which would establish four-year programs at CCSN.
In his interview Williams said, "Mr. Cummings said that he would put the language together for the -- for the bill. And actually, he said to me, Ms. (Assemblywoman) Christina Giunchigliani (who is also a CCSN spokeswoman) would be getting the language for me."
Nichols was angered by the potential for the bill to hurt the fledgling Nevada State College at Henderson.
"Basically I had arrived at the conclusion that this bill -- had been and was being promoted by Mr. Cummings, and I said to President Remington at that point in time, you have -- if you -- you cannot be promoting this, the Legislature putting four-year degrees at CCSN and it could cost you your job," Nichols said in an interview with Cohen.
When Cummings testified against the bill, Williams said it led him to break off their 20-year friendship.
But Cummings maintained that his only involvement in the bill was to supply the language that Williams had asked for as background information. He said Nichols was aware early on about the bill.
A good portion of the document focused on the hiring of the 28-year-old Jones as a clerical trainee while hiring freezes were in place at all of the colleges in Nevada.
Al Daniels, executive director of continuing education at CCSN, testified that he was told by Cummings that he was going to hire Jones,
"And I said something like, 'Oh, really?' " Daniels said. "And I said, we've been trying to fill that for some time and the personnel office won't allow us to fill it.
Cummings told the Sun, however that he never had that conversation with Daniels.
Jones was hired through a process known as "under filling," where low-level employees can be hired on a temporary basis if no eligible person is available from a state employee layoff list.
Jones' hiring was signed off by CCSN Dean of Extended Programs Theo Byrns and Ralph Goudy, manager of continuing education. Cummings' name did not appear on her employment document.
Jones alleged that Cummings hired people he knew into the college and alleged a type of political patronage in his hiring. Cummings has said that Jones was hired at the behest of Williams.
While Jones alleges that Cummings attempted to fire her in retribution for breaking up his friendship with Williams, Cummings says that Jones only filed a complaint because he would not promote her.
Interviews with one co-worker alleged that Cummings had facilitated the hiring of several other people as favors.
That information came to the investigators attention in a 9-page document written by Larry Braxton, a former employee who was fired after it was learned that he had a federal conviction at another institution he worked at before coming to CCSN.
"In each of those allegations, they found nothing but an opportunity to attempt to smear my character and remove the best president that the Community College of Southern Nevada has ever had," Cummings said Sunday after learning the Sun had a copy of the report.
Remington, who appears to be a secondary character in the report, was removed by regents for insubordination and violation of board policies. While the investigator didn't appear to focus on Remington, Regent Bret Whipple, who voted against him said in a previous interview with the Sun that he appeared to be "asleep at the wheel while all of this was going on."
Remington's job to supervise Cummings may have been a reason behind his removal, but Nichols' supervision over college lobbyists during the session is at issue too. In her interview with Cohen, Nichols said she was responsible for lobbying efforts during the Legislature.
Regent Linda Howard has called for a closed session meeting next week to talk about the chancellor's knowledge of lobbying at CCSN.
Other reports surfaced about CCSN's lobbying efforts.
For example, testimony was given about how AB 511 circumvented the Board of Regents by going through the Legislature to create programs. However, Goudy said that Jones set up a meeting between Al Daniels, Byrns and Jones to ask for legislative help. Williams ended up drafting legislation, AB 391, that would appropriate $3 million to CCSN's continuing education department.
Cohen did not interview Pappageorge about the settlement of the Zelda Williams suit. Pappageorge worked closely with Nichols during the 2003 legislative session.
Cohen did not question any others about this legislation or the origins of the AB 391, which would have allocated $3 million to CCSN's continuing education department. But in an earlier interview with the Sun, Nichols said, "I don't know where that bill came from."
Also at issue in the investigation was how CCSN received $500,000 for security measures that regents never asked for in their biennial budget.
Kirkpatrick noted in his statement that the University of Nevada, Reno received $5 million without asking for it to purchase a school from the Catholic archdiocese.
The university system received $8.6 million in money it didn't ask for.
Alden has asked for an investigation into Cohen's qualifications and is asking for the chancellor's removal in relation to this case.
Sisolak said he felt regents failed to use logic when weighing fact versus allegation.
"I think the board in its eagerness and over zealousness to make a strong statement, failed to look at the big picture and some of the facts," Sisolak said.
The report also looked at Cummings' expenses during the legislative session and his role in awarding CCSN's advertising contract, reportedly of $750,000, to Paladin Advertising. Cummings worked at Paladin before being hired in 2000 by CCSN.
Cummings said that despite the document getting into the hands of the press, he believes a full airing of its contents will likely show the holes in the investigation.
"I have no problem with the press, the public seeing this and I believe they will see it for what it is and that is a document to paraphrase Shakespeare, 'Full of sound and fury and signifying nothing.' "
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