Editorial: Probe would be fiery — but futile

Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2003 | 8:48 a.m.

The Board of Regents made an unpleasant spectacle of itself last month when it voted 7-6 to demote the president of the Community College of Southern Nevada. By the same vote, it demoted the college's legislative lobbyist. The board spent 16 hours over two days behind closed doors. It denied due process to the two college officials by not allowing them to appear at the meetings and defend themselves. It offered only highly generalized reasons for its actions. And it almost immediately hired another college president without first bringing him here from Florida for interviews.

We have previously criticized the board's conduct and we remain critical. The board's actions leave us and many other people, including college teachers and administrators and even many of the regents themselves, asking, "Just what is going on here?" This is a question that deserves an answer and we can appreciate the frustration being felt by state Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, who chairs the Legislative Commission. Townsend has said he will ask the commission next month to appoint a committee to look into the whole affair. He wants the regents' decisions investigated and he wants the university system's policies on hiring, firing and demotions evaluated by the committee, which will have subpoena power.

From emotional and populist points of view, what Townsend wants to do makes sense. In reality, however, the Legislature, an elected body, has no authority over the Board of Regents, another elected body with the independent power to hire and fire as it chooses. We can see fiery hearings and lots of grandstanding. But in the end what we see is a stalemate over the issue of separation of powers. A lot of time and effort and money will be spent on generating headlines but little else. In our view, the 12-member Legislative Commission, which handles legislative business in the off years of the full Legislature, should reject most of what Townsend wants to do.

Part of the intrigue surrounding the discipline of the college officials concerns the hiring of an entry-level employee at CCSN who suddenly began appearing at the 2003 Legislature identifying herself as a "special assistant" to Assemblyman Wendell Williams. It would be within the scope of the Legislative Commission to find out how one of its own legislators acquired a special assistant employed by the college. But given that Remington has already filed a lawsuit, all of the other matters Townsend wants investigated are best left to the courts. And to the voters, who, come election time, can speak louder than anyone about the board's conduct.