AG may rule on dual regent roles

Jennifer Knight

Friday, Jan. 17, 2003 | 9:35 a.m.

The attorney's general office is prepared to offer a legal opinion on whether a member of the state Board of Regents can also work for the university system, a spokesman for the office said Thursday.

Regent Doug Hill is seeking an opinion from newly elected Attorney General Brian Sandoval on whether University and Community College System of Nevada employees can also serve on the Board of Regents and, if so, what issues are they allowed to vote on.

"Legally, they can very well ask us to issue an opinion because state boards and commissions are our clients," Tom Sargent, a spokesman for the attorney general, said.

Sargent said that such a determination would take anywhere from a day to a month to render.

Hill said he spearheaded the request to be considered Jan. 30-31 because so many candidates for regent in the fall election also worked as employees for the system. One longtime regent, Howard Rosenberg, is a professor at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Incoming Regent Stavros Anthony was the only one of the regents elected in November with that potential conflict of interest. He resigned his position as a part-time instructor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, before he was sworn in.

When asked why Hill decided to take action now instead of during the election season, he said it would have been poor timing.

"If you ask for that opinion while they are running, it looks like you are trying to take on an individual or that it is pointed at an individual, which is something you can't ever get away from," Hill said.

Hill denied aiming at Rosenberg, who is a tenured art professor. The two have been on awkward terms since Hill requested that Rosenberg be considered for censure because of alleged inappropriate interference in an employee issue.

Rosenberg could not be reached for comment, but has always maintained that he separates the two jobs, if necessary.

The state Ethics Commission in 1997 considered Rosenberg's potential conflict of serving as a regent and being a university employee, and voted 3-2 to allow the dual roles.

The 13-member Board of Regents votes on policy issues for eight higher education institutions in Nevada. The board makes decisions on a host of issues concerning students, faculty and administrators.