Giunchigliani defends CCSN, Assembly roles

Heather Rawlyk

Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2004 | 9:19 a.m.

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, a Community College of Southern Nevada spokeswoman who narrowly avoided being fired by the Board of Regents, said Monday her hiring process was fair and that she did not improperly mix college business with her legislative duties.

Giunchigliani, speaking on "Face to Face With Jon Ralston," on Las Vegas ONE, Cox Cable channels 1 and 19, said that although she was friends with former CCSN administrator John Cummings before she was hired at CCSN, the friendship had nothing to do with her getting the job.

She said Cummings called her to tell her about a published announcement for the job opening.

A few CCSN administrators who talked to an investigator brought up her name as part of the issue of Cummings' hirings. Cummings was removed from his lobbying and administrative duties by the regents in a contentious decision in November.

Regents Jack Lund Schofield, Bret Whipple and Tom Kirkpatrick issued a joint statement this month saying Cummings and CCSN President Ron Remington circumvented the regents' authority, requested unauthorized funding and gave preferred treatment to friends.

In a closed meeting, the regents also discussed a legislative bill that some regents claimed would have improperly circumvented the board.

Giunchigliani supported the bill, which would have limited or reduced the size of the Board of Regents.

According to the minutes of the closed session, Whipple raised the issue of Giunchigliani preparing the bill and said she faxed information from a university fax machine and faxed information "that truly undermined the Board of Regents." The bill was not successful.

Giunchigliani said Monday that Whipple was "way out of line" and her use of the fax machine did not violate any policies.

Whipple said his main issue was that he believed Giunchigliani was doing legislative work while being paid by the community college.

"The issue I had a concern with was because she's supposed to be doing work for the community college while she's at the community college," he said. "If she's doing stuff for the Legislature, then she's not doing her job while she's at work at the community college."

Whipple said he does not question Giunchigliani's integrity, and said he is only concerned that he believes she is "wearing two hats at once."

Giunchigliani disagreed.

"I never confuse roles between business and my legislative job," she said. "I never had difficulty separating my jobs, and I don't think anybody else could make that charge."

Also discussed on the show Monday was how Giunchigliani obtained a copy of a performance evaluation for Topazia "Briget" Jones, a clerical trainee who introduced the allegations against Remington and Cummings.

According to the minutes of the closed session, Regent Doug Hill suggested that Giunchigliani "either created a phony evaluation or someone gave her a phone evaluation and set her up for this."

Giunchigliani said Monday that Remington gave her the evaluation in August after she had made a recommendation that Jones' performance evaluation be reviewed.

Giunchigliani said the copy she received had no signatures on it. Giunchigliani said she wrote that the evaluation may have been fabricated because it had no signatures.

"Why Remington gave me the evaluation, that was his decision," she said.

Hill said he simply did not understand where the evaluation came from.

"I said either someone prepared a phony evaluation and gave it to her or she had done it," he said. "She sent a letter over that said the evaluation wasn't signed, but I didn't understand why she had the evaluation in the first place. She isn't a supervisor and not a member of personnel, so why did she have it is what I'm wondering."

The regents never questioned Giunchigliani about the evaluation.

"If they bothered to take the time to interview me, I could answer all the questions for them," she said. "What's most offensive to me is that Mr. Hill would even suggest that I would fabricate that."

Giunchigliani said she might consider filing a lawsuit.

"If I have the right to sue, I will be pursuing that," she said.