Ex-CCSN president’s lawyer gets meeting transcripts

Monday, Jan. 26, 2004 | 11:07 a.m.

Forty-four days.

That's how long it took university counsel for the Board of Regents to adhere to the court order requiring them to turn over transcripts of the 17-hour closed meetings Nov. 17 and 20 that led to the reassignment of Community College of Southern Nevada President Ron Remington and lobbyist John Cummings to teaching positions.

Remington's attorney, Kathleen England, received the transcripts Friday after she had filed for another temporary restraining order demanding the transcripts on Wednesday.

Meanwhile this morning District Judge Jackie Glass said she was "seriously concerned" about the regents' actions leading up to the demotions of Remington and Cummings. She said she thought that the closed-door meeting and possible votes behind closed doors may have broken the state open-meetings law.

Glass issued an injunction prohibiting the regents from "voting, deliberating and forming a consensus" on Remington and Cummings during a closed session.

She also said the regents would have to pay the entire cost of producing the transcriptions -- estimated at more than $7,500 -- because of the delay.

England had sought fines of $1,000 for each day the regents failed to hand over the transcripts since they promised to do so in a media statement Dec. 17. That would have amounted to $37,000.

The ruling comes days after university counsel Tom Ray removed closed personnel sessions from this week's Board of Regents meeting after being warned by the attorney general's office the sessions would again violate the state's open meeting law.

However, England said this morning that she was pleased with the ruling.

"We won," she said. "The attorney general slapped them, and now she slapped them,"

But England added that the judge still needs to rule on her request to take statements from the regents.

England said the transcripts, which were disorganized, misnumbered and as "unfriendly as can be," showed that the regents "had sat around trashing people" at the closed sessions.

England said she would not release the transcripts to the press because of the "defamatory, unsupported allegations" against Remington.

"There is no factual discussion, no indication of the reliability of what they are doing," England said.

England also raised doubts as to whether she would even have the transcripts yet if she had not filed the motion Wednesday and if the attorney general's office had not filed its complaint last week stating that the board did violate the open-meeting law.

"They choose what to give me, I'm at their mercy," England said. "And that's not fair, that's not the way this litigation is supposed to work. They never do anything on time, everything is always at the last minute."

Ray, when reached by phone Friday, said England's motion for sanctions was "absurd."

"(Transcribing 17 hours) is a time-consuming process," Ray said. "As soon as we got (the transcripts) back, we forwarded them."

Ray also said England is not entitled to depose anyone or to receive any further documents prior to the board discussing Remington in a meeting. The decision to remove the closed personnel sessions from the agenda was because of the attorney general's opinion, not because of England's motion, Ray said.

"While we don't agree with (the attorney general's) opinion we thought it would be prudent not to raise any new issues," Ray said.

Ray said the university counsel filed a response to England's motion Friday, but Glass's office said they had not received it as of closing time.

England also said she had not received a copy of the motion, nor had she been contacted about the revised agenda, by the end of the business day on Friday.