Regent walks out, claiming open-meeting law violation

Friday, Jan. 30, 2004 | 9:47 a.m.

University regents may once again have violated the open-meeting law because a regent committee discussed a CCSN advertising contract Thursday morning without properly informing anyone from the agency they would be discussed, Regent Mark Alden alleged.

"They just don't get it and they are wrong," Alden screamed as he stormed out of the audit committee. "I'm calling the attorney general's office right now."

Alden, who is not a member of the audit committee, filed a complaint against the board this morning.

Alden's complaint was one of many open-meeting law questions raised Thursday because of an injunction that bars regents from discussing fired Community College of Southern Nevada President Ron Remington in closed session or without proper notice.

District Judge Jackie Glass' injunction, which was issued Monday, follows the state attorney general's opinion that the board did violate the open-meeting law by voting, deliberating and forming a consensus during the closed sessions Nov. 17 and 20 that led to the removal of Remington and CCSN lobbyist John Cummings.

The injunction made tensions run high during the meeting because some of the board's agenda items, such as an audit report of CCSN's contract with Paladin Advertising and a proposal for a four-year dental hygiene degree at CCSN, are not only related to Remington and Cummings, but were connected to the reasons the pair were removed from their posts.

A third agenda item, scheduled for possible action today, is a $500,000 security initiative Cummings allegedly pushed through the 2003 Legislature without the board's approval.

One of the main reasons regents cited for removing both Remington and Cummings was insubordination for allegedly pursuing both the security bill and a bill for four-year programs without notifying the board.

One of the allegations against Cummings was he contracted with Paladin Advertising, his former employer, without allowing for a competitive bid. An investigator's 1,026-page report also included an allegation that Remington and Cummings had released the college's prior agency without notice because enrollment numbers had fallen.

Regents discussed the contract at the December meeting of the board, but Regent Tom Kirkpatrick had questioned enrollment numbers at CCSN and asked for further information to be presented at Thursday's meeting.

Regents Linda Howard and Steve Sisolak both made motions to postpone the agenda items, which came up in the audit and academic, research and student affairs committees respectively, because some of the questions they had could not be answered without bringing up Remington and Cummings' involvement.

Tom Ray, attorney for the University and Community College system, told both regents that to even mention either Remington or Cummings' name may be a violation of the open-meeting law, and asked them to exercise caution.

But while Sisolak easily passed a motion to table the CCSN dental hygiene four-year degree proposal until they could fully discuss the proposal, audit committee chairman Doug Hill refused to hear Howard's motion. Instead, Hill allowed Regent Tom Kirkpatrick to continue asking his enrollment questions of CCSN's vice president of finance, Patty Charlston.

Howard said Hill was "denying my right to give input" by failing to table the item until discussion could continue.

"You are putting yourself in danger of once again violating the open-meeting law and I am not going to sit here and put myself in danger of breaking the law again," a visibly angry Howard said.

After the meeting, Hill said it was Howard who was trying to break the open-meeting law by bringing Remington and Cummings into an information item that was simply to hear enrollment numbers at the college.

"She clearly went beyond the scope of the agenda," Hill said.

Howard, however, didn't see how they could discuss the contract, which was not yet an action item, without mentioning any individuals.

"Part of the allegations they've been saying is Remington was asleep at the wheel when Cummings was running amuck," Howard said after she had left the audit committee meeting in frustration. "This was one of the issues where he was allegedly running amuck."

A few minutes later, Alden followed Howard out of the meeting to report the board's actions to the attorney general.

Ray, however, doubted the board had broken the law in this instance, as no individuals were discussed and conversation was limited to clarification of the enrollment numbers.

Other regents agreed, and said the open-meeting law was beginning to limit their ability to function as a board.

"With all the restrictions on us now, we can't hardly say anything," Kirkpatrick said.

Regent Doug Seastrand agreed.

"I don't blame them for being cautious but we can take it to an extreme," Seastrand said. "The open-meeting law is not supposed to stifle conversation. It is supposed to make discussion more open."

Academic committee chair Jill Derby said she was especially disappointed the CCSN dental hygiene bachelor's degree was tabled.

"It is very important for me to have this implemented by the fall," said Derby, who personally has a bachelor's degree in dental hygiene.

"There is no reason to mention names, it should be evaluated on the merit's of the program," Derby said. "Individuals are not the keys, it is always in institutional effort."

The regents on the committee had all been in support of the dental hygiene program, which they said met a great need and fulfilled the board's criteria for allowing special niche bachelor's degrees at the community college level.

Both Derby and Sisolak, however, were confident the program could be approved in March and still implemented in the fall.

"This has to be tabled until we resolve the Ron Remington issue," Sisolak said during a break. "We can't discuss those issues without bringing up Ron Remington. We'll raise (the dental hygiene proposal) after the court makes its ruling with respect to the attorney general's opinion and Judge Glass' injunction."

Sisolak said he planned to motion to table the security bill on the agenda this morning for the same reasons.