Lawmaker quits job with CCSN; cites lack of duties

Kirsten Searer

Friday, July 2, 2004 | 11:09 a.m.

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, has resigned her post at the Community College of Southern Nevada, where she worked for less than two years and found herself at the center of several controversies.

Giunchigliani said so many duties had been taken from her that she felt she was no longer earning her salary of more than $70,000 a year.

"I've seen too much from the inside," said Giunchigliani, who was critical of the way CCSN's administrative office recently has been reorganized. "It's just time for me to to look at other options."

The university system Board of Regents took a vote to fire Giunchigliani in November after some regents complained there were conflicts between her part-time job as a legislator and her full-time job as a director in the college's government relations department.

The vote, which was part of the fallout over lobbying and employment issues at CCSN, failed 9-4.

Soon after, Giunchigliani filed for whistle-blower status, saying the regents were retaliating against her for saying that community college employee Topazia "Briget" Jones was taking unauthorized paid trips to Carson City to assist Assemblyman Wendell Williams.

Also, during the 2003 Legislature Giunchigliani introduced a bill that would have reduced the number of regents on the board and made most of the members appointed rather than elected.

At CCSN, she said, her role as spokeswoman had been taken from her, leaving her as a liaison to high school dual-credit programs, technology centers and community cable channels.

"I just feel I'm not being utilized like I should," Giunchigliani said.

Giunchigliani, whose resignation is effective today, said she is looking for new opportunities. She said she was not planning to return to her previous job as a middle school special education teacher or work full time with her husband, political consultant Gary Gray.

She said she also would keep an eye on the college and continue to push a bill that would reduce the number of regents to nine and require that most of them be appointed instead of elected.

And she said she would be happy to participate in an ongoing FBI investigation into the Jones case, though she said the FBI has not contacted her or anyone else she knows in the college.

Last week Jones was interviewed by the FBI, and she is expected to testify in front of a grand jury later this month. Her attorney said last month that Jones is a witness, not a target, of the investigation.

Regent Bret Whipple, who was critical of Giunchigliani's dual role, said he continues to have respect for her as a legislator but thinks the issue of public employees working in the Legislature "needs to be looked at."

"She was working in the executive branch (of government) and the legislative branch," Whipple said. "It creates an issue of how many hats you're wearing and, when you speak to people, what hat are you wearing at the time?"

Regent Chairman Stavros Anthony agreed, saying the state Supreme Court needs "to resolve that issue."

In November regents held a 17-hour closed session while they discussed the employment of Giunchigliani, CCSN President Ron Remington and his lobbyists and adviser, John Cummings. Remington and Cummings were demoted and Giunchigliani kept her job by a 9-4 vote.

Giunchigliani worked in Cummings' department.

The Board of Regents reviewed a 1,026-page investigative report that raised questions about Cummings' hiring practices.

The report also said that Giunchigliani, under the Cummings' direction, helped draft a bill to develop four-year colleges at CCSN that regents claimed circumvented their authority.

Giunchigliani, Remington and Cummings have denied the allegations against them.

Sun reporter

Christina Littlefield contributed to this story.