Colleges to have only one lobbyist

Thursday, July 8, 2004 | 11:13 a.m.

Interim Chancellor Jim Rogers has banned all of the state's universities and colleges from sending registered lobbyists to Carson City for the upcoming 2005 Legislature.

An outside lobbyist who will be selected by Rogers will be the only lobbyist for the entire University and Community College System of Nevada, according to a memo obtained Wednesday by the Sun.

The memo states that the hired system lobbyist will work with the chancellor's office to respond to all legislative action and will follow the priorities of the system as identified by the Board of Regents.

"This policy intends to provide a clear and accountable system to best represent the UCCSN's interests for the next biennium," Rogers says in the memo, dated June 25 and sent to the Board of Regents.

Rogers was on a cruise in Alaska on Wednesday and could not be reached for comment, system officials said.

Regents said the policy was in response to several problems the system had in the 2003 Legislature, including alleged claims of end-runs around system priorities and infighting among lobbyists for each institution.

Regents questioned the policies and lobbying expenses at all of the state's institutions following the investigation into lobbying activity at the Community College of Southern Nevada that led regents to demote CCSN President Ron Remington and lobbyist and political adviser John Cummings in November 2003.

In March regents voted to give the chancellor the full authority to approve and remove institutional lobbyists and to track all lobbying expenses.

System lobbyists, however, said they had assumed that would mean they could still work at the 2005 Legislature.

Rogers' memo does allow for each campus to send one representative to Carson City to assist with bill tracking, identifying people for testimony, gathering campus information and keeping campuses informed of actions.

These representatives, however, must be approved by the chancellor and will not be registered as lobbyists, severely restricting their activities. Rogers says in the memo that he will establish outside office space for these representatives to work in order to "limit time spent at the Legislative buildings."

Lobbyists must register if they plan to work in the legislative buildings, Lorne Malkiewich, director of the Legislative Counsel Bureau, said.

Campus representatives can testify in hearings and can research bills for lawmakers outside the Legislative buildings without registering as lobbyists, but Malkiewich said those representatives should refrain from passing along the information they gather to the lawmakers themselves.

The memo also designates Rogers and his assistant chancellor, Trudy Larson, as the official spokespersons for the system, and mandates that "all others who are requested to speak or desiring to speak on issues must contact the Chancellor."

The memo went to regents, presidents of UCCSN institutions, the chancellor's cabinet and the legislative response group.

Larson announced the change in policy Wednesday to the Interim Legislative Committee to Evaluate Higher Education, meeting at the Grant Sawyer State Building in Las Vegas. The committee discussed limiting lobbying efforts to the regents, chancellor and the institutional presidents, but instead just voiced their concerns about previous lobbying attempts "for the record."

Sen. Terry Care and Sen. Warren Hardy both said they were concerned with what had happened with CCSN and that the competition between institutions had caused a credibility problem for the system.

"When you come to the Legislature, those fights need to be over," Hardy said.

University regents on Wednesday said they were supportive of the chancellor's plan to hire one system lobbyist and said Rogers needed to have absolute authority over lobbyist to make sure all of the system's priorities were represented.

Regent Chairman Stavros Anthony said having one lobbyist would make sure the needs of the entire state were being considered.

"I think it's a good move," Anthony said. "It puts a lot more control of our lobbying committee under one person, which is the way it should be."

Some regents were unsure, however, of how it would work to have individual representatives still in Carson City. They were torn on whether those representatives were needed, but were also concerned about whether one lobbyist could cover the needs of all of the different institutions.

In the past, there has been a discrepancy between the universities and the colleges, regents said, as many of the smaller schools could not afford to hire lobbyists. At the same time, many of the Southern schools believe that the University of Nevada, Reno and other northern institutions have an unfair advantage if they are unable to send their own lobbyists.

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, who resigned from her job at CCSN last week, said such inequities are common. She supported the idea of one hired lobbyist, but she also questioned whether the chancellor would be able to keep tabs on all of the representatives working in Carson City.

Some institutions are already starting their lobbying, Giunchigliani said, noting UNR representatives took Sen. Bill Raggio out to lunch last week.

"How are they going to prevent that activity?" Giunchigliani said.

There's also a large volume of legislation to handle questions on, regents said, as more than 100 bills were introduced in 2003 that affected higher education. Many of those bills produced questions that only campus representatives could answer, Regent Jill Derby said.

"It's critical to have the various institutional representatives up there to speak for issues that impact them, but it's also important that it be a coordinated effort," Derby said.

Most of the lobbyists for the various institutions were not reachable for comment Wednesday, but those who were said they were wary of how their institutions would be represented.

"I think you'll find that a lot of institutions are concerned with the new program," Spencer Stewart, Nevada State College spokesman, said. "But I think it might be a good change to have one entity or one lobbying outfit, as long as they take into consideration the needs of all institutions."

The college has one of the biggest challenges this session in requesting $9 million for its liberal arts building. The request has been given a top priority by the regents and the chancellor, but legislators have expressed reservations.

Cummings, the lobbyist whose alleged actions led to the new policies, advised then-Chancellor Jane Nichols in May 2003 that it would be beneficial to the system to have all institutional lobbyists report to and work with one system lobbyist. In the e-mail obtained by the Sun, Cummings still expressed the need to have individual lobbyists, but said those lobbyists needed to work as a team.

Cummings declined to comment because he is still in negotiations to resolve his lawsuit against the board stemming from his November demotion.