Editorial: Save time, save trouble; obey the law

Wednesday, June 16, 2004 | 9:18 a.m.

Call it ignorance of the law, idiocy or arrogance, but whatever you call it, behavior by the Board of Regents and three state agencies has caused embarrassing, time-consuming and costly predicaments.

On Monday District Judge Jackie Glass ruled that the Board of Regents in November illegally fired Ron Remington as president of the Community College of Southern Nevada. Their action was illegal because it violated the Nevada open-meeting law, Glass ruled. So now we have three presidents of CCSN -- Remington again, an interim president from Florida who took over after Remington's firing, and a new president the board hired away from a Wisconsin school who is due to begin work Aug. 1.

Also on Monday, District Judge Kenneth Cory granted a 35-day extension to petitioners who are seeking to overturn the tax increases passed by the 2003 Legislature and, in a separate initiative, to bar public employees from serving as legislators. The extension was granted because state officials, including those at the Department of Motor Vehicles and the University and Community College System of Nevada, harassed the petitioners as they were attempting to gather signatures.

The Board of Regents has a history of open-meeting law violations, but they apparently didn't learn from those experiences. And state agencies were all advised by memo last September from the secretary of state's office to extend all courtesies to any petitioners. Instead, the petitioners were harassed -- giving them a legitimate-sounding claim to have lost valuable time in collecting signatures.

Had it not been for the harassment, the petitioners' deadlines for gathering signatures would have expired by now. The lengthy process of validating the petitions, and preparing the ballot questions (if the petitions were found to have enough valid signatures), could also have started on time. Now, elections officials will have to wait another month and then go into overdrive. Secretary of State Dean Heller has decided not to challenge the extension. But his office well understands its implications. "It will put an extra burden on this office and election officials," Heller's spokesman, Steve George, said. "The rest of the state, outside of Clark County, has new voting equipment and new procedures. There will be difficulty in getting everything put together. But the deadlines will have to be made. It's just a question of what will take place to make that h appen."

The scrambling by elections officials, and all of the confusion over CCSN's leadership, could have been avoided if the Board of Regents and state officials had simply followed laws regarding open meetings and the rights of petitioners. We hope these twin fiascos will be a lesson for public officials throughout the state. There are consequences for brushing aside people's rights.