Chancellor says Remington still fired

Friday, June 18, 2004 | 9:22 a.m.

Demoted community college officials will stay demoted, university system leaders said Thursday, despite a judge's order that voided the Board of Regents' November decision.

Interim Chancellor Jim Rogers said the University and Community College System of Nevada does not plan to reinstate Community College of Southern Nevada President Ron Remington, who was fired from the job and demoted to a faculty position last fall.

"Our position is that he's not president," Rogers said Thursday. "We don't have three presidents. We have Interim President Paul Gianini and incoming president Richard Carpenter, who will take Gianini's place."

District Judge Jackie Glass ruled on Monday that the Board of Regents violated the state's open meeting law during the Nov. 17 and Nov. 20 closed sessions during which Remington and CCSN lobbyist John Cummings were fired. Glass ruled that all actions taken during the meeting were "null and void."

Richard Linstrom, assistant solicitor general for the Nevada attorney general's office, said the ruling made it as if Remington and Cummings were "never fired at all."

But Rogers and system lawyer Tom Ray both said that Remington and Cummings remain fired because the regents reaffirmed their decision to demote them at a December meeting.

Both men noted that Glass' ruling was limited and did not order that either man be reinstated.

Rogers said he is in ongoing negotiations with both Remington's and Cummings' attorneys.

"Hopefully we can work out something," Rogers said.

Rogers would not comment on what, if anything, the regents should do in response to Glass' ruling.

"I don't want to do anything at all that is going to prejudice my settlement negotiations," Rogers said.

Ray said the regents may not have to do anything if they believe, as he does, that the December meeting corrected the violation. They may choose to appeal the decision or hold another vote in open session, Ray said.

Kathleen England, Remington's attorney, and Frank Cremen, Cummings' attorney, agreed that they viewed the judge's order as having reinstated their clients, and England was aghast that the regents could think anything else. England agreed that Glass was silent on the effect of the December meeting, but she argued that it did not correct the November violation.

"They are grasping at straws," England said.

England and Cremen said they were in negotiations with the system to resolve the situation.

Several university regents said they were similarly confused about how to proceed because of the judge's silence on the December meeting.

After listening to hours of testimony from Remington's supporters, as well as hearing from Remington, regents in December voted 7-6 not to rescind their original vote. Many regents said they thought that meeting reinforced their intention to demote Remington and Cummings and that the matter should be over.

Other regents said they were still waiting to hear from their system lawyers or Rogers on what to do.

The only regent who said he was not confused was Steve Sisolak.

"The judge has ruled that the actions we took are illegal, that we violated the open-meeting law, and that those actions, those demotions never happened," said Sisolak, who voted against the demotions.

"That means that he (Ron Remington) is the president right now as far as I'm concerned."

Sisolak said the December meeting did not cure the violation, because they did not take a real vote. The vote to not rescind the decision was a parliamentary procedure.

Several other regents said they would approve holding another vote, but that the results would be the same.

"The December opinion affirmed our opinion and, if necessary, we'll just have another special meeting and do it again," Regent Marcia Bandera said.