Columnist Jeff German: Unraveling the mess at CCSN

Wednesday, June 30, 2004 | 11:04 a.m.

The FBI's investigation into the tangled mess at Community College of Southern Nevada has heads spinning throughout the university system.

Agents could be on the cusp of another corruption scandal here or on to one of the great he-said, she-saids in state history.

The probe, which heads to a federal grand jury on July 14, is focusing on allegations contained in an investigative report prepared for the Board of Regents on questionable hiring and lobbying practices within CCSN under the leadership of former President Ron Remington and his lobbyist and political adviser, John Cummings. After hearing the report, the regents demoted both men, who are now trying to get their jobs back.

But the most explosive chapter of the 1,026-page report, put together by former IRS agent Jeffrey Cohen, deals with questions about the university system's March 2003 legal settlement with Zelda Williams, the wife of Assemblyman Wendell Williams, and its alleged link to a bill that would have allowed CCSN to provide four-year degrees.

The regents heard about the potential violation of federal law and then heard words such as extortion, bribery and fraud, and were told that Assemblyman Williams may have broken the law, a charge he denies. The regents voted to send the report to the feds.

FBI agents have the task of trying to figure out whether there truly was something nefarious going on, or whether this was simply the university system's clumsy handling of a lawsuit involving the wife of the powerful chairman of the Assembly Education Committee and the botched lobbying of a bill that the chancellor saw as an end-run around her.

What's known is far from complete, but talk surfaced early in the 2003 Legislature about the bill to let CCSN award four-year degrees. Williams says Cummings, with the help of Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, who worked for Cummings at CCSN, pushed the bill.

By March, Zelda Williams was seeking a cash settlement, as much as $100,000, from the university system to end her lawsuit over a racial slur a CCSN official made about blacks in her presence. University system attorneys were dismissive, but recommended a $5,000 settlement to avoid more expensive court costs.

Cummings has contended that Wendell Williams was threatening not to hear university system bills unless his wife's suit was settled to her satisfaction. Cummings said Williams ordered meals and expensive bottles of booze in Carson City and put them on CCSN's tab, and the lobbyist filed a whistleblower complaint saying his job was "in jeopardy for saying no to a legislator."

At the insistence of Remington, then-Chancellor Jane Nichols ignored the advice of her lawyers and agreed to pay Zelda Williams $49,900. Nichols feared a trial would bring bad publicity to the university system. The settlement was $100 under the $50,000 threshold that would have mandated it be brought before the regents for approval.

Two days before Williams got her check, Assembly Bill 511, which sought the four-year community college degrees, was introduced by the Education Committee.

Nichols said she believed Cummings was behind the bill and, furious because she felt she and the regents were being circumvented, demanded Cummings and Remington not support it. The bill died.

So what should we make of that?

If it was a bribe, it was the worst in the history of bribery -- one that surely caused a cadre of Chicago alderman to roll over in their graves.

If it was extortion, why would Nichols cave over a bill she didn't want?

What Cohen's report uncovered was a gang of very bright people that just couldn't -- or wouldn't -- shoot straight, and in the process left the university system open to plenty of criticism.

My guess is that heads will be spinning at the FBI as agents try to unravel this mess.

Sure there could be bribery, extortion and fraud. But from initial appearances, it looks more like pure ineptitude. On all parts.

In the end it's only going to further tarnish a university system that no one thought could be tarnished any more.