EOB refuses to downsize its board

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Friday, May 7, 2004 | 11:12 a.m.

Behind closed doors Thursday, the directors of the Economic Opportunity Board, the Las Vegas Valley's largest nonprofit agency, decided to accept all but one of the recommendations contained in a federally funded investigation.

They refused to step aside so a new board could be formed.

"There's no reason why" that recommendation was rejected, said Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, spokesman for the troubled agency in recent weeks. "We just didn't agree."

Opposition to breaking up the board proved to be the last straw for the board's newest member, Clark County Social Service Director Darryl Martin, who handed in his letter of resignation at the meeting's end.

"This board hasn't been effective as of today ... and there needs to be a new board that can face the challenges ahead," Martin, who joined the board in November, said this morning.

The report that came out of the federal investigation included the suggestion that the 15 positions on the board of directors be cut back to three while the agency reorganizes and then builds the board back up "with the addition of new members."

Neal said the board will try to negotiate with the state about that recommendation.

The board is supposed to have five members each from business, government and the low-income community. But there were four vacancies going into Thursday's meeting. Seven of the 11 remaining were at the meeting and one, Gene Collins, participated by phone, though it is not clear if he participated in the closed session.

Neal said after the meeting that no one had left the board, but Martin said he had given his resignation letter to the board at the end of the meeting.

It is not clear whether the board's decision on how to respond to the state was reached by a vote because the agenda items related to the report were moved by board vice chairman and Las Vegas City Councilman Lawrence Weekly to a closed, executive session. Neal wouldn't directly answer questions about whether there had been a vote or if there had been any dissenting votes cast.

The report was released 10 days ago and the board had until today to respond in writing to the state Department of Human Resources, the agency that called for the investigation and oversees a $20 million-plus child care program and other, smaller programs that the EOB runs.

Neal said the agency would meet that deadline.

The state spent $17,500 in federal funds on consultants who conducted the investigation in early April, which focused on the board, management and fiscal affairs.

Among the recommendations in the report was that the board should bring in an outside management team to help run the embattled agency, which has been the subject of three federal investigations in recent months for fiscal, management and program problems. The results of two of those investigations have yet to be released.

Thursday's special meeting was called at a regularly scheduled meeting April 28 in order to meet the state-imposed deadline.

But a struggle to include other items on the agenda ensued, including board member Richardson's attempt to have the board look at an updated financial status of the organization, which didn't make it onto the agenda. Head Start council chairwoman Pamela Henry's interest in separating the early childhood education program she works with from supervision by the division within the EOB that runs the child care program, which was tabled.

Then two items which appeared to refer to the federal report were moved from the agenda to a closed, executive session, because, Neal said, "we can put whatever we want in a closed session."

When pressed on this issue, Neal said the board was discussing "personnel, structural issues, and fiscal issues."

Although the EOB spends tens of millions of dollars in public money every year, it is not required to abide by the state's open meetings laws, Neal has said.

A complaint seeking clarification of whether the EOB is subject to those laws is pending with the Nevada attorney general, a spokesman for that office previously said.

Under those laws, even for the limited exceptions in which a properly posted agenda item can be moved into a closed session, the vote and action on that item must be conducted in the open.

Discussion of some personnel matters -- interviews for public employment, disciplinary and performance reviews or terminations, for example -- can be moved into closed sessions under the open meetings laws. But the only recommendation in the report linked directly to the EOB's personnel is that an outside, interim management team should help recruit and hire a new executive director and other top staff.

The EOB's most recent executive director, Marcia Rose Walker, fired the agency's most recent chief financial officer, Debra Santos, on Jan. 30. A few weeks later, Walker resigned.

Asked if Thursday's decision regarding the report was reached with a vote by the board members, Neal said, "We reached a consensus."

As to whether that meant there were dissenting votes in the closed-door meeting, he said, "There was a lot of discussion."

Asked how many dissenting votes there were, Neal said, "I told you what our decision was."