Raggio agrees to show education meeting under threat of protest

Emily Richmond and Kirsten Searer

Friday, April 8, 2005 | 11:03 a.m.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio abruptly reversed course Thursday after Clark County education advocates complained that he was shutting them out of a committee meeting, staving off a public protest.

Raggio, R-Reno, planned to not show the meeting on a videoconference but changed his mind shortly before the 5 p.m. joint meeting of the finance and education committees and agreed to allow testimony from people watching the meeting at the Sawyer Building.

Mary Jo Parise-Malloy, co-founder of Nevadans for Quality Education, said her group called off its planned protest after learning of Raggio's decision. But Raggio remains in hot water, Parise-Malloy said.

"It's unconscionable that Southern Nevadans aren't being allowed a voice in the legislative process," she said.

Raggio said he never intended to broadcast the meeting in Las Vegas. The committee needs to hear presentations on four bills in three hours, and people in Las Vegas will have other opportunities to offer their opinion, he said.

"It wasn't feasible to do it," he said Thursday morning. "We just don't have the time tonight."

Plus, Raggio said he can't take testimony from all over the state. "If I do it for Las Vegas, do we do it for Elko?" he asked.

Sen. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, protested the decision Thursday, saying that her constituents in Southern Nevada wanted to voice their support for the iNVest program but couldn't make the 450 mile trip to Carson City.

"We represent the people in the south," she said. "Not everybody can travel up here. They have the right and we're not giving them that."

Lorne Malkiewich, director of the Legislative Counsel Bureau, said it's up the the chairman of each committee to determine if a meeting will be broadcast in Las Vegas. The meeting is a joint hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Raggio, and the Senate Committee on Human Resources and Education, which is chaired by Sen. Maurice Washington, R-Sparks.

Malkiewich said the Finance Committee has consistently posted the meeting without notice that it will be broadcast in Las Vegas. For a short time this week, the agenda for the Human Resources Committee did indicate that the meeting would be broadcast in Las Vegas, Malkiewich said. The posting for the meeting on Thursday said it would not be videoconferenced in Las Vegas.

Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, said Raggio's desire for expediency in conducting meetings did not outweigh the public's right to be heard.

"To close off those avenues for people, when the technology is right there and available, that's really a shame," Titus said.