Wednesday, March 2, 2005 | 9:34 a.m.
Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, renewed her efforts to change the size and scope of the university Board of Regents at a Legislative committee hearing Tuesday afternoon.
Giunchigliani's proposed constitutional amendment would reduce the board from 13 regents to nine and give the governor the authority to appoint up to six people. The other regents would be elected by congressional district.
Giunchigliani said the board's size has made it "cumbersome" and "unwieldy" and unable to focus on developing good policies for higher education.
"What we have is broken, and it's time for us to fix this," Giunchigliani told her fellow assemblymen on the elections, procedures, ethics and constitutional amendments committee.
The proposed amendment passed the Assembly on a 26 to 16 vote and the Senate on a narrower 11 to 10 vote during the 2003 session, Giunchigliani said. It must pass again this session and then be approved by voters in 2006 to become law.
Giunchigliani argued Tuesday that a smaller Board of Regents would work more effectively. She said the state Board of Education successfully manages the K-12 system with only nine members and county school boards work with only seven. All of the education boards in the state are elected.
For the last several years, Giunchigliani said, the Board of Regents has been mired in controversy because of public infighting among board members, questionable actions of board members and alleged open-meeting law violations.
At one time the spokeswoman for the Community College of Southern Nevada, Giunchigliani also has a bill draft request to consider removing community colleges from the regents' jurisdiction or to establish a local community board to make sure the needs of the local colleges are met.
Too often, Giunchigliani said, regents "ignore or treat community colleges like the bastard child of the family."
Dan Klaich, vice chancellor for legal affairs for the University and Community College System of Nevada, testified against the amendment Thursday on behalf of Interim Chancellor Jim Rogers and Board of Regents Vice Chairwoman Jill Derby.
Klaich acknowledged the board's previous problems but said that in the last year, "the board has gone a long way in restoring its collegiality and its cordiality."
The system opposes the amendment because it takes away the taxpayers' rights to decide who will govern higher education, Klaich said. Regents also believe that they need 13 members to handle all of the various committee positions and to effectively represent the entire state.
Under Giunchigliani's proposal, "the vast majority of the board would not be answerable to the public," Klaich said.
No regents testified on Tuesday, although many have come out against the amendment in the past. Derby, who is currently out of the country, submitted a position paper to the 13 assemblymen on the committee arguing against the amendment.
Regents Chairman Stavros Anthony said he had no intention to testify against the bill, but that he "didn't see any justification for changing the board."
Anthony said the citizens of Nevada should be able to elect as many officials as they can and that the size of the board only lent to its ability to better represent the state's constituents.
The system's position was backed by Janine Hansen of the Independent American Party and Lynn Chapman of the Nevada Eagle Forum.
"When people are appointed, there is far less accountability to the constituents," Hansen said.
She also argued that having both appointed and elected regents on the same board could lead to an "adversarial situation" with appointed regents representing special interests and elected regents representing tax payers.
Giunchigliani said the mixed board was a compromise to allow for more qualified regents while still giving constituents a voice. Nevada is currently one of only four states that elects regents.
"It's a marriage of both worlds," Giunchigliani said.
If the bill is passed, Giunchigliani told lawmakers on Tuesday that she would propose trailer legislation to establish criteria and a process for appointing regents. Much like the judicial nomination process, she said the governor would only be able to select from a pool of recommended candidates to avoid cronyism.
The lay Board of Regents is currently not paid, although there is legislation this session to pay regents $80 for every meeting.
Regents do get reimbursed for their travel and have access to a system computer, printer and fax machine, system officials said. The regent chairman receives a $5,000 host account from non-state money and other regents have a host account of $2,500 each.
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