Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Plan to trim regents goes to voters

Voters next year will decide whether they want to change the composition of the Board of Regents following the state Senate's passage Thursday of Assembly Joint Resolution 11.

Th resolution, which will be on the 2006 ballot, would change the makeup of the board from 13 elected regents to six members who would be appointed by the governor and three who would be elected -- one each from the three congressional districts.

The final vote in the Senate was 12-9. It passed the Assembly earlier this session 40-1 and already had been passed by the 2003 Legislature.

The resolution, if passed by the voters, would change the state constitution and become effective in January 2009. The term of a regent elected before Nov. 4, 2008, would end in January 2009.

The author of the bill, Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, said in an e-mail response Thursday that she was "pleased that the Senate agreed to give the voters the opportunity to vote on this important matter."

Giunchigliani said it was the regents' long-term actions that generated public interest in the bill.

"My constituents told me that some of the board's actions were embarrassing and (that they) wanted a smaller, appointed board that is manageable and focused on student needs not their own needs," she wrote. "This bill will provide both an appointment process and an opportunity for the voters to select members of the regents."

System officials and regents, however, were not pleased with the proposed amendment, which they said took away the right of the voters to choose their own higher education representatives.

Southern Nevadans Linda Howard and James Dean Leavitt were the most vocal regents opposing the amendment. Howard wrote a letter to all of the senators urging them to oppose the legislation.

"I don't think it will go anywhere with the people when it goes to the ballot," said Howard, adding that she will campaign against the ballot measure whether or not she runs for re-election in 2006. "I personally would rather have the people select their representatives rather than have the majority of regents appointed by one person, the governor."

Leavitt, who was elected to a six-year term last November, said the legislation was badly written. The way the bill was structured, he said, the mixed board would give appointed members more power than the elected members.

"It is just incredulous to think that anybody would want to run and spend the money that it would take in a congressional district for an unpaid board," Leavitt said.

Regent Jack Lund Schofield said he thought the whole bill was a "political ploy by some people" to punish or undermine the Board of Regents for the "wrong reasons."

Giunchigliani, the measure's author, was an employee of CCSN when her boss and the college president were removed from their positions by the regents in what became an ongoing controversy. Regents were the target of much criticism, and transcripts of the regents' closed sessions showed that some members had wanted to fire Giunchigliani. She later resigned.

Schofield said the bill would distract regents just as they were "moving in the right direction" under Chancellor Jim Rogers.

Rogers said he was "displeased" but not entirely surprised by the vote. The past actions of regents before he took the chancellor position, including their violations of the open meeting law and their infighting, had left several lawmakers with "bad feelings," Rogers said.

But Rogers also said most of the problems have been resolved, and that the proposed amendment would only distract regents from the business of higher education.

"I think that it will not solve any of the problems that they (lawmakers) think they've solved," Rogers said, "And for the next several years it's going to cause another series of distractions because the regents are going to start wondering if they are going to remain on this board and what the public is going to do.

"... They are going to have to be out there politicking to convince the public not to vote for it."

Opposing the bill in the Senate were Republicans Dean Rhoads of Tuscarora and Mike McGinness of Fallon joining Las Vegas Democrats Terry Care, Maggie Carlton, Steven Horsford, Dina Titus and Valerie Wiener plus John Lee of North Las Vegas and Bernice Mathews of Reno.

Giunchigliani said she will likely write follow-up legislation to specify how the governor would appoint regents if the measure wins voter approval. The process would be similar to the way judges are currently appointed.

Under the current language, the governor would not be barred from appointing somebody who was elected and cannot select more than two-thirds of appointed members from the same political party.

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