Education system settlements revealed

Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2006 | 7:29 a.m.

The Nevada System of Higher Education has paid $5.75 million to settle 115 lawsuits or complaints since 2000, a public information request filed by the Sun found.

Most of the lawsuits came from employees alleging discrimination or raising contract issues. The state settled 40 percent of the 115 cases for $10,000 or less. Seventy-three other cases were won by the state or dismissed.

Settlements ranged from a low of $1,100 for a car accident involving a UNR vehicle to a high of $830,000 for a contract dispute with a UNLV math professor. The university had fired the professor, Michael Golberg, without a hearing while he was on sick leave.

UNLV, which paid out $2.36 million from 2000 to 2005, split the cost of Golberg's settlement with the State Tort Fund. The Community College of Southern Nevada, which has about 10,000 more students than UNLV, paid $549,500 during the same six-year period.

The university system generally pays more into the state fund than it takes out, system attorney Bart Patterson said.

"For the size of the employer and the number of employees we have, we actually have very little litigation," Patterson said.

UNLV paid $400,000 in 2001 to remove basketball coach Bill Bayno, who was fired by President Carol Harter for NCAA recruiting violations. After Bayno sued in March 2001, alleging breach of contract, the university bought out his contact in a settlement agreement.

University regents, through the system office, spent $395,000 to settle a suit brought by former CCSN President Ron Remington. Regents narrowly voted to remove Remington as president but broke the state's open meeting law in the process.

And UNLV paid $313,000 to resolve its 12-year dispute with tenured professor Richard Sutton. The award, determined by a trial jury, included back pay and compensation. UNLV officials repeatedly tried to fire Sutton on the grounds that he did not meet university tenure standards.

Christina Littlefield can be reached at 259-8813 or at clittle@ lasvegassun.com.