Chief legal counsel weighs in on regents, foundations

By Jeff German (contact)

Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2007 | 7:07 a.m.

The university system's chief legal counsel says the UNLV Research Foundation does not need Board of Regents approval to obtain a $125,000 loan to help pay for its upscale office move.

But Bart Patterson recommended in a five-page memorandum that the controversial office move should give rise to a broader discussion at the board's next meeting in March about its overall oversight of such nonprofit foundations that rely on private partnerships to further the interests of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

That recommendation was welcomed Monday by Regent Steve Sisolak, who has called the Research Foundation's move "a little lavish." The foundation is spending $165,000 on furnishings, including a $4,500 58-inch plasma television, a $5,660 11-foot-high glass mosaic and a $12,344 conference table.

The new 2,700-square-foot office suite is across the street from the 115-acre site of the Harry Reid Research and Technology Park that the foundation is developing for UNLV.

"We need to look at the entire structure of these foundations," said Sisolak, who heads the regents' audit committee.

"I understand the purpose behind them. But at the same time, they need to operate under the same set of guidelines that we do - in the light of day, with open bidding and open contracts and subject to public scrutiny."

Regent Mark Alden added: "I think it's good to get this clarified. It absolutely has to get clarified. We have a fiduciary duty here. We are elected, and our constituents put their trust in us to have oversight."

Sisolak said he will request that the topic be placed on the agenda of the board's March 15-16 meeting in Carson City.

In his memorandum, Patterson said his review of the university system's rules and regulations found that the regents do not have "direct" control over the Research Foundation.

The regents, he said, have authority over UNLV President David Ashley, who sits on the foundation's 11-member board, which includes several prominent businesspeople, but that's where their authority ends.

The foundation - not UNLV - owns the 115 acres set aside for the Reid technology park, which the foundation estimates is worth between $30 million and $40 million, Patterson said.

Sisolak said he was surprised to hear that the valuable land, on West Sunset Road near Durango Drive, is not directly owned by UNLV.

"I didn't know that the foundation held its own assets," he said. "At the same time, I'm told its employees are UNLV employees. It kind of clouds the reporting lines."