Editorial: Failing the smell test

Monday, Feb. 12, 2007 | 7:15 a.m.

According to the opinion of two lawyers, members of the Nevada Board of Regents don't have to abide by the 2005 rule they adopted that requires former regents to wait one year before taking jobs with the university system.

The rule is designed to prevent regents from abusing their power so that they can't leverage their authority to secure jobs within the university system during, and immediately after, their terms. Even the appearance of such abuse must be avoided.

But a story by the Las Vegas Sun on Thursday says that Bart Patterson, the Nevada System of Higher Education's chief lawyer, and Walter Cannon, a private attorney, have said that applying the rule to people who were regents when the rule was adopted is, in effect, applying it retroactively. The rule, Patterson said, should apply only to regents who joined the board after the rule was adopted.

That means Regents Linda Howard, Jill Derby and Doug Hill, all of whom recently left the board, may take jobs within the system whenever they choose. So far only Howard, of North Las Vegas, has considered a university system job - specifically, one at UNLV, the Sun's Christina Littlefield reports.

But as Craig Walton, president of the Nevada Center for Public Ethics, told the Sun, the regents should voluntarily abide by the cooling-off period. Otherwise, Walton says, it appears as if the only reason for becoming a regent is to advance one's career. And, Walton says, "that stinks."

It certainly does. Regents who pressed for the waiting period told the Sun that they wanted to send the message that "the purpose of public service is just that - for service, not any personal or private gain."

Howard earned her master's degree in public administration in the same month that the Board of Regents adopted the waiting period. Her goal in obtaining the degree was to work in university administration. If held to the policy, Howard would have to wait a year before being able to use the degree for which she worked.

Still, public service means making sacrifices. That is why it is called "service." The rules governing those in such positions should apply across the board. Regents voted in favor of this rule. They should be willing to follow it.