Spending big bucks on new digs

By Jeff German (contact)

Sunday, Jan. 28, 2007 | 7:29 a.m.

With a new executive director and scaled-back responsibilities in the aftermath of embarrassing management missteps, the UNLV Research Foundation, its leaders vowed late last year, was on the path to greater public accountability.

But as it prepares for a move to new quarters, the nonprofit foundation, funded with federal taxpayer dollars, has spent nearly $165,000 on custom-made furniture, a 58-inch plasma television, a large glass mosaic, and vinyl and exotic wood wall coverings, records obtained by the Sun show.

The 2,700-square-foot suite, the new home of Executive Director Bud Pittinger and a half-dozen employees, is in an office complex across the street from the multimillion-dollar scientific research and development park that the foundation is planning for UNLV on West Sunset Road near Durango Drive.

Pittinger said the majority of the high-priced items will furnish a public reception area, where a model of the Harry Reid Research and Technology Park will be on display to help attract business to the 115-acre development. The park has been named after Nevada's senior U.S. senator, who has secured millions of dollars in federal funding for UNLV and the Research Foundation over the years.

University system Regent Steve Sisolak said some of the furnishings appear "a little lavish" to him.

"This is being done for the university system, and we operate under a different set of budgetary constraints than the Bellagio or the Wynn Las Vegas," said Sisolak, who heads the Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents' audit committee.

Saying he was surprised to hear about the office move, Sisolak added that he does not understand how so much money could be spent by the foundation without the board having knowledge of it.

"On the surface, this just doesn't look right," Sisolak said. "This is what we're trying to get away from with these foundations. We want as much of the transactions and work done in the light of day. It has to withstand public scrutiny."

The disclosure comes on the heels of a university system audit in mid-November that found that the Research Foundation's former executive director, Tom Williams, provided insufficient documentation for nearly $84,000 in travel and business expenses during his four years at the helm.

Later that month, after taking Williams to task, the regents moved to tighten financial reporting guidelines for all private foundations within the university system.

Two months earlier, Williams was removed as executive director and reassigned at UNLV amid a university probe into well-publicized troubles at the Research Foundation's secretive Institute for Security Studies.

A UNLV audit found that the counterterrorism institute, which had received $8.9 million, mostly in federal funds, lacked focus and management oversight and failed to live up to its promise of turning the university into a leading authority on homeland security.

The institute was brought under UNLV's direct control, and a new director, retired Army Maj. Gen. Scott Smith, was hired. The foundation, meanwhile, relinquished to UNLV its responsibilities of obtaining and administering millions of dollars in federal research grants.

The foundation's chief mission now is to develop the Reid Research and Technology Park, which sits on land in the booming southwest area of the valley that the Research Foundation estimates is worth between $30 million and $40 million.

The mission, Pittinger said, has left the foundation competing for private business clients accustomed to swanky office environments.

Pittinger, who joined the foundation nine months ago after a stint as executive vice president of the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, said the expenses for the move to the new office were approved by his 11-member board, which includes UNLV President David Ashley and several prominent Las Vegas businesspeople.

"We had to create a little bit of a wow factor, an appropriate level of energy and excitement to complement the excitement the park brings," he said. "The bottom line is that this park is a perpetual asset to UNLV to enhance its intellectual, scientific and financial growth."

The bottom line for the office move, however, may be more difficult to determine.

Invoices obtained by the Sun show that Pittinger spent $9,285 on two large plasma TVs - the 58-inch screen and a 42-inch one - and related electronic equipment.

The 42-inch television will be used in the reception area as part of a 3-D presentation accompanying the model of the research park, Pittinger said.

"We want to bring to life the park and what its feel will be," he said.

The 58-inch plasma television will be in the conference room, where the foundation, invoices show, is spending $12,344 on a 14-foot-long custom conference table, as well as $11,882 on 18 armless chairs.

Pittinger said the foundation needed a table large enough to seat all of its board members. The table is equipped with computer and Internet connections so that prospective park tenants can have access to the Internet while meeting with foundation officials.

Also in the viewing area will be an $8,979 custom reception desk, which Pittinger said had to be built around a pillar.

Invoices show the foundation also is spending about $9,100 on a limestone tile floor in the reception area, $5,660 on an 11-by-8-foot glass mosaic and $15,600 on vinyl and exotic wood wall coverings.

Pittinger said the foundation is not using funds from a $1 million Energy Department grant it obtained last year on the move, which was supposed to get under way this weekend.

Instead, he said, the foundation - which plans to sell UNLV the furniture and equipment from its current office in the Alexander Dawson Building on East Flamingo Road - has taken out a $125,000 loan to help pay for the furnishings.

The foundation hopes to pay back the loan from the rent that it will charge firms at the research park, Pittinger said.

He said the foundation applied for the loan with Wells Fargo Equipment Financing Inc. a couple of weeks ago, and won approval Tuesday. That was the same day the Sun began inquiring about the office move.

Pittinger said there is no collateral for the loan other than the new furnishings - something that troubles Sisolak.

"I didn't know they could take out a loan without the Board of Regents' approval," Sisolak said. "They aren't authorized to use the good faith and the credit of the university system without our approval."

Pittinger, though, said that he was not aware that he needed to get the regents' approval for such a loan and that he decided to borrow the money to "manage cash flow more effectively."

He also pointed out that he is spending roughly $32,500 less on the move than what his board approved.

"Financially, we're well within our parameters," he said. "We're really working hard to succeed and do the right thing."

Mark Fine, the incoming Research Foundation board chairman, added: "I think they've been totally fiscally responsible in this endeavor.

"From my viewpoint, the mission is to develop a research park in the highest of standards, and the office and staff being developed is all consistent with that mission."

Developer John Midby, one of the foundation's board members, described the office furnishings as "just basic stuff" and "very reasonable" for the task of recruiting business to the research park.

The move across the street from the park, Midby said, is necessary for the foundation to fulfill its new mission.

"Without it, it would be very difficult for them to be efficient," he said.