Gibbons bids adieu to senior staffers

By David McGrath Schwartz, Cy Ryan

Thursday, July 16, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Gov. Jim Gibbons’ entire senior staff has in the past few weeks resigned or given notice of departure, including the final remnants of his original staff.

On Wednesday, Mendy Elliott, Gibbons’ deputy chief of staff, became the latest to leave the governor’s office.

Elliott is joined by former chief of staff Josh Hicks, general counsel Chris Nielsen, legislative director Jodi Stephens, and Kelly Chouinard, an assistant to the legal counsel and chief of staff.

The personnel changes will bring untested individuals into key positions at a challenging time. The state is sorting through how to qualify for millions of dollars in federal stimulus money, and tax revenue continues to plummet, raising the possibility that the governor will have to call a special legislative session.

Elliott, who removed boxes from her Capitol office Wednesday, had been the staff’s expert on the federal stimulus. Her e-mail access was cut off Tuesday night, according to Las Vegas Sun columnist Jon Ralston.

Elliott will become a deputy director with the state Employment, Training and Rehabilitation Department. Asked whether she was forced to resign, Elliott said, “I chose to accept this position.”

Stephens gave notice this week, but will stay on through August at Gibbons’ request. Nielsen will remain through July.

Left will be Gibbons’ new chief of staff, Robin Reedy, who worked for the state treasurer’s office for 18 years before becoming deputy director of the Business and Industry Department in September.

Reedy said Budget Director Andrew Clinger had been working with Elliott on stimulus funding applications. “I will work closely with him and I’m also looking at whether we need to have a body or two to handle the stimulus,” Reedy said.

The reasons for the turnover vary. Although Elliott’s departure appears to have been forced, Stephens, Hicks and Nielsen are leaving voluntarily, though none has yet lined up another job.

Reedy said turnover is a part of any administration. “After two, two and a half years of the pressure, the constant barrage of press and wondering, I just think that’s a natural occurrence,” she said.

“At some point, you have to take a look at what you are doing and take proactive steps to make changes, hopefully to seek improvement,” she said. “I can’t say the governor was unhappy and I won’t say that. But again, at some point when you are in the process of doing things you have to analyze what you’ve done and make corrections.”

Hanging over the personnel changes is an ongoing internal power struggle that began when Gibbons took office.

Sources say Dianne Cornwall, Gibbons’ former co-chief of staff who was moved to head the Business and Industry Department last year, continues to be a top adviser to the governor.

“Anyone who doesn’t know who’s calling the shots in that office hasn’t been paying attention,” said Robert Uithoven, Gibbons’ former campaign manager and his chief of staff during his years in Congress. “That person’s capability speaks for itself.”

Reedy dismissed the notion that she would be taking orders from Cornwall. She said she has known Cornwall only since September, when she joined the Business and Industry Department.

“I will say she (Cornwall) was very impressed with my work,” said Reedy, a former chairwoman of the Douglas County Republican Party.

As to whether she was appointed because of Cornwall, she said, “It’s not worth my time and effort to change what people think when it comes to something like that … I will say that I listen to people with rational thoughts. I do believe Diane is a rational thinker.”

Cornwall acknowledged that she recommended Reedy for the job, but said she rarely talks to Gibbons about politics and staffing. As a member of the governor’s Cabinet, she talks to Gibbons about policy and issues that might arise, she said.

“Do we have conversations? Absolutely,” she said. “But I’m very busy running Business and Industry.”

When asked about the sudden turnover, Cornwall said: “These are not career jobs. You go in, you work there for a while. You get either worn out or thrown out and you move on.”

Though Gibbons was a rare and unpopular presence during the legislative session this year, his top staff — particularly Hicks, Elliott and Stephens — continued to have the respect of legislators from both sides of the aisle.

Reedy is relatively unknown.

Gibbons has increasingly distanced himself from Nevada’s political establishment. In February he stopped paying his longtime political advisers Jim and Dani Denton.

His top advisers when he was running for office four years ago — including Uithoven and Republican kingmaker Sig Rogich — said they no longer advise the governor.

Gibbons’ campaign manager is Robert Olmer, a former marketing director for a ski resort, who has acknowledged that he’s working on his first campaign.