Thursday, January 01, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Backstory: Beware of regents defining ethics

By Michael Green

The seven regents and their tame chancellor are trying to justify their disregard for due process and common courtesy by revealing that CCSN's hiring process is so rife with politics that President Ron Remington had to be fired.

If they hadn't sacrificed their credibility, some of their claims could be justified. CCSN, like any other public or private institution, sometimes reeks of politics. As a full-time history professor there for almost nine years, I can name many times when politics determined a hiring or decision.

But many such decisions occurred before Remington became CCSN's president--and some of his aren't being mentioned. For example, Remington made one abominable hire, rumor has it, because he resisted pressure from Chancellor Jane Nichols to hire a friend of hers who was unqualified for the job. Somehow, that didn't make the report.

Administrative and faculty hirings go through search committees that include more than one person. For example, Chris Giunchigliani, listed as a questionable hire for a job working with K-12 schools, went before a committee chaired by Alan Balboni, a colleague of mine and one of CCSN's most respected professors.

Alan and I don't agree on everything, but to question Giunchigliani's hiring and pin it on CCSN lobbyist John Cummings is to question Balboni's integrity. I hope he sues the seven, who include people he campaigned for, and the chancellor for defamation. I hope all system faculty and organizations demand repayment of time or money donated to those regents who now have declared that members of CCSN hiring committees have no ethics.

Beyond that, Giunchigliani's qualifications for the job--working closely with the school district--included two decades of teaching, long involvement with the teachers union and legislative experience. No one has yet come forward to claim to have been a more qualified applicant or to have given a better interview. Given their track record, the seven regents and chancellor could be expected to believe that the only people qualified for jobs are those who don't know how to do them.

The issue here is not whether politics should be allowed to affect how an institution of higher education hires its employees. They shouldn't. The issue is the situational ethics of the regents and chancellor.

Jill Derby and Doug Hill, Northern regents who stop at nothing to harm higher education in Southern Nevada, voted to fire Remington. They were among the biggest supporters of one-time CCSN President Richard Moore, whom Nichols helped protect. During Moore's tenure, then-Assemblyman Dario Herrera worked for CCSN and used college employees to aid his campaign, and Moore's minions tried to hire Wendell Williams as a gaming instructor. Moore donated CCSN money to local chambers of commerce and community organizations, paid longtime Henderson lobbyist Bob Campbell on the side, campaigned for Kenny Guinn at a mandatory faculty/staff meeting and hired former Sen. Paul Laxalt to lobby for CCSN in Washington for $10,000 a month. Derby and Hill also have supported UNR administrators whose shenanigans would have left Chicago's Daley machine and New York's Tammany Hall awestruck. If their vote to oust Remington doesn't reveal their agenda, nothing will.

Regent Jack Schofield voted with them. He admitted taking a friend from church to meet Cummings, but only for advice on whether she could obtain employment in the system. Cummings said Schofield wanted him to hire the friend--and help him with a real estate deal. For the sake of argument, let's believe Schofield. A regent--Cummings' boss--took a job-seeking friend to meet him, but only with the purest of intentions. Then how can Schofield, with a straight face, doubt Remington's or anyone else's intentions?

One of those mentioned as a political hire is Topazia Jones, Williams' friend. If she received her job through pure juice-peddling, how can she and Williams be credible witnesses? Yet she remains on the job and the regents--including a policeman and public defender, who are supposed to know something about witness credibility--and chancellor accepted their word over that of Remington, a 30-year system employee, and several others untainted by scandal.

Finally, a key "investigation" source, Larry Braxton, served in Moore's administration. He helped grease the skids to fire a faculty member--whose hiring Moore blamed on a recommendation from Sen. Harry Reid, although one of Moore's favorite professors chaired the search committee. Braxton's complaints bring to mind old-time Nevada political operator Jack Conlon, who preached, "If you're not in the deal, knock it."

Well, I don't pretend to be perfectly ethical, but I have no personal interest in this deal, except the silly notion that if Remington and others are denied due process so cavalierly, no one is safe. Besides, if the regents and chancellor feel the hiring process is so bad, they should consider how they mangled the firing process. We who question their ability and probity might help them better understand that process by removing them from their jobs.