Lawmakers monitoring open-meeting battle with regents

The Legislative Commission on Wednesday served notice it is keeping an eye on the open meeting battle between the Board of Regents and the Attorney General's office.

Attorney General Brian Sandoval has filed a complaint against the regents charging they violated the open-meeting law in their lengthy hearings which led to the demotion of Ron Remington, who was president of the Community College of Southern Nevada, and his legislative lobbyist John Cummings.

Neither Cummings nor Remington were allowed to attend those meetings and defend themselves.

But University Counsel Tom Ray said the opinion interpreting the open-meeting law issued by Sandoval's office is "a dramatic departure" from long-standing interpretations of the Nevada open-meeting law.

He said the manner in which those meetings were conducted was specifically permissible under existing case law - including allowing some deliberation of the issues - one of the actions Sandoval's office said is illegal.

As for not allowing Remington and Cummings into the hearings to defend themselves, he said: "The open-meeting law doesn't address this or the open meeting manual. The law is silent, and a district court has already said the law doesn't require it."

Ray said he and members of the Board of Regents want the requirements of the law clarified so they won't ask for dismissal of the case, but instead plan to file a response to Sandoval's charges and take the issue to court.

Legislative Commission Chairman Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, said lawmakers want to be kept up on the issues involved and will open a proposed bill draft for the next Legislature to make whatever changes are needed to clearly spell out how they believe the open-meeting law should operate.

Contact Geoff Dornan at nevadaappeal@sbcglobal.net or 687-8750.