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Thursday, February 11, 1999
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Intimidating a regent
Newcomer's questions making some squirm.
The Board of Regents oversees the state's university and community college system. Its 11 members represent various districts around Nevada.
Like all official panels, it has a chairperson for purposes of maintaining order and decorum. But the chairperson -- having been selected internally and elected to office by only the voters in her district -- should enjoy no more political authority than anybody else on the panel.
So why does Jill Derby, who currently chairs the board, suddenly act as if she's the headmistress overseeing a school for unruly juveniles?
Ms. Derby last week rapped the knuckles of newly elected regent Steve Sisolak for daring to seek salary information about university system employees.
"Please be aware that all future requests for such major information sets should be directed through the chair," she wrote in a patronizing memo to the wayward one, adding that she needed to approve all such queries "so as to ascertain that the purpose of individual requests furthers a Board or committee concern and/or agenda appropriately."
The message is clear: Don't think for yourself, just go with the flow.
In her memo, Ms. Derby also expressed concern that the regents' overburdened staff can't keep up with multiple requests from 11 different elected officials, but that shrouds her actual motivation. Mr. Sisolak is from Las Vegas. Ms. Derby is from Gardnerville, in Northern Nevada. In his short time as a regent, Mr. Sisolak has criticized UNR's massive per-pupil state funding advantage over UNLV. His request for salary information stemmed from his stated goal of shrinking that disparity.
Ms. Derby was trying to shut him up.
Here's hoping she fails.
Mr. Sisolak deserves commendation for raising important issues about the nature of the state's university system, issues that should be vigorously discussed and debated openly. Asking tough or uncomfortable questions and pursuing detailed information about salary practices should be part of Mr. Sisolak's job description -- not discouraged by another board member through intimidation and condescension.
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