Caliente extension cost CSN almost nothing, so it had to close

As she finished removing her personal belongings from her office tucked inside the historic Caliente train depot Thursday, Bonni Smith was still trying to make sense of it.

Why had the College of Southern Nevada gone to all the trouble of shutting the diminutive extension located in Lincoln County approximately 150 miles north of Las Vegas?

She recognized that the economy is hurting and the unemployment rate is high, but that was the whole point of searching for alternative funding in 2008 to operate the adult vocational rehabilitation program. When Smith and her friends managed to land a $600,000 federal Workforce Connections grant for just that purpose, they figured the tiny satellite campus would be saved. It practically paid for itself.

During the legislative session, they found out differently. They also watched as CSN administrators relinquished the rights to the grant. That is to say, they gave back the job-training funding at a time it is desperately needed by unemployed Nevadans searching for new ways to make a living in a tough economy.

Smith knows a little about that herself. Although her job classification is "administrative assistant II," for the past 17 years she has been a multitasker extraordinaire, acting as registrar, clerk, guidance counselor, financial aid specialist -- and part-time grant writer.

While the Lincoln County extension served an average of 65 students a year, thanks to that federal grant it operated almost without an impact on the community college's strapped budget. It cost only Smith's salary and a few thousand dollars in supplies and travel expenses.

The trouble began before the final decision was made to close the Caliente office, which CSN enjoyed rent-free. It seemed that whenever Smith attempted to use the grant, her requisition vouchers failed to be processed. When she inquired about the delays, she discovered the problems of the Lincoln County extension weren't a priority at the Workforce and Economic Development Office, which was being run by interim director Rebecca Metty-Burns.

As time passed, the folks in the rural county grew more desperate. They already had landed that whopper of a grant; the least CSN officials could do was act responsibly and process the paperwork.

Instead, during the 2011 legislative session Smith and her fellow workers learned that the Lincoln County extension was slated for closure as a cost-savings measure. Which would have made at least some sense if Smith hadn't been offered a job at the CSN campus in Boulder City.

In other words, the college appeared willing to cut loose a healthy six-figure grant in order to falsely illustrate that it was closing its satellite facilities during economic crunch time.

"I'm very frustrated because the only expense the college has had is my salary, and they were willing to transfer me to Boulder City," Smith says.

She received a letter May 23 informing her the office would close June 30. If she decided not to transfer, she would be terminated. Now she's out of work and could probably make use of a job-training class.

I called CSN President Michael Richards' office Friday morning hoping he would clarify the lack of logic the college used in spurning a federal grant and needlessly shutting the small extension office. He was unavailable.

In 2009, Richards thanked Smith in a letter for her service and her "advocacy of the center's value to the people of Lincoln County."

But her advocacy only went so far. It couldn't cut through the bureaucratic ineptitude and shell-game budgeting at CSN.

For the record, I tried to ask Metty-Burns why processing the grant vouchers wasn't a priority and left the folks in Caliente feeling hung out to dry. It seemed at best insensitive and at worst incompetent.

She declined to comment and passed me to a CSN media manager, who insisted closing the Caliente office saved money and helped meet a 15 percent cut in state funding.

While CSN officials are enjoying their summer vacation, Bonni Smith is looking for work.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Email him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/Smith.