Veteran state archivist nears end of his tenure

CARSON CITY -- Veteran Nevada state Archivist Guy Rocha plans to retire before the state's budget crunch forces him to preside over cuts that might gut the agency he has been dedicated to for 28 years.

As Rocha prepares to depart, he warns that the state's financial crisis and proposed budget cuts of as much as 34 percent over the two-year fiscal period starting July 1 would devastate his agency and other state departments and leave the public without many vital programs and facilities.

"I know I could stay longer, but is it worth it?" he asked. "I don't want to see 28 years of work essentially undone in the next biennium. We could barely keep the doors open under the worst-case scenario."

Rocha's knowledge of arcane Nevada facts and history has earned him titles like "history cop" and "myth buster." The 57-year-old prefers "forensic detective." As he prepares to retire Feb. 2, he's urging the 2009 Legislature to put the state on solid financial footing by broadening the tax structure and asking everyone to shoulder the burden.

"I care for this state deeply," he said. "I find it disturbing this state that has essentially been my life is, in my opinion, on the brink of disaster. You can't cut 34 percent or more without devastating state government."

Rocha said he is unsure of his future plans. But he plans to continue speaking out against proposals that he thinks would threaten the state in which he grew up.

It's not a surprising stance from someone who grew up as a fighter. When he was a boy running the streets of Las Vegas, Rocha was a gang member in an age before guns and drugs became necessary accoutrements.

Things changed when a coach ran into Rocha and some other street punks. If they were so tough, the coach said, they should try wrestling.

Most dropped out after a couple of weeks. But Rocha won two state championships as a wrestler, and he received an athletic scholarship to Syracuse.

"It's incongruent," he said, laughing.

State archivists are supposed to be bookish folks who hide away in holes in libraries. That was never Rocha, who has gained a degree of fame by maintaining a listed phone number and answering questions about Nevada history for everyone from governors and legislators to reporters and average Joes.

During the Dec. 8 special session of the Legislature, state Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, dubbed him a "state treasure."

On the day before Thanksgiving, Coffin called Rocha about a question that had been on the minds of many state legislators: Had state government ever borrowed money to balance the state budget?

By noon on Thanksgiving, Coffin had his answer. Rocha found that during the 1880s and 1890s, legislators had used loans to balance the budget at least five times. Throughout that weekend, he continued to e-mail Coffin with additional examples of the state executing loans to cover deficits.

"It was typical of him," Coffin said. "When he becomes enthused about a subject, he throws everything aside and gets the answer. Some people we can't pay enough. They work 70-hour weeks. We got our money's worth with Guy."

During the special session, legislators and Gov. Jim Gibbons ended up agreeing to take out $190 million in loans and bonds to help cover a $341 million shortfall.

Rocha said people too often assume that something has never happened before in Nevada simply because no one alive remembers it happening. That's when the archivist must step to the plate.

If he and his staff cannot find the answer in the State Library and Archives in Carson City, then they know who to call: state university librarians or experts around the country.

The truth matters to Rocha. For years, he has debunked myths about Nevada history through his column in Nevada newspapers and on the state Department of Cultural Affairs' Web site.

The first myth he debunked was a doozy: Workers were buried alive in the concrete blocks that made up Hoover Dam. Even men who built the dam believed the notion that supervisors could not stop the flow of cement in time to save their co-workers.

No way, Rocha found out. He cited cases in which workers had near misses with flowing cement, and he found structural engineers who said the structure of the dam would have been compromised by decomposing bodies.

"People exaggerate the past. Make it bigger and more important for their purposes. You can believe in Tahoe Tessie (the legendary sea creature in Lake Tahoe). That doesn't bother me. But don't misrepresent the past or distort it."

Rocha has been called on to answer some strange questions.

"People call me at home," Rocha said. "I remember someone said, 'My family came to Nevada on an immigrant wagon train on the way to California. My great-great-grandmother lost a child on the way. Do you know where the child is buried?'

"Someone else contacted me and said, 'My relative once lived in Mason Valley in a cave. Do you know which cave it was?'"

Even when he was a street fighter, Rocha always read.

"I would go into people's garbage and find books," he said.

And he had a good memory for what he read.

After Syracuse, he wanted to be a teacher. But teaching jobs were hard to find in Las Vegas during a recession in the early 1970s, so he enrolled in San Diego State University for graduate school and later transferred to the University of Nevada, Reno for post-graduate studies.

During his UNR years, he was offered a curator's job at the Nevada Historical Society, which four years later led to him being named state archivist.

Rocha isn't quite sure what he will do in retirement. He has been a historical consultant for television shows and the AFL-CIO.

At this point, he is happy he can see well enough to read.

Four years ago, Rocha went in for Lasik surgery and was told he had glaucoma, the optic nerve disease that leaves many blind.

Through treatment, he continued to peruse the dusty old volumes that his career required.

Then earlier this year, the glaucoma worsened. A surgery failed. Another surgery followed. For three months, he needed people to read to him and to drive him to work.

"I became fearful. Is this what the rest of my life will be like?"

Then in July his sight began to return. He can read without glasses, although the sight in one eye is severely limited.

"I feel very blessed," said Rocha, thanking people for their cards and encouragement during those bad months.

As his sight improved, Rocha has been called on repeatedly to answer a variation of this question: Has Nevada ever experienced a worse economic period than it's going through today?

His answer: Nevada weathered the Depression much better than most states.

The current economy in Nevada is the worst in more than 100 years. Only what he calls "the Great Mining Recession" of the 1880s and 1890s was worse.

Rocha fears legislators in the coming session will cut state spending so severely that it might take decades for his and other agencies to recover.

The state archives, he said, sorely need funds and a method to manage digital and electronic records -- information found in computer databases.

"Where are Nevada's digital archives?" he asks. "We don't have one, and we don't have plans for one. The future of information is digital, and people are just erasing the stuff. We keep 19th-century books, but what happens to the databases of the 21st century?"

Rocha said there are plenty of good people with whom he works who could fill his shoes. Jeff Kintop has been one of his top assistants for 25 years.

But Rocha said the state, because of its current budget woes, might not fill his position for some time.

He also said past budget cuts and the prospect of even more severe cuts are causing a "brain drain" of hundreds of dedicated state employees.

"If they can find other jobs or retire, they're leaving," Rocha said.

Dan Burns, spokesman for Gov. Jim Gibbons, said the state and national economies are faltering and government must deal with that reality by slashing budgets.

"Guy Rocha is a great guy, and he has done a great job for the state for a long time," Burns said. "But what he's speaking about -- budget cuts and what government will look like a year from now -- is exactly right. Government will be smaller and more efficient. We may not get the things we want, and we have to look very carefully at everything we need."

Rocha also criticized the state's tax structure, saying it relies too much on tourist-generated revenues and leads to wild swings in the state's financial health.

"We need a 21st-century Nevada, and it can't rely on tourism to keep driving the engine," Rocha said. "Tourism will no longer be able to sustain state government unless people are satisfied with a government so small it can't do very much at all."

As he prepares to leave, Rocha wishes he could find an answer to one question: Which is Nevada's oldest settlement, Genoa or Dayton?

Southern Nevadans might wonder who really cares about such nonsense. But people in Dayton get downright riled up when they are told the other town is older, and vice versa for Genoa residents.

Dayton claims it's the oldest settlement, declaring as much on its water tower. Genoa has a sign identifying it as the oldest.

Rocha still isn't sure. They might have been founded within weeks of each other in 1851.

Yep, he admits, for once the state archivist has been stumped.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.