Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2003 | 11:25 a.m.
A Community College of Southern Nevada employee, who calls herself Assemblyman Wendell Williams' personal assistant, qualifies for whistleblower protection after complaining about being fired, university system Chancellor Jane Nichols said Tuesday.
Nichols has hired a law firm to investigate allegations surrounding the employment of Topazia "Briget" Jones, a clerical worker hired with the recommendation of Williams, the Assembly Education Committee chairman.
Jones was hired earlier this year, fired and reinstated, according to college officials.
"I simply acted on the advice of counsel," Nichols said Tuesday. "Counsel simply said the wise action to take was to delay personnel action and to investigate the matter further. . . .
"I have indicated she would qualify under the whistleblower status, and I have been acting as such."
Nichols said Jones had not officially received whistleblower status, which protects an employee from retribution for making certain types of complaints against government officials. Jones was hired by CCSN instructor and lobbyist John Cummings. She worked for Cummings after being hired early this year and traveled to the Legislature, where she was seen wearing a jacket that said "Special Assistant to Wendell P. Williams" and she sat on the floor with Williams.
Cummings reprimanded her for those actions. She was later fired for what a supervisor called poor performance. Jones was contacted Wednesday for comment and referred the Sun to her attorney Larry Semenza.
"I can't wait till my side comes out but all comments have to go through my attorney," she said.
Semenza declined comment until he meets with Jones to get the facts of the case.
University Regent Linda Howard said she is concerned about what she calls Nichols' intervention into the dismissal of Jones, a temporary employee recommended for hiring by Williams.
"I'm concerned about the chancellor's involvement," Howard said. Jones was fired from her job as secretary in the Community College of Southern Nevada's Advanced Technology Center in Green Valley on Aug. 25 by the center's administrator, Debra Solt.
"I had actually recommended that she be removed from her probationary position," Solt said. "I recommended that because of her failure to recognize me as her supervisor and her failure to perform her work duties."
Solt said that after she dismissed Jones, she was informed by the human resources department that Jones was being reinstated and that would be reporting to Ralph Goudy, the manager of continuing education.
In January, Williams, D-North Las Vegas, asked Cummings, an adviser to the college president and the government affairs liaison for the community college, if there were any jobs for an African-American woman with a college degree, Cummings said.
Cummings hired Jones in January as a clerical trainee after receiving an application that listed a degree from Miami University of Ohio.
Universirt officials said Jones did attend classes from 1993 to 1998, but that she did not earn a degree from the school.
In late January, prior to the legislative session, Williams asked Cummings to have Jones assist him with his lobbying duties in Carson City, Cummings said.
Cummings obliged, and Jones was seen in the Legislative Building in Williams' education committee hearings.
Cummings said he advised Jones that as a state employee, she was not to sit with Williams on the floor, not to wear the jacket, and not to come to the capital on days when he was not there.
While in Carson City, Jones worked on two issues independently from the community college system.
In one case she assisted Goudy when he testified on behalf of a bill that would have granted a $3 million state appropriation for a truck driving school at the Cheyenne campus of the community college.
Cummings testified against that bill.
In May, the lobbyist for Nevada State College at Henderson, Spencer Stewart, brought forward a proposal to expand the college in West Las Vegas, an area that Williams agreed with college officials was underserved, Stewart said.
The idea was for the state to lease property in West Las Vegas so the college to offer classes there. The proposal included $2.5 million from the Legislature, and that once the center was opened, Jones was in the running to be named administrative manager of the site.
"There were a couple of people who were interested in the college being in that location," Stewart said. "One of those was Wendell Williams. If the deal did go through, whether or not that would necessitate the college to bring in Briget, that wasn't really discussed that much. It was discussed as a possibility."
Stewart said the deal died because it was not in the best interest of the college.
Williams did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Cummings said he regrets the incident has resulted in the end of his 20-year friendship with Williams.
"Although I no longer have a personal friendship with Wendell Williams or an interest in this matter, I support the chancellor and her inquiry and intend to cooperate fully with it," Cummings said.
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