The February 2010 newsletter from Commissioner Steve Sisolak discusses his Town Hall meeting which drew over 300 participants, moves to help UMC Hospital, a doctor who is fighting youth gangs in an innovative new way and information specific to Commission District A.
Click here to read it all
Commissioner Steve Sisolak's January 2010 newsletter covers issues from a Town Hall Meeting on community priorities to a food bank in Laughlin. There's information on how to become involved by becoming a member of a board or committee and much more in this current edition.
Click here to read it all
For his December 2009 Newsletter Commissioner Steve Sisolak reflects on the year and how we can help those who are less fortunate. The areas he lists need help at all times of the year, so please take a look and see if you can make someone's life better.
Click here to read it all
From a Meet and Greet for residents of Commission District A to a tax fraud alert everyone should know about, Commissioner Steve Sisolak covers what's important in his September newsletter.
Click here to read it all
Commissioner Steve Sisolak's August newsletter covers issues from budget shortfalls to back-to-school to catching an alligator.
Click here to read it all
Clothing for tots, an open judicial seat, and some Las Vegas area history are just part of what you will find in Commissioner Steve Sisolak's June newsletter.
Click here to read it all
Steve Sisolak urges closer look at contracts.
Sisolak says it looks as if some consultants are getting multiple contracts with Clark County without going through a bid procedure . . . says more transparency is needed.
Click here to read it all
Click here to read more
May 2009 newsletter covers the power of citizen participation, reopening of a Boys and Girls Club, mining in Sloan Canyon and much more.
Click here to see the newsletter
Click here to sign up for your own personal copy
The Las Vegas Sun writes on March 31, 2009…
“…when new Commissioner Steve Sisolak questioned Metro’s need for a new $2.9 million helicopter, Sheriff Doug Gillespie’s reaction “wasn’t defensive, it was more like shock,” Sisolak said. “Shock that anyone was even asking questions… The commissioner said he struggles to get specific answers to budget questions and thinks the meetings move too quickly.”
Read the full story by visiting…
Click here to read it.
Commissioner Steve Sisolak's April 2009 newsletter has up-to-the-minute information about the Western Trails Equestrian Center, 1st Tuesday meetings with police officers, Graffiti Awareness Month, $200 instant rebates on new drip irrigation timers and more.
Click here to read it.
NEWS CLIPPINGS
Steve Sisolak’s efforts on behalf of Clark County have been reported in the local press for years.
We’ve posted samples below with links to the full article (where links exist). Please check back often, as we expect you will be reading much more about Steve Sisolak and where he stands.
Political Barometer
Steve Sisolak: University regent did more for Southern Nevada with one news story than he ever could have as a legislator. Single-handedly re-opens fair share debate, gets lobbyists and legislators scurrying. (Rating: going up).
Sorry, no link is available to this article.
February 10, 1999
Las Vegas Review-Journal
COLUMN: Jon Ralston
Return of the fair-share issue
Sisolak had shown the temerity to raise questions about the funding disparities ($3,000 per student) between UNLV and UNR, and to ask system staffers for information about compensation packages for university employees. Sisolak has uncorked a bottled-up feud between the universities over the timeless issue of fair-share funding.
Read the entire column
February 11, 1999
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Intimidating a regent
Newcomer’s questions making some squirm
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 discourage d by another board member.
Read the entire editorial
March 03, 1999
Las Vegas Review-Journal
COLUMN: Jon Ralston
Sisolak’s fair share ride
Imagine if Paul Revere road through every Middlesex village and farm and the country folk refused to be roused.
Now you know how Steve Sisolak, Southern Nevada’s modern-day Paul Revere, feels today.
Sisolak seems less patient, unwilling to muffle his cries of defiance, fearful that should he turn down the decibel level, his words will not, as Revere’s did, echo for evermore.
Read the entire column
June 18, 1999
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Regent presses inequity charges
Steve Sisolak asserts the community college has been shortchanged in estate tax dollars
Regent Steve Sisolak pounced once again Thursday on an inequality in funding between the northern and southern campuses of the University and Community College System of Nevada.
The Las Vegas regent complained that the Community College of Southern Nevada has been dramatically shortchanged in the share of . . . dollars it receives in supplemental funding . . .
Because of Sisolak’s efforts, the Legislature this year appropriated extra money to UNLV and the Community College of Southern Nevada to reduce some of the inequality.
Read the entire article
October 29, 1999
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Money matters
University system funding panel gets down to business
Steve Sisolak didn’t win man friends up north when as a newly elected regent from Las Veas he pointed out earlier this year the obvious inequities in state funding between UNLV and UNR.
It was a gutsy thing to do—and an issue that deserved attention. Numbers eventually showed that the state provided UNR with $3,160 more per student that UNLV.
Mr. Sisolak’s harping paid off. During the past legislative session, lawmakers couldn’t ignore the issue.
Read the entire editorial
February 6, 2000
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Better watch your speed
Switchman asleep on Henderson college project
Though without any written job description, the “interim vice president for planning and administration” of this phantom institution without a campus or a site has apparently been promised $125,000 per year in taxpayer dollars.
“This is just crazy,” opines regent Steve Sisolak. “We had to go to the students and ask them for more money to pay a technology fee, but we’ve got the money to guarantee a salary for an institution that doesn’t even exist?”
Read the entire piece
May 22, 2000
Las Vegas Review-Journal
EDITORIAL: Bloated university budget
University budget gets a failing grade
Regent Steve Sisolak, who has become a consistent voice for fiscal sanity on the board, continues to question the system’s extravagance. Recently, he and a couple of other regents have cited the thousands of dollars spent . . . for braze busts of influential “friends” of the school.
“We throw around $1 million here, $1 million there, like it’s no big money,” Mr. Sisolak said.
Read the entire editorial
Saturday, September 23, 2000
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
EDITORIAL: And now … phantom students
Enrollment sleight-of-hand one more reason for an outside audit at CCSN
So far as anyone knew, the Community College of Southern Nevada had been posting annual enrollment gains of 10 to 15 percent . . . The Legislature allocated additional funds for CCSN this year, in the expectation that growth would continue, from 35,000 students to more than 38,000. But that's not going to happen.
In fact, Steve Sisolak, chairman of the Board of Regents audit committee, reports the college may show no growth at all this year, because past enrollment figures appear to have been padded via "misleading" accounting methods.
"We should not be getting funding for students who are not showing up," emphasizes regent Sisolak, in a bit of an understatement. "It's misleading, if not fraudulent, to report these enrollment figures to the state."
Mr. Sisolak now calls for an audit. Rightly so.
Read the entire Review-Journal editorial
November 29, 2000
Editorial: Disclosure needed from institutions
Nevada government officials over the years frequently have treated the phrase "full disclosure" like a virus that needed to be neutralized. It is particularly worrisome when an elected official struggles to get records that should be fully available. That is why we applaud the efforts of Regent Steve Sisolak to seek a detailed accounting from the University and Community College System of Nevada of the money our state institutions of learning have spent on business lunches, flowers and other fund-raising activities.
As reported by the Sun, the universities and community colleges spent nearly $2.4 million combined on those items last year to recruit faculty and private donors. But we share Sisolak's concerns that accounts of those expenditures have been too vague. The School of Medicine at the University of Nevada, Reno, for instance, reported $158,000 in expenses but did not offer details.
Read the entire Las Vegas Sun comment
January 16, 2004
Editorial: Regents had no business revising law
. . . this action came to light just within the past few days, thanks to Sarah Renteria, a Community College of Southern Nevada student from California who did her homework. In registering for her spring classes, she was surprised when college officials told her she wasn't eligible for the much lower rate because she hadn't yet resided in Nevada for a year. To no avail, she pointed out the state law on residency. The law clearly states a requirement of six months, which she met. She took the issue to Regent Steve Sisolak, who has been serving on the board since 1998. He is working to rectify this nine-year-old mistake.
The Board of Regents, whose members are elected, is authorized to independently establish academic and administrative policy for the University and Community College System of Nevada -- in all areas not specifically covered by law. But if it wants a state law changed, it must go through the Legislature. Boards are not empowered to change laws at their own discretion. As Sisolak says: "If there's a law we don't like, then the Legislature (would be the governing body) to change it." Otherwise there would be chaos.
. . . Refunds are in order and it's more than a matter of honor. It's a matter of law
This Las Vegas Sun Piece can be found here
October 12, 2004
Editorial: Our choices for education
Steve Sisolak, who is running for re-election in District 7, has been an effective advocate on behalf of students, working to keep tuition costs as low as possible. He also led the way in getting refunds to students whom the university system had at one time wrongly deemed as not qualifying for in-state tuition, which is less than for out-of-state students. Sisolak also has supported Rogers on some key issues, such as giving the chancellor more autonomy. Sisolak offers some stability on a board that all too often has been a sea of instability. The Sun endorses Steve Sisolak.
Read the entire editorial
November 30, 2005
EDITORIAL: Holding the line
Last week, however, university system Chancellor Jim Rogers announced his intention to hold the line on presidential pay . . .
Indeed. Regent Steve Sisolak of Las Vegas shares Mr. Rogers' outlook. Mr. Sisolak wants to advertise a set salary range during the search for Mr. Lilley's replacement. Such a move would set a sound fiscal precedent for future presidential recruiting . . .
Regents should support Mr. Rogers by putting Mr. Sisolak's plan into motion.
Read the entire editorial
July 15, 2006
EDITORIAL: Airport restrictions constitute a ‘taking’
High court upholds awards to property owner
The U.S. Supreme Court's loathsome ruling in Kelo v. New London did, at least, awaken Americans to government assaults on property rights.
Last week, the justices voted 5-2 to uphold a lower court ruling that requires McCarran International Airport to pay a $6.5 million judgment to Las Vegas businessman Steve Sisolak for placing a height restriction on his property years after he acquired the land...
What's important here is that Mr. Sisolak didn't seek the closure of McCarran or limitations on its operations as a remedy for his losses. The county was justified in placing such restrictions on land owned by Mr. Sisolak and others near McCarran because the development of a large, modern airport is crucial in sustaining Southern Nevada's tourist economy.
But Mr. Sisolak rightly contended that because the county's actions diminished the value of his investment, he should be compensated appropriately . . . These decisions are important . . . Bit by bit, they'll help take the property rights governments have unfairly commandeered and return them to taxpayers.
Read the entire piece
August 8, 2007
Editorial: Open those records
It seemed like a reasonable request, and one that would not encounter any difficulty. The Las Vegas Sun wanted to examine the forms UNLV employees submit when planning to work part time for an off-campus concern in addition to their university jobs.
But the Sun's request to see the outside income disclosure forms was denied because the university system classifies them as "confidential personnel records," according to a story by reporters Jeff German and Steve Kanigher that appeared Tuesday.
Such a classification, however, makes no sense to us. The public, which foots most of the bill for the university system, has every right to know where system employees have found other work. In fact, academic integrity depends on the university system being open about the side jobs of its employees.
"This is what feeds into the taxpayers' distrust of government, when they are kept from getting information that common sense says they should be able to see," Regent Steve Sisolak said.
Read the entire Las Vegas Sun editorial
|
