Attorney general group calls on Ford to release bar application

By Rimona Giwargis
Las Vegas Review-Journal
August 23, 2018

A month after state Senate Majority Leader Aaron Ford’s criminal record came to light, a Republican group questioned whether the attorney general candidate disclosed his four arrests on two state bar applications.

The Republican Attorneys General Association political action committee on Thursday called on Ford, D-Las Vegas, to release his bar applications to gauge whether he lied about his past. Ford, a partner at Las Vegas law firm Eglet Prince, was admitted to the State Bar of Texas and the State Bar of Nevada.

Both applications specifically require the disclosure of past criminal convictions.

Ford’s campaign shared his Nevada bar application with the Las Vegas Review-Journal. It shows he checked yes on the box asking if he had been arrested, cited or convicted of any criminal charges. The application requires an explanation, but the State Bar of Nevada told the campaign the attached explanations had been destroyed when Ford was admitted to the bar.

“Aaron Ford has not been honest about his past,” said Zack Roday, a spokesman for RAGA, which is backing Ford’s opponent, Wes Duncan.“Today, we are calling on Ford to release his bar applications for Texas and Nevada. Nevada voters deserve to know if he appropriately disclosed his four arrests, as required, on his bar application forms.”

Texas destroys its bar applications after five years. Ford was admitted in 2002.

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Quote of the week

Quote:

“Aaron Ford has not been honest about his past. Today, we are calling on Ford to release his bar applications for Texas and Nevada. Nevada voters deserve to know if he appropriately disclosed his four arrests, as required, on his bar application forms.”

Zack Roday, a spokesman for RAGA, which is backing Ford’s opponent, Wes Duncan.
"Attorney general group calls on Ford to release bar application"
Las Vegas Review-Journal,
August 23, 2018

'Deregulation' label for question 3 proves divisive for Nevada

By Colton Lochhead
Las Vegas Review-Journal
August 27, 2018

For one side, it’s a battle cry. For the other, it’s the dirtiest of words.

When it comes to Question 3, the politically charged energy- choice measure on the ballot in Nevada, a political line has been drawn over a single term: deregulation.

The group opposing the measure has flooded airwaves across the state with ads claiming Question 3 will bring about “electricity deregulation,” higher energy rates and fewer price protections. Opponents have even invoked the Enron energy scandal that rocked California in 2001.

But the campaign backing the measure that would shift Nevada’s current regulated monopoly to an open, competitive market derides the use of the word, claiming it falsely describes what the Energy Choice Initiative would do if approved by voters for the second time this November.

“They’re trying to scare people,” said Jon Wellinghof, policy analyst for Yes on 3.

Opponents argue that the changes proposed in Question 3 have historically been referred to as deregulation.

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K-12 Education Spending and Report

Article
Ron Knecht & James Smack
August 7, 2018

Primary and secondary education (K-12) has been the second fastest growing category of Nevada state spending over the past decade, rising from $1.24-billion in fiscal year 2006 (FY06) to $2.22-billion in FY17.  It grew 33 percent faster than the incomes of Nevada families and businesses.

Only spending on health and human services grew faster.  Transportation spending also grew significantly faster than Nevadans’ incomes (although it is very volatile from year to year), and spending on regulation and higher education also grew slightly.  K-12 and these categories caused total state spending to grow 30 percent faster than Nevadans’ incomes.  All other significant categories of state spending declined relative to incomes.
Moreover, state K-12 spending on a per-student basis grew 42 percent, from $3,172 in FY06 to $4,498 in FY17.  Local spending contributed comparable amounts.  With student headcounts growing 26 percent, total state spending on K-12 grew 79 percent.  From another perspective, while incomes of Nevada families and businesses declined ten percent in real per person terms, K-12 spending grew 14 percent on that basis.
In 2016, the latest year for which national data are available, Nevada state and local K-12 spending ranked 42nd among the 50 states, an increase from 45th the previous two years. Spending by the District of Columbia was second only to that of New York.

However, while total state and local spending was rising, Nevada ranked only 45th in instructional spending, but 37th in so-called “support services”.  Thus, we spend too little in the classrooms and too much on administration and overhead.
Note that the full body of research on the correlation of student achievement and state spending shows mixed results.  There is no consistent, significant and statistically significant relationship between relative state spending and student achievement.
One piece of good news is that Nevada is eleventh in the evenness of its spending in the state’s 17 school districts (with evenness measured as the student-weighted coefficient of variation).  This fact gives the lie to continuing claims that the state’s school funding system is somehow antiquated and unfair to Clark County, requiring it to unduly subsidize rural districts.

So, what does all this spending buy us?
In 2007, Nevada eighth-graders ranked 44th nationally in their performance on the federally administered National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading and mathematics evaluations.  By 2015, those rankings rose only to 43rd in reading and 41st in mathematics, despite the large increases in spending.

The failure of significantly increased Nevada spending on K-12 education to show improvements in results relative to other states is consistent with international comparisons.  Thus, among 33 countries of the Organization for International Cooperation and Economic Development (OECD) the U.S. spent the fourth-highest levels per student but reaped only below-average performance (23rd) on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2015.  Japan, the highest-achieving nation, spends only 81.6 percent as much as the U.S. per child.
Our problem is that we keep throwing ever more money at teacher and administrator unions instead of making serious policy reforms.  These special interests and state and local school boards continually dodge the real issues by focusing on the non-school factors, such as household income, that are beyond the reach of education policy.
To improve the effectiveness of our education spending, we must allocate it to programs that have been shown to boost student achievement.  Public education must focus on the school-controlled variables that lead to improvements in student achievement in a cost-effective manner.

The academic literature shows no school-controlled variable has a greater influence than the quality of the teacher.  The best teachers can deliver effective instruction without requiring small class sizes.
So, our priority should be the recruitment and retention of highly talented teachers.  We should dispense with seniority-based and formulaic salary structures and pay teachers for the improvement their students show from the start of the year to the end.
Other initiatives discussed in this this year’s Controller’s Annual Report include increasing family choice in their students’ education.  Also, greater use of technology-assisted learning, which serves students and eases the workloads on teachers.  And recruiting teachers not just from education-school backgrounds.
We must focus on the needs of our children, not the demands of the provider bureaucracy.
Ron Knecht is Nevada Controller.  James Smack is Deputy Controller. 
 

Quote of the week

Quote:

"Our problem is that we keep throwing ever more money at teacher and administrator unions instead of making serious policy reforms.  These special interests and state and local school boards continually dodge the real issues by focusing on the non-school factors, such as household income, that are beyond the reach of education policy." – Ron Knecht and James Smack

August 7, 2018

LVCVA’s Ralenkotter trying to rip taxpayers off one last time

By Victor Joecks
Las Vegas Review-Journal
August 11, 2018

Rossi Ralenkotter wants a diamond parachute for the platinum parachute of his golden parachute.

There’s a good chance that’s exactly what the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority board gives its embattled CEO next Tuesday. Ralenkotter is stepping down Aug. 31 and wants a massive severance package. According to the meeting agenda, the board will vote on a separation agreement with Ralenkotter, a 2018 performance bonus and an 18-month consulting contract.

Any one of those items will likely cost taxpayers six figures, and Ralenkotter wants all three of them. That’s on top of his current $425,000-plus annual base salary. It would be shocking if that alone didn’t cost taxpayers more than $1 million. Then there’s his pension, which will pay him over $400,000 a year for the rest of his life if he selects the unmodified option.

This is utterly ridiculous for any public servant, but especially for one who’s leaving the agency he ran engulfed in scandal. One of Ralenkotter’s former lieutenants used LVCVA funds to buy $90,000 in Southwest gift cards between 2012 to 2017. An audit found he disguised the purchases by requesting inaccurate invoices. LVCVA employees spent $20,000 in cards for business travel and $20,000 for personal travel. Cards worth $50,000 remain unaccounted for.

Ralenkotter and his wife used gift cards worth more than $16,000 to pay for more than 50 trips. He repaid that money — after getting caught. He claims that he didn’t know the LVCVA paid for the cards. Either he’s lying or waste was so prevalent under Ralenkotter’s leadership that he didn’t think twice about not paying for dozens of flights.

Either way, the board has more reasons to fire Ralenkotter than shovel money at him. Metro is still investigating Ralenkotter for criminal wrongdoing. In a very odd move, Metro gave board chair Lawrence Weekly an update on that investigation Wednesday. “At this time, there is insufficient facts to support a criminal case against Mr. Ralenkotter,” wrote deputy chief Shawn Anderson.

An ongoing investigation doesn’t mean you’re home free — just ask President Donald Trump about Robert Mueller.

At the very least, board members shouldn’t use the lack of criminal charges as justification to give Ralenkotter more money. It’s not just the gift cards. As the Review-Journal’s investigative team has detailed, the LVCVA also spent lavishly on airfare, alcohol and iPads given away without recording a business purpose.

It’s hard not to wonder whether Ralenkotter has leverage over individual board members. There’s that big of a disconnect between public outrage over LVCVA waste and the board’s willingness to tolerate Ralenkotter, despite actions that would get you fired from McDonald’s. North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee deserves immense credit for being an outspoken exception to this rule. Lee has called on Ralenkotter to resign immediately and without an exit payment.

Assemblymen Keith Pickard, R-Henderson, and Ozzie Fumo, D-Las Vegas, have both spoken out against Ralenkotter’s payout. More elected officials should do the same. 

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