Statement of Topazia Briget Jones
Editor's Note: The following letter contains the initial allegations that eventually -- after investigation -- led to the demotion of President Ronald Remington and his government-juice mentor, John Cummings, at the Community College of Southern Nevada. It is just one item in the 1,026-page report -- compiled for university system regents by a former U.S. Department of Treasury investigator -- which Electric Nevada has obtained and is now studying. In order to keep this copy as close to the original as possible, all spelling and grammatical errors have been retained. However, certain explanatory information, in brackets, has been inserted.
Ms. Carla Henson:
[Henson is human resources director for the University and Community College System
of Nevada]
In October, 2002 while working as an assistant to Assemblyman Williams, I attended a meeting with him at CCSN in the office of John Cummings to discuss upcoming proposed legislation for the creation of a four-year degree program of CCSN; as well as a proposal for money to upstart a security/police force at CCSN due to increased crime on campus. After their discussions, Mr. Cummings proceeded to question me about my background and career goals. Shortly there after, he told me that I was the type of image that he would love to have at the college. I told him it would depend on the money and the job because the holidays were coming up and I did not want to be in a bad predicament. I also expressed to him that I had never been through the legislative process and that was very important because I had been working with Assemblyman Will1ams. During some of our meetings I felt a little lost because I had never been through that process. After several subsequent conversations of this type with Mr. Cummings, I agreed to accept the employment offer.
He explained to me at that this time those concerns would not be a problem and that by this time next year I would not even remember the past holidays. He told me to come back in a week or two so that he could look into a few things. He also stated at this time that it was his intent that I worked under his supervision. He informed me it would take a little more time because he had just filled the last professional position that he could have put me in for a friend of his. At this time, I didn’t know that he had filled it with Gina Smolka, his soon to be sister-in-law.
He proceeded to explain to me that he would prefer that I was brought in as a professional and go through that process because he can hand pick the committee and just tell the committee which applicant to hire. He also stated that as long as he got me in the system he could move me around however he wanted to. On January 14th I came to Mr. Cumming’s office to be processed for employment. That meeting was also attended by CCSN employee Thomas Brown, John Cummings, and Assemblyman Williams. At this meeting we conferenced in Diana Cox [director, human resources] by speakerphone. Mr. Cummings then proceeded to inquire about any positions that were under his supervision. Ms. Cox then informed him that there were several classified positions. He then told Ms. Cox to hold one of those positions because he had someone to fill it. After the conversation with Ms. Cox, we again discussed salary. He explained to me that this position was classified and only paid about $20k or so but, it was right up the hall from him and the important thing was to get me in the system and he would take care of the rest. He said that if I took it, what he would do is the first week I could take a test in Human Resources that he would give me the answers to. That would bump me up to the next level. Then about 2 or three weeks later he would get me moved up another level. Within three months he said he would have me in a professional position making a minimum of $50,000+ but he would try to have it closer to $55,000. I stated to him that he already knew what my level of living was and that if he could do it within 3 months, it wouldn’t be a problem. He again reassured me that it wouldn’t be a problem. He told me not to worry about it because he had done it several times before. He said that more recently he had hired another African-American and he could not remember off the top of his head, but he thought that he had her making somewhere around $80,000 in about a year. Upon completing our agreement, he said that there wouldn’t be any interviews or inquires and that everything was done. I accepted the job based on those terms. He then told me to get with Suzan Workman and give her general information she needed and she would type my application and turn it in to H.R. for me. When I left Mr. Cummings office, he then introduced me to Dr. Remington as the newest addition to the team. I started work the following week.
Ralph Goudy at the W. Charleston campus was my supervisor. At that time he inquired about me accepting a position that I seemed to be overqualified for. He also expressed being told that to some degree that over the next few months that I would be back and forth at the Iegislature (See attachment 1,2). Upon the convening of the legislature, the first week of February 3rd, I started to work with Mr. Cummings. John felt that since I had never been to the legislature that he would prep me on what to expect. When I asked him what my job description was, he stated that I was to get Assemblyman Williams to do whatever he wanted for the college. Secondly, that I was his assistant and a liaison between him and the interaction of The Education Committee working out of Assemblyman Williams Office. He reiterated that his overall goals this session was to pass a bill that created the four-year college at CCSN and the security money so that he could take care of a few things. During the first week at the legislature the time that was agreed upon to get my first raise had passed. When I inquired about an update, Mr. Cummings informed that he needed to get the security money from the legislature to do what be wanted. John said that I could take the test on any Friday that would increase my pay a little, but I would have to wait for him to get his security money in order to got my bigger raise. When he told me that he was going to put the campus security money in a bill that would get appropriated at the end of the session, that was a serious problem for me considering that the session was suppose to end four months later. He also said later on that none of the other CCSN bills were important other than the four-year bill as long as he got the money that he wanted. I was shocked because this was never discussed in our initial hiring meetings. He tried to explain how there were several different things that he needed to do with the money including moving some people around and hiring others. He said how he had also hired a friend of Assemblyman [Morse] Arberrys (Sonya Jefferson) and he was supposed to give her a promotion as well from that money. Assemblyman Williams heard the conversation and since he had been there the day we discussed all of these things, he agreed that the information that I took the job under was totally different than what he was now saying. So Mr. Cummings said that he would see what he could do. In the meantime I went ahead and took the test that I needed to take to be promoted to the next level (see attachment 3).
Several days later I received a phone call from Mr. Cummings we started working on the four-year bill, Mr. Cummings wrote the language and told me that he wanted it hand delivered to Assemblyman Williams. At this time Assemblyman Williams and I were still under the impression that this bill was something that the UCCSN system wanted, not Mr. Cummings and Dr. Remington. Mr. Cummings, Dr. Remington and I met in Mr. Cummings office to discuss exactly how he wanted the bill to read. Him and Dr. Remington agreed that I needed to keep all of the language confidential and only give it to Assemblyman Williams. Mr. Cummings stated that him and Dr. Remington’s fingerprints could not be anywhere on this because he wanted Assemblyman Williams to be the sponsor of the bill. Dr. Remington agreed. He didn’t explain to me why but just insisted that I got it done. He said that he would be up there the following week and he wanted us to get started. He also said that he needed some letters generated on behalf of the community in reference to wanting a four-year program. He said since the people that he needed them from were busy, that he wanted Mr. Goudy and me to develop templates as if they were corresponding with Assemblyman Williams so that they could have a general path on developing their own letters (see attachment 4,5,6,7). After we gave him that, he said he would just have them generate a letter on their letterhead and sign it. What Mr. Goudy and I did not know at the time was that the templates that we created were the actual letters that Mr. Cummings gave to me right before the meeting with the Chancellor, to make it look as if the community itself had put all the work into proposing the four-year bill. After I got up there, that Tuesday I believe it was March 4th, I found out that we ware going to have a meeting at Glenn Eagles [Glen Eagles Restaurant, in Carson City] with the Chancellor, John Pappageorge [University system lobbyist], Assemblyman Williams, Dr. Remington, John Cummings, Dan Tufoya [Tafoya -- works for Cummings], and myself. When he gave them to me, he said that we would need them for the meeting. After we got in the meeting, he pointed out to the Chancellor that he had personally received copies of letters from Assemblyman Williams’s constituents asking for the four-year programs at CCSN and then told the Chancellor that Assemblyman Williams or I had copies with us to show her. I did what was asked. This aroused my suspicion so I brought it to Assemblyman Williams attention what he had said to me in regards to the bill. Mr. Cummings knew that I had previously met the Chancellor while assisting Assemblyman Williams. She had only known me previously as being Assemblyman Williams assistant and we seemed to have a good rapor with each other. What I did not know at the time of the meeting was that John never told the Chancellor that I was a CCSN employee. After the meeting had taken place, because I had done exactly what he wanted, I was the best thing ever to John. A few days later he told Theo Byrns [Dean, Division of CCSN's Extended Programs Division] and Ralph Goudy [a manager in the same division] while we were all in the office together to go ahead and get my conversion paperwork done from classified to professional. It had already been done with the woman that was previously in my position when she went to go work for the Vice President. So he said that it shouldn’t be any problems at all and that he would let H.R.[Human Resources, i.e., personnel] and Patty Charlton [VP for Finance & Administration] know to process my paperwork.
My paperwork was completed and signed off on by everyone except Patty on March 13, 2003. It then went to Patty’s office on that day for her signature. As long as I was doing everything that Mr. Cummings wanted, life was wonderful. Shortly after that, we were discussing the four-year bill amongst other things and he told me that he never told the Chancellor before our meeting at Glenn Eagles that I was a CCSN employee. His reasoning for not telling her was because she really didn’t like him that much and that it was better if she recognized me as Assemblyman Williams’s assistant and not his. He said that I would have more access to her in meetings and other functions and that I would be able to get more information. I told him that I felt very uncomfortable with that. In my eyes, not only was it wrong, but just down right deceitful and I really like and respect the Chancellor. His response to how I felt was that out of every 20 things that the Chancellor says, 19 of them are a lie. My job was to pick out the one truth and bring it back to him so that he could use it to his advantage. All that stuff about her fighting for other people’s rights was a lie and the only rights she ever fought for where her own. Mr. Cummings and I had a very heated discussion about what he wanted me to do. I didn’t agree, so we ended that conversation on a very bad note. Later that night he called me and said that if I didn’t do the job that he wanted me to do then I needed to get my black ass back on a plane, report back to work at the college and sit my ass back at my desk and do what I was told. I told him that it was just fine with me and not to call my black ass to come to his rescue again. He often made remarks about black and white people. When I first met him, he told me that he was really black in his soul and on the inside, he just white on the outside. He often said to me how much he loved black women because our asses were bigger and we had more meat to hold on to. By this time Mr. Cummings had told me several times that I could always stay in his room whenever I wanted to. Even though he wasn’t there on Monday’s, he said that had nothing to do with that day or any other day I wanted to stay with him. Since I heard Mr. Cummings talk so much about blacks and women in specific, my opinion was just that he wanted a black woman. These things made me feel very uncomfortable. I knew that he was my boss so I tried to just deal with the remarks. Then I knew after we got into an argument how he really felt.
He 1et me know that he could make my life real easy or just like hell. He pointed out to me how Suzan and Gina can come and go when they wanted and do what they wanted and that I could have it like them or the complete opposite. I believed everything that he was saying. If you ask anyone who works at the college and has been there to know what is going on including Mr. Cummings, they will tell you that Mr. Cummings runs the college and that Dr. Remington just has the title.
At this point, I knew that there were still some things lingering such as my paperwork, so I called Ms. Cox in H.R. to find out what the status of that was. She informed me that she had not received it yet but once she did, that she would have to give me a desk audit and write her findings and recommendations. From that point, it would only take about 2-3 weeks to get processed, and then they sent it in to the state. Over the next few weeks, things were kind of up and down with our communication, but I was still going to the legislature. One of Mr. Cummings problems that he had with me was that I didn’t compliment him enough. He said that I needed to tell him that he looked good and smelled good and that I didn’t bake stuff for him like Sonya Jefferson did. Up until this point I had never met Sonya, but heard her name several times. One day John introduced me to her. He said that I was a person that she should latch on to and he wanted me to take her under my wing. He also wanted me to take her to the legislature with me for a week. Sonya and I got together to plan out when she would come and we decided on the week of April 13th. That week or so before she came, Mr. Cummings asked Ms. Byrns if she could pay for it out of Continuing Education’s budget and he would reimburse her. Ms. Byrns agreed. What he told me that week that Sonya came up there was that he thought that someone was trying to do an audit on him and he didn’t want that expense to show up on his account. While all of this was going on, Mr. Cummings had made a promise to Assemblyman Williams and several other people in a meeting that regardless as to if he got the money from the legislature or not, that Sonya and I would get our promotions and raises. It was either that week or the following that Mr. Cummings came to me and said that he no longer wanted to go through with the four-year bill.
He said that he and Dr. Remington had received a phone call from the Chancellor and she was really pissed because she found out that they were behind the four-year bill. I was told that I needed to do whatever it took to stop Assemblyman Williams from going forth with any hearings on it. I spoke with the Assemblyman and told him what was going on. He had decided to proceed forward with the bill in spite of what Mr. Cummings had told him. Once Mr. Cummings found this out, he banned me from going to legislature on behalf of the college and said the reasoning was because the Chancellor said that she didn’t want me up there anymore. On April 26, 2003 1 went to the CSSN Picnic. I saw Ms. Charlton and we talked very briefly. I asked her about my professional paperwork and she informed me that she had signed off on it and sent it H.R. about a week and a half before that. That following week, I called Diana Cox back to see if she had received it. Her response was that she had and it would only be about 3 weeks before it was completed. She said that there were only 4 other people’s paperwork ahead of mine so I was 5th on her list. I asked her would it be any longer then 4 weeks because I had been waiting since the 2nd week in March. Her response was that she highly doubted it. I contacted her approximately 2 weeks later to see how much closer she was to getting to me. At that time she stated that I was still 5th and she was trying to get to me as soon as possible. By this time, Mr. Cummings had already been acting very funny towards me and expressed how he couldn’t believe that Assemblyman Williams would turn against him and that it was my fault that the bill had not been killed and that was something that I would have to live with. He totally changed his attitude and flirtatious manners around me. A few days later I received a phone call from Assemblyman Williams that Mr. Cummings had called some of his constituents and voiced the fact that they wanted me to resign from the college. To my understanding, when he wais asked who were “they” and did that mean him and Dr. Remington, his response was we11 … yes. About a week or two later I saw Ms. Cox at the W. Charleston campus. I asked her was she there to do my audit. Her response was that she had 22 people whose paperwork she had to do. My thoughts were what difference does that make if I am number 5 on the list. As far as I knew, there were only 4 people ahead of me, not 21. 1 didn’t comment at that time because I was walking with someone else. I called Me. Cox and left her a message in regards to our conversation and she never returned my call.
The last week of May, I got a message on my phone from Mr. Goudy saying that there had been some changes and that I was to report to the Green Valley Tech Center (GVTC) when I returned to work. There wasn’t any explanation as to why, what I would be doing or whom I reported to. I called Mr. Goudy and he told me that they had received a directive from a higher power that Lawrence Roney needed an assistant. Supposedly that person needed somewhere to sit.
To this day, there still hasn’t been any other mention that I have heard of an assistant for him. I was told that I still reported directly to Mr. Goudy, but that I was being put out at GVTC because of the space issue.
I knew that there was something more serious going on at this point. I lived less than 10 minutes away from W. Charleston and all of a sudden I had to drive out to GVTC for this mystery assistant because of space. I did what I was told. I had met Debra Solt (GVTC Site Manager) a couple of times previously. From the first day she seemed very uncomfortable with the fact that I was there to only take up space and didn’t report to her. Mr. Goudy was very supportive of me considering the position that I had been put in. He had no idea as to all of things that had been happening with Mr. Cummings and me. He did know that something was really strange about everything else that had been going on. One minute he would get a call saying that I wasn’t to go to the legislature anymore, and the next minute I was better than a fresh loaf of bread and Mr. Cummings would need to utilize my services even more through the legislative session. Mr. Goudy has always been supportive, very easy and fair to work with. So, he said that the situation just was what it was and it wasn’t his decision but it came from a higher power and he would do everything that he could to make it as comfortable for me as possible. Around the same time that I found out of me moving, Assemblyman Williams had scheduled a meeting to discuss some of the tactics that Mr. Cummings was using in dealing with the legislative session. After the meeting, Assemblyman Williams informed me that Dr. Remington wanted me to call him personally to set up a meeting so that we could discuss the issues at hand. The meeting was scheduled for July 1st. I immediately started calling Diana Cox and emailing her (see attachment 8,9) to find out the current status of my paperwork. She did not return my emails or phone calls. Finally, on June 30th after I emailed her again, I called her office and spoke with her. She informed me at that time that Tom Peacock [associate VP of human resources] had my paperwork and he was in the process of generating a letter for it. When I asked what type of letter, she said that she had no idea and that he was writing the letter, not her. That was end of our conversation.
DDuring my meeting with Dr. Remington, he told me at that time that he would look into the promises that Mr. Cummings made me and the other things that had occurred. The next day I received a call from Dr. Remington that he had looked into a few things about my promotion.
He explained to me that he had spoken
with Ton Peacock. Allegedly, at that time, Mr. Peacock told him that it was illegal for
them to promote me to professional the way Mr. Cummings tried to go about it and that Mr.
Peacock wanted to meet with me personally to see how we could get this matter resolved. I
immediately call Mr. Peacocks office and set up an appointment for us to meet the
following day. When I got to his office, he seemed as if not only did he want to know why
I was there, but also like he really didn’t want to talk to me.
After we introduced ourselves, I explained to him that Dr. Remington had asked me to come see him because he wanted to talk to me. I meeting was less than 15 minutes long. In summation of that meeting, he told me that whatever I thought was incorrect. He said that there were employees who had been there a lot longer than me that deserved those professional positions and that if one became available, he might decide to let my supervisor know so that I can apply and go before a committee like everyone else. I even asked about the fact that my position was never an AAII position, it was always an AAIII. Ms. Cox told Mr. Goudy and myself ‘that the state would not allow them to under fill an AAIII position, so they had to under fill it as an AAII. He said that I shouldn’t plan on going anywhere other than the position that I was already in and the point about my position always being an AAIII, he would look into it. He said that if that was all, he would get back to me. He was so cold and callus towards me that was in shock and immediately went back to Dr. Remington’s office, and told him what happened. He told me that a lot people said that about Mr. Peacock and he’s not sure what the problem was. He then walked me down to my office and told Mr. Goudy to at least get started on processing a request for me to be the correct position (AAIII) for this job, and that he would talk to Mr. Peacock. I never heard anything else from Mr. Peacock or Dr. Remington after that.
My situation at GVTC was getting more and more tense and I constantly talked to Mr. Goudy and Ms. Byrns about it. They said that they couldn’t do anything because my move out there was not their decision. So, I dealt with it. On August 11, 2003, I received a memo from Ms. Solt sitting on my desk when I walked in (see attachment 14). I immediately went to her office to ask about the things that I felt like she was accusing me of. I was tired of being harassed by her. I called Mr. Goudy after speaking with Ms. Solt and told him what was going on. In short, he allowed me to write a rebuttal and meet with him again to discuss what had been going on. The same day, after him and I met, I got called into a meeting with him and Ms. Byrns. I was told that Tom Peacock had just called Ms. Byrns and said that I was to report directly to Debra Solt as of August 18, 2003 (see attachment 15). Ms. Byrns said that when she asked why, she was told that because it was a decision that they had made. It was never stated as to who “they” were. I called the Chancellor and setup a meeting. I was terrified to go back to work, and report to her knowing everything that had already happened. I took the next 3 days off with personal leave and the following 2 days, sick leave. I met with the Chancellor, August 19, 2003. On August 20, 2003, I reported back to work at GVTC. When I arrived, Ms. Solt and I had a conversation. During this time is when she had informed me that she did talk to Mr. Peacock and what she had told him. She also stated that she had a problem with me taking notes in the meeting because it was obvious that I wanted to use them for something. She would ask me questions and then say that she didn’t like my answers. It was a mess, On August 22, 2C03, I met with Carla Henson. On Monday, August 25, 2003, after being my supervisor for 2 1/2 days, when I arrived to work, Debra Solt handed me a memo (see attachment 16) saying that I was terminated and to get my stuff, get out, and go see Yvette Murray [a personnel department employee]. I immediately called Ms. Hanson and told her what happened.
Topazia Jones