Sisolak appoints new dental board members after RJ investigation
Gov. Steve Sisolak appointed six new members to the Nevada Board of Dental Examiners on Friday, filling a board decimated by resignations and vacancies after a Review-Journal investigation exposed the board’s ethical lapses and failures to protect patients.
The new appointments to the 11-member board are Jana McIntyre and dentists William Thompson of Battle Mountain, Ronald West of Reno, Elizabeth Park of Carson City, James Allman of Reno and Ronald Lemon of Las Vegas.
“These appointments will ensure the Dental Board will have a quorum to conduct the business of the Board,” the governor’s office said in a release announcing the appointments. “As mentioned previously, the Governor will use the interim period before the next legislative session to conduct a larger review of Nevada occupational licensing boards to develop a long-term solution that provides more transparency, oversight, and accountability.”
Changes after stories
The board openings came about after an October 2019 Review-Journal investigation exposed ethical lapses, failures to revoke licenses of dentists who repeatedly injure patients and violations of open meetings laws. Before leaving, the board members terminated Executive Director Debra Shaffer-Kugel and General Counsel Melanie Bernstein Chapman, but they inexplicably remain on the job.
State law allows the governor to appoint board members, but only the board can hire and fire agency staff. The governor was clearly not happy with Shaffer-Kugel after she distributed an anonymous letter alleging ties between the governor, his staff and board critics.
Board members Gregory Pisani, Jason Champagne and Byron Blasco, who each had allegations of ethics lapses, resigned in November less than two weeks after the Review-Journal stories. Sisolak also declined to reappoint three board members — President Yvonne Bethea, Secretary/treasurer R. Michael Sanders and Timothy T. Pinther — whose terms expired Oct. 31.
The board has cancelled all its meetings since November because it did not have a quorum but apparently some investigations continue.
Shaffer-Kugel threatened to dismiss a complaint after a patient spoke about it to the Review-Journal. Staff maintained confidentiality is necessary to maintain the integrity of investigations, but her counterpart on the medical board, Executive Director Edward O. Cousineau, called silencing patients “gross” and “stupid.”
Newer board members said staff and some board members would withhold information from the rest of the board and even go after board members who disagreed with policies or investigations.
“I was always afraid,” said Las Vegas Dentist David Lee, who was appointed to the board in 2018. “That’s the type of vindictiveness I think that she (Shaffer-Kugel) has, and the rest of them.”
Recent appointees Lee, Gabrielle Cioffi, D. Kevin Moore, Joan Shadler and Betty Pate remain on the board.
Long wait for reform
The dental board has been the subject of scathing audits in 2016 and 2019 that found problems with their disciplinary processes and repeated ethics lapses.
In June, Sisolak told the board he was going to make changes. “I don’t know where to begin, but I’m not happy the way this turned out. I’m not at all happy the way it turned out,” Sisolak told Chapman at the audit meeting.
Sisolak said he would consult with his attorneys to see what could be done, but took no action — other than deciding not to reappoint expired members — until Friday’s announcement.
Sisolak has said he would like comprehensive reform of the state’s 31 occupational licensing boards, including the Board of Pharmacy, which failed to conduct criminal background checks on some drug wholesalers.
“The Pharmacy Board is not the only state licensing board in Nevada that deserves an in-depth review,” he said in October. “My administration is aware of allegations related to other state boards and we share serious concerns over what appears to be a pattern displaying a lack of oversight and accountability.”
But systematic reforms of the board would require legislative changes and that likely won’t happen until the 2021 session.
“I am not interested in any more Band-Aid solutions for the state of Nevada,” he said in November.
Contact Arthur Kane at akane@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ArthurMKane on Twitter. Contact Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638. Follow @coltonlochhead on Twitter.