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Home , Melvin Dummar

Distinguished Nevadan Nomination Form

Deadline: December 31

Please send all nominations to: Dean J. Gould, Chief of Staff & Special Counsel Board of Regents 4300 South Maryland Parkway, , NV 89119 e-mail: dgould@nshe..edu Fax: (702) 889-8495

1. Salutation: □Mr. □Mrs. □Miss □Ms. □Dr. Governor

2. Nominee's Name (please ensure correct spelling): Robert E, List 3. Nominee's Mailing Address

4. Nominee's Phone Number: Home: ______

5. Employment History (attach additional material if necessary): List Cattle Company-ranch-hand NDOT- summer construction work William Crowell, Esq. - law clerk Laxalt, Ross & Laxalt -Associate Attorney District Attorney of Ormsby County/Carson City \ Cf �7- l q 7 I Attorney General of Nevada I Gj 11- I q l £J Governor of Nevada l q 7 q - I tf'6 3 Vargas & Bartlett -AssociateAttorney Beckley, Singleton. Delanoy, Jemison and List- law firmpartner Baamtowo lac -ExerntiveY P aod CocpocateCrn msel Baaedat Directocsmember Kolesar & Leatham -Senior Partner The Robert List Company-CEO A. \ t,bb ii\ ,f;rm Boar so Directors, past an present: First Interstate Bank, Business Ban o Nevada, First Asian Bank, Prime Trust, College Loan Corporation

(BOARD OF REGENTS 02/28/19 & 03/01/19) Ref. BOR-10g, Page 1 of 20 6. Educational Background (attach additional material if necessary): CarsonHigb School CarsonCity NV State University, BS University of California, Hastings College of Law, JD \ '1'. (..:z...

7. Reasons for Nomination: (Please include outstanding accomplishments, achievements, and contributions to Nevada and its people. Please be specificand provide considerable detail. You may attach additionalpages if necessary.) ______.:See. o=lfqc hcr1

8. Other NSHE Awards (please list other awards this individual has received): ____ HonoraryAlumnus UNR

9. Nominated by Regent: Board Of Regents

(BOARD OF REGENTS 02/28/19 & 03/01/19) Ref. BOR-10g, Page 2 of 20 Robert F. List for Distinguished Nevadan

Former Nevada Governor, former Nevada Attorney General and former Ormsby County District Attorney, Robert F. List has lived in Nevada since childhood. In 1968 as District Attorney, List lead the effort to amend the state constitution, which required state wide voter approval, to allow the merger of the city of Carson City and Ormsby County. This resulted in the consolidation of the elected offices and government agencies of the two entities. It was a major historical event never equal elsewhere in the history of the state and it led to the elimination of Ormsby County as a government entity. The merger saved taxpayers millions of dollars.

In the general election of 1970, List defeated his opponent with a 12% margin of victory and became the first republican attorney general in Nevada since the election of 1894. His first action as attorney general was to issue an order prohibiting the private practice of law by all attorneys in the attorney general’s office. Traditionally this activity was permitted, the consequences being that the state salaries were meager while the attorneys, including the attorney general themselves, enjoyed lucrative incomes from private clients with all overhead cost being borne by the taxpayers. List concluded that the business of the private clients was often taking priority over the needs of the state for legal services. To resolve the issue, with the support of the governor and the legislature, List secure a significant budget change providing for competitive salaries for full-time lawyers. Consequently, the office was able, for the first time, to recruit highly talented attorneys with expertise and experience. In turn the number of requests for official opinions from the office soared as state and local officials and agencies recognized the quality of the work product flowing from the reformed office. These actions transformed the office of the Attorney General from an antiquated model into a vibrant organization of top-tier professionals and set a standard of excellence for those who followed.

During List’s two terms as Attorney General, he established the office’s first criminal division and an anti-trust unit. He also established a branch office in Las Vegas, which filled a major void in the provision of legal services to Southern Nevada government agencies and citizens. He also gained a reputation for being tough on crime and for not being afraid of the mob. The 70’s and early 80’s were critical years for Las Vegas, (at) the time the state and the feds are trying to drive out entrenched mobsters who had taken over control of most of the major Las Vegas casino resorts. Hidden ownership in skimming were common place.

In one of the most infamous cases to come before his office, List went after Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal, a Las Vegas mobster. List personally argued the case before the Nevada Supreme Court in which Rosenthal’s “challenge to Nevada stringent gaming procedures was overruled.” Rosenthal hired America’s premier constitutional lawyer, former Dean of Harvard Law School and former US Solicitor General, Erwin Griswold. The ruling which was upheld by the United States Supreme Court preserved Nevada’s strict procedures for granting gaming licenses. List described it as the “most significant case in the history of the state as far as gaming control is concerned.”

The common belief was that the mob came to Nevada because gaming was legal here and the mob could operate and do things out in the open. Rosenthal operated the Stardust Hotel and was running the place for underworld hoodlums. Rosenthal had a felony record and List made a decision to call him forward to apply for a license. List won that case and it was a landmark case that a gaming license is a privilege, not a right, and constitutional protections are not applicable.

(BOARD OF REGENTS 02/28/19 & 03/01/19) Ref. BOR-10g, Page 3 of 20 Later as governor List finished the job when he took away the licenses of the Tropicana, the Slots of Fun, the Aladdin, the Dunes, Argent, the Stardust and the Riviera which at the time were more than half of the Las Vegas strip hotels. It was a total transformation of ownership i.e. from mobsters to honest and clean individuals and corporations. For the first time in history the state collected all the taxes. Gaming in Nevada went from a mob era to a modern era.

Additionally, as Attorney General, List and his deputy attorneys general prevailed in a number of water cases which, in extremely arid climate of the silver state, are absolutely critical to every citizen. List lead a legal fight against the federal government and the Pyramid Lake Indians which resulted in a court ruling upholding the water rights of the State, Washoe County, Reno and Sparks, the Truckee Carson Irrigation District, Sierra Pacific Power Co., and some 17,000 Western Nevada water users.

Another well-known case, which drew national attention, involved billionaire . When Hughes died in April 1976, it appeared he had not left a will. A short time later, a hand-written letter appeared on a desk in the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The will, known as the “Mormon will“ was filed in Clark County by the Mormon Church which was 1/16 beneficiary. The will had been delivered by Melvin Dummar, also named as a 1/16 beneficiary. Dummar told reporters that in 1975 he had picked up a man who claimed to be Howard Hughes and dropped him off in Las Vegas. List gathered evidence that tied Dummar to the delivery of the will and led up to a court ruling that determined the will was a forgery. In June 1978, after a seven month trial and millions of dollars from the Hughes estate to prove that the will was forged, the court ruled that the “Mormon Will” was a fake.

In another case, state ownership of thousands of acres of land adjacent to water was increased, ensuring public access in the future. During a drought, list succeeded in prevailing preventing the government from releasing hundreds of feet of water for fish daddies from stampede down. List also challenge the feds in a case before the United States supreme court on their unrestricted claims to water on forest lands.

List also appointed Nevada’s first deputy attorney general to work solely on environmental issues primarily with the “enforcement of state and federal air and water standards”.

On October 15, 1970 , Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, signed into law by President Richard Nixon, created the first national commission ever formed to serve gambling in America. On December 23, 1972, the White House released the names of the 15 commission members, eight members of Congress and seven “outsiders”. Most were not opponents of gambling and some were in favor of its proliferation. Nixon appointed List one of the “outsiders” to serve on the Commission on the Review of the National Policy Toward Gambling. List also served on the Air Force Academy Board of Visitors and he chaired the Western Attorney General Association.

During his term as governor, List played a pivotal role in the preservation of Lake Tahoe. In 1980 he convened the 14th special session of the Nevada legislature advocating that the legislature approve revisions to the Tahoe Regional Planning Compact upon which List and California Governor Jerry Brown had agreed. The bistate compact between Nevada and California that passed during the special session made significant improvements to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s powers to protect the lake. This agency “is the nation’s first and oldest bi-state regional environmental authority not purely federal state or local but a vital avenue working at the crossroad of private and public interests to protect and restore Lake Tahoe, it’s environment, and it’s communities for generations to come.

(BOARD OF REGENTS 02/28/19 & 03/01/19) Ref. BOR-10g, Page 4 of 20

List also served as the chair for the Western Governors conference and signed a major tax reform bill into law that reduced property tax and increased sales tax. Unfortunately, he was criticized greatly for this tax shift proposal. List’s tax shift continues to work today some 36 years later.

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