1 1 United States of America 2 Financial Crisis Inquiry
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1 1 2 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 3 FINANCIAL CRISIS INQUIRY COMMISSION 4 Official Transcript 5 6 Field Hearing on 7 "The Impact of the Financial Crisis at the Ground Level - State of Nevada" 8 Wednesday, September 8, 2010, 9:00 a.m. 9 University of Nevada, Las Vegas 10 Student Union Building, Grand Ballroom 11 4505 S. Maryland Parkway 12 Las Vegas, NV 89119 13 14 COMMISSIONERS 15 PHIL ANGELIDES, Chairman 16 HON. BILL THOMAS, Vice Chairman 17 BROOKSLEY BORN, Commissioner 18 BYRON S. GEORGIOU, Commissioner 19 HEATHER MURREN, Commissioner 20 JOHN W. THOMPSON, Commissioner 21 22 Reported by: DEBORA L. CECERE, CSR, Hearing Reporter 23 PAGES 1 - 326 2 1 SESSION 1: ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF THE 2 FINANCIAL CRISIS ON NEVADA 3 4 JEREMY AGUERO, Principal, Applied Analysis 5 6 7 SESSION 2: THE IMPACT OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS ON 8 BUSINESSES OF NEVADA 9 10 STEVE HILL, Founder, Silver State Materials 11 Corporation and Immediate Past Chairman, Las Vegas 12 Chamber of Commerce 13 WILLIAM E. MARTIN, Vice Chairman and Chief 14 Executive Officer, Service 1st Bank of Nevada 15 WALLY MURRAY, President and Chief Executive Officer, Greater 16 Nevada Credit Union 17 PHILIP G. SATRE, Chairman International Gaming 18 Technology (IGT) and of NV Energy, Inc. 19 20 21 SESSION 3: THE IMPACT OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS ON NEVADA 22 REAL ESTATE 23 24 DANIEL G. BOGDEN, United States Attorney, 25 State of Nevada 26 BRIAN GORDON, Principal, Applied Analysis 3 1 JAY JEFFRIES, Former Southwest Regional Sales 2 Manager, Fremont Investment & Loan 3 GAIL BURKS, Chairwoman, Nevada Fair Housing 4 Center 5 6 SESSION 4: THE IMPACT OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS ON NEVADA 7 PUBLIC AND COMMUNITY SERVICES 8 9 ANDREW CLINGER, Director of the Department of 10 Administration, Chief of the Budget Division, State of 11 Nevada 12 JEFFREY FONTAINE, Executive Director, Nevada 13 Association of Counties 14 DAVID FRASER, Executive Director, Nevada League 15 of Cities 16 HEATH MORRISON, Superintendent, Washoe County 17 School District 18 19 20 SESSION 5: FORUM FOR PUBLIC COMMENT 21 22 MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC 23 24 25 26 27 4 1 SEPT. 8, 2010, WEDNESDAY, 9:09 A.M., LAS VEGAS, NEVADA 2 -oOo- 3 4 P R O C E E D I N G S 5 6 CHAIRMAN ANGELIDES: The public hearing of the 7 Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission will come to order. 8 Welcome to all of you here in Las Vegas. I'm 9 Chairman Phil Angelides, and it's an honor to be here 10 with each and every one of you and my fellow 11 commissioners, and particularly with Commissioners Murren 12 and Georgiou who hail from this wonderful city. 13 It's now my honor in starting this hearing 14 today to welcome and bring forward the president of the 15 University of Nevada Las Vegas, Dr. Neil Smatresk. 16 And Mr. President, are you here, and if so, 17 I'd like to ask you to come forward and to welcome us to 18 your University. 19 -oOo- 20 21 22 23 24 25 5 1 WELCOMING REMARKS BY UNLV PRESIDENT NEIL SMATRESK 2 -oOo- 3 4 MR. SMATRESK: If you'll forgive me, I have to 5 put on my Madonna mike. 6 Hello, everybody. Can you hear me okay? 7 THE PEOPLE: Yes. 8 MR. SMATRESK: First of all, my name is Neil 9 Smatresk, and I'm president of UNLV, and I'm so proud and 10 honored to have you here today. 11 I know that Heather Murren and Byron Georgiou 12 went out of their way to make sure that this event could 13 be here in Las Vegas. I think it's both important and 14 fitting. 15 For those of you who haven't figured it out 16 yet, Las Vegas is in many ways the epicenter of the 17 financial crisis in America. We have a brutally high 18 unemployment rate. And I know you'll hear more about 19 that today. 20 We have had a dominant industry without the 21 appropriate level of economic diversification, cues for 22 how we go forward into the future to build once again a 23 prosperous society and a prosperous region. 24 UNLV has also, along with higher education in 25 Nevada, suffered to some extent as a result of this 6 1 crisis. And I don't want to put a real fine point on it, 2 because I know you have bigger fish to fry, but I will 3 say that when the average loss at the two major research 4 universities in this state, in just over a year's time, 5 was 20 percent of their state-based budget, and a 6 cumulative impact here at UNLV of over 50 million 7 dollars, one has to question both how this crisis 8 interacts with education, which we all know is counter 9 cyclical, and we all know is the refuge and retooling 10 area for getting back out of the old economy and into new 11 economies. 12 And so I would submit that as you deliberate 13 on this incredibly important problem that we also ask 14 ourselves have the impacts created situations that are 15 now so challenging that we may in fact cut off the 16 wellspring of work force development, of innovation, and 17 of transformation of economies, that is the wellspring of 18 education in our state and elsewhere. 19 I know that this is a topic that's near and 20 dear to your hearts, and I, once again, say we have many 21 wonderful people who are certainly pulling in the right 22 direction, some of the legislators that we have here, 23 Alice and Paul, Debra, elected officials in the audience, 24 of course, captains of industry for our region, and folks 25 like Senator Reid who have been working steadily to 7 1 create new economies and new jobs, particularly green 2 economies as so well-reflected in the recent development 3 of our City Center project, the largest green project in 4 the world. 5 So I say to all of you today, I hope you have 6 a vigorous session. I hope you explore our beautiful 7 campus, and I hope you remember that UNLV views itself 8 not as a funding problem or challenge but as a solution 9 to building a brighter and sustainable future. 10 I thank once again the Commission. I hope you 11 have a profitable day. 12 And with that, I will gracefully step down and 13 let you get on with the good work that you're doing. 14 Thank you all so much. 15 -oOo- 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 8 1 SESSION 1: ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF THE 2 FINANCIAL CRISIS ON NEVADA 3 -oOo- 4 5 CHAIRMAN ANGELIDES: Thank you very, very 6 much. 7 And let me just say on behalf of the whole 8 commission, thank you to you and your staff and everybody 9 here at the University of Nevada Las Vegas for hosting us 10 and for all your efforts to help us make this a 11 successful public hearing for this Commission, and for 12 all the work you're doing, thank you so much. 13 It's now my honor to hand over the gavel for 14 this session to our Nevada based commissioners. And just 15 a point of personal privilege, I'm going to make opening 16 remarks along with other folks in a minute, but I just 17 want to say that serving with Commissioner Murren and 18 Commissioner Georgiou has been a real privilege and 19 opportunity. 20 I have known Byron Georgiou because we shared 21 the same heritage for many, many, many years, and he's a 22 person of dedication and energy and intelligence. 23 I have just gotten to know Ms. Murren this 24 year, and I will just tell you she's an exceptional 25 commissioner who brings an incredible amount of insight 9 1 and intellect to this challenge. 2 And with no further ado, it is my honor now to 3 hand over the gavel for today's session first to 4 Ms. Murren and to take this hearing forward. 5 So, Heather, the gavel is yours. Use it 6 wisely. 7 COMMISSIONER MURREN: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 8 I'd also like to echo my thanks to UNLV and 9 their terrific team for hosting us today. 10 We are extremely proud to be here in a place 11 that we think represents some of the best of Nevada. So 12 we are happy to be able to hold our hearings here today. 13 I'd also like to thank Senator Reid for 14 appointing me to this Commission. I think that it is 15 very important work that we're doing. I certainly think 16 that the ability to bring a background in finance and 17 also in founding our State's Cancer Research and 18 Treatment Center, the Nevada Cancer Institute lends 19 itself to being able to try to understand some of the 20 problems and challenges that we face, and also to be able 21 to represent and hopefully answer for the American people 22 and for the people of Nevada some of why the causes of 23 the crisis came to pass. 24 And I think it's also important that we bring 25 our hearings here today to hear from the people that were 10 1 so dramatically affected by what has unfolded.