Moving up one rank

Remember our friend from the Nevada State BOE?

Aug. 12, 2008 Las Vegas Review-Journal

BOARD OF EDUCATION: Member of panel resigns
Conduct at public meetings called 'distracting,' 'shocking'

Greg Nance quit the Nevada Board of Education on Monday following a weekend of public meeting make-out sessions with his new wife.

Sharon Frederick, a fellow board member, said Nance's behavior was "like watching a reality TV show. It was so distracting!"

Vice President Anthony Ruggiero called Nance's conduct "shocking and deplorable."

Board member Jan Biggerstaff said she met with Nance on Monday morning and told him that the bad publicity was going to hurt his political career and ability to serve.

But Nance, 49, cited his health issues and the need to take care of his 20-year-old wife, Sharona Dagani, who has cerebral palsy, as reasons for resigning.

"I have to put her first," he said.

Dagani sat beside Nance at Friday and Saturday's Board of Education meeting while strapped into a motorized wheelchair.

A year ago, television news reports said Dagani had about $2 million in a trust fund from a medical malpractice lawsuit. Dagani's mother went to the media in 2007 after the young woman left her Jewish family to join the International Church of Las Vegas, an evangelical church where her part-time caregiver was a member.

Nance acknowledged he is now "well-off" but said he signed a prenuptial agreement to protect his wife's assets. He also told the board that he wants to change his last name to hers.

In January, Nance wrote in a Nevada financial disclosure statement for public officials that he "owned nothing" and that everything belonged to his ministry, Ambassadors for Christ, which he operated out of his home with his now-deceased wife, Rita Nyberg.

"We have taken a vow of poverty," wrote Nance, who said he is a Pentecostal preacher.

Nyberg died in October, when Nance allowed doctors to take her off life support.

"I didn't want to do it," Nance said, explaining that Nyberg had cancer and was unconscious from a seizure. She might have lived another month, Nance said, but there was no chance for recovery.

Within 24 hours of Nyberg's death, Nance said he suffered a heart attack, the first of three since October.

Nance met his current wife at the Mission Pines nursing home, where they were both patients.

The couple wed on July 28, according to a wedding certificate.

Nance was elected to the state Board of Education in 2006, representing District 5, which is in Las Vegas. During board meetings, Nance has spoken about being a special-education student while in school. He told the Review-Journal that he dropped out of school in the ninth grade and has worked as a taxi driver.

Friday was Nance's first meeting after a long absence because of health problems.

The meeting was a video conference between board members in Las Vegas and Carson City, but Nance was the only official in Las Vegas on Friday.

Nance said he was weary from a long honeymoon. "Too much partying and rock 'n' roll" were his reasons for sleeping through much of the meeting. Ruggiero often had to prompt Nance for his vote at the Friday meeting.

On Saturday morning when the board reconvened, Nance came dressed in the same clothes he wore Friday: white slacks, a sleeveless blue T-shirt and sneakers but no socks. Sometimes he donned Elvis-style sunglasses.

This time, board member Cindy Reid was in the room and objected when Nance began dangling jewelry in the face of his giggling wife. Ruggiero halted the meeting.

When Deputy Attorney Ed Irvin asked Nance to show decorum, he responded that there was no law saying his wife could not sit with him. "Therefore, bite me!" Nance told the attorney.

He had two years left in his term. Ruggiero and State Superintendent of Schools Keith Rheault hope the governor acts quickly to appoint Nance's successor.

Board President Marcia Washington has missed recent meetings because she has been taking care of her ailing mother, which means the board could have difficulty assembling a quorum.

"We don't want to let (Nance's vacancy) fall through the cracks," Ruggiero said.