Roles and permissions

I am using Moodle 1.9.5.

I want to create a new role, kind of a local admin - someone who can create courses, add/edit users, and be able to assign the student (or local admin) role to new users.

As administrator, I went to Site Administration > Users > Permissions > Define roles, created the new role "Local Admin", and started adding what I thought was the appropriate permissions. I've managed to create a role that can add/edit courses and add/edit users, but cannot assign roles to those users, either in the System context or User context - both the Roles and Users columns are empty. The role does not have the "Create and manage roles" permission (moodle/role:manage under System), because I don't want them creating new roles or modifying existing ones. The role does have the "Assign roles to users" (moodle/role:assign under Course). I have tried turning on the former, but still no access. Is there some other permission this role needs to have? I've looked over the permissions lists, and checked the on-line documentation for those that seem to be related, but nothing seems to work. What am I missing here?

Thanks!
Mitch