New open-meeting deputy AG named

Monday, April 7, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Greg Salter, the new deputy state attorney general assigned to handling open meeting and public records cases, says he intends to enforce the law aggressively.

Salter, 50, who worked a short time for the Reno Gazette-Journal in the 1960s, said Thursday he asked for the job when it opened up.

"I've got the background ... I want to do open meetings ... I believe in it," said Salter, who has been with the attorney general's office for four years advising and representing agencies in the state Business and Industry Department.

Salter succeeds Robert Auer, who is moving to be counsel for the state Public Employees Retirement System.

Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa said Auer will continue to handle the case before the Nevada Supreme Court involving allegations that the Board of Regents of the University and Community College System of Nevada violated the open meeting law.

Washoe County District Judge Janet Berry ruled the regents were within the law in the exchange of fax communications about whether they should publicly challenge Regent Nancy Price, who had criticized the selection of a new community college president and the selection of a bidder for an external audit.

Auer appealed Berry's ruling.

There has been criticism from the media about Del Papa's enforcement of the open meeting law but she says, "We have been very aggressive." She said that will continue.

"I intend to pursue (enforcement of open meetings) aggressively, both from a prosecutorial and an educational point," Salter said. He said he will be meeting with local officials telling them how to comply.

"Then if they don't listen, we will go after them," he said.

Salter worked eight months as a general assignment reporter and wire clerk for the newspaper in Reno but then left for Foothill College in California, where he was editor of the college newspaper.

He served in the Army as a commissioned officer and returned to enter the University of Nevada, Reno. He said he had a hearing disability and realized he would not be able to pursue a career in journalism. He got a degree in economics, worked for First National Bank of Nevada for five years, then went to McGeorge Law School in Sacramento, Calif.