Thursday, April 2, 1998 | 3:24 a.m.
The PUC wants District Judge Mike Griffin to throw out an opinion from Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa that says the regulatory body must let the public see copies of proposed, or draft, orders before voting on them.
The PUC's lawsuit focuses on a provision that says public bodies must supply citizens with at least one copy of a proposed ordinance or regulation to be discussed at a public meeting. The law also requires public bodies to supply interested people most "other supporting material given to members of the body for an item on the agenda."
The PUC has contended it's a quasi-judicial body that acts somewhat like a court, and thus exempt from the open meeting law. But Salter said the 1997 Legislature rejected a suggestion to exempt the PUC from some provisions of the law based on a quasi-judicial status.
Anthony Sanchez III, assistant general counsel for the three-member PUC, will represent the regulatory body in seeking the exemption to the open meeting law.
The attorney general's office will defend Deputy Attorney General Greg Salter's interpretation of the law. Salter was responding to a complaint from the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
"When people attend meetings of their government boards, they have a right to know what's being discussed," said Review-Journal Managing Editor Charles Zobell. "For some reason, these utility commissioners want to make their decisions and then let us know the details."
Kent Lauer, executive director of the Nevada Press Association, a trade group for newspapers, said he is confident the attorney general's opinion will be upheld.
Without a copy of the proposed order, the public can't understand discussion about the order by the PUC, he said.
The PUC lawsuit contends "premature disclosure" of proposed orders denies utilities due process of law. The regulatory body argues that some people may obtain access to proposed orders before others and seek modification of decisions prior to a final decision.
The regulators cite a law it says prohibited communication about pending cases "except through formal procedure open to all parties."
Disclosure of a proposed order before a vote "may have an impact on the trading price of stock or securities" of investor-owned utilities, the PUC asserts.
The petition says the commission fears the attorney general would start criminal prosecutions against it, or declare its decisions void, if it continued to withhold draft decisions.
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