Disclosure of officials’ calls debated

Bill Gang

Tuesday, Feb. 24, 1998 | 10:06 a.m.

People who have talked privately with Clark County commissioners on their cellular phones may find themselves being questioned by the media about those conversations if a district judge rules that the phone records are public.

District Judge Kathy Hardcastle is pondering whether the media should have access to the records of taxpayer-paid calls on the cellular phones of the Clark County commissioners and two top administrators.

Don Campbell, attorney for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, argued in court Monday that media access to the phone records can show whether county officials are being fiscally responsible and who they have been consulting before important votes.

The newspaper filed a lawsuit earlier this month seeking to have the phone bills of the commissioners, County Manager Dale Askew and Aviation Director Randy Walker for 1996 and 1997 declared to be public record.

Deputy District Attorney Mary-Anne Miller argued that the phone bills are protected under the privacy laws and the media's "laudatory" watchdog role doesn't outweigh the rights of the county policymakers.

The county has contended that the people talking with commissioners have an expectation of privacy about those conversations.

"We don't think the district attorney's office has the faintest idea if the County Commission is dealing from a full deck," Campbell said.

He said the records would be a way to determine if officials are being "influenced or lobbied" before critical votes.

"We won't know if we don't get the records ... to conduct our own investigation," Campbell said, explaining that reporters would use a "criss-cross directory" to determine the party at the other end of the line or simply call the number and see who answers.

While Campbell concedes that the law protects conversations from being electronically intercepted, that is not the case with the telephone numbers or even the names of those speaking with government officials.

Ironically, while commissioners are fighting the release of the records, the state court system considers the cellular phone records of judges and executive staff to be public.

District Court Administrator Chuck Short said that to ensure fiscal responsibility for judges who have county-paid cellular phones, the judges are given copies of their bills each month and asked to pay for any personal calls.

The records, Short said, are available to the media.