Editorial: So much for equal treatment

Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2000 | 9:40 a.m.

It's ludicrous that the city of Las Vegas refuses to make public all of the phone records that Mayor Oscar Goodman's executive assistant has made on his cellular phone. Four weeks ago the Sun requested the release of the cellular phone records of city employees from the first six months of this year. On Friday the city finally provided the complete billing statements for the 365 employees who used city-owned cellular telephones during that period to the tune of $61,250 -- with the glaring exception of William Cassidy. In the case of Cassidy, who registered the largest total at $1,686, he was allowed to redact some of the phone numbers he had called.

"We talked with the city attorney's office, and they said that as long as the bill was paid by the employee and that releasing the number would be detrimental to someone's safety, it is OK to block them out," David Riggleman, the city's communications manager, told Sun reporter Erin Neff. "It's a personal safety issue," added Cassidy, who took a leave of absence from his City Hall job to work as a private investigator for the defense team in the Ted Binion murder trial.

It is nonsense, though, to argue that some of these phone bills should remain secret. The net effect of the city's policy is to deny the public's legitimate access to these records. The calls were made on a cellular phone that was paid for with taxpayer dollars. It may make Cassidy uncomfortable to have all of his phone calls listed, but he should have thought of that before using a city-owned cellular phone. For that matter, why should the city place such faith in Cassidy to help assess whether in fact someone's security will be jeopardized if the records are released?

Cassidy has been treated with exceptional deference at City Hall -- whether it's him getting permission to take a leave of absence from his government job to temporarily pursue lucrative employment elsewhere or him obtaining an exemption to the release of his telephone records. There appear to be two sets of rules emerging at City Hall -- one for William Cassidy, the mayor's crony, and one for all of the other employees. It's time for this double standard to come to an abrupt end.