Clark County officials forced to surrender cell phone records

Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2000 | 11:33 a.m.

More than 18 months after they were first requested, Clark County officials turned over cellular phone records to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

It took the Nevada Supreme Court's ruling that the records are public information under state law to force Tuesday's release of the documents.

The Review-Journal requested billing records in February 1998 for cellular phones used during 1996 and 1997 by members of the Clark County Commission, County Manager Dale Askew and county Aviation Director Randy Walker.

The newspaper filed a lawsuit in District Court after Askew decided the phone numbers revealed on the bills were confidential and shouldn't be released publicly. The county then released records with phone numbers blacked out.

District Judge Kathy Hardcastle ruled in the county's favor, but the Supreme Court overturned that decision on appeal in August.

The court determined the Review-Journal was entitled to the records for an investigation it was undertaking into the influence of lobbyists over county officials. Justices ruled that the county must pay the newspaper's legal fees.

Chief Justice Bob Rose said during arguments before the court in March that it would be impossible for a newspaper to investigate government waste without a complete record of cellular phone bills, and he asked why county commissioners' phone records would be private when his are considered public record under the law.

Two weeks after the court's ruling, county officials complied with a Review-Journal request for copies of billing records for the first six months of this year.

Those records showed that the six-month bills for the seven county commissioners totaled $7,047. They ranged from the $2,514 billed to Commissioner Erin Kenny to the $200 billed to Commissioner Myrna Williams.