County backs off website threat

Adrienne Packer

Monday, Nov. 19, 2001 | 8:42 a.m.

Controversy over Clark County's threat to take legal action against an Internet website demeaning to county officials has prompted the administration to change how it handles such sticky civil rights situations.

County spokeswoman Gwen Castaldi said employees offended by websites will be told to contact the web host or website owner directly, rather than rely on the government to wage the battle.

"In the future, if individual employees have concerns, we'll have them write or contact the site," Castaldi said. "From here on out our concern will be logos and our copyrighted designs or graphics."

Castaldi said the county's new directive does not mean administrators regret the manner in which they handled a website designed and owned by former employee Gene Smith. Jomax Technologies Inc. shut down the site last week after receiving a letter from the county threatening legal action.

In the memo authored by Castaldi, the county claimed the site -- which offered demeaning, personal information about Clark County Manager Thom Reilly and Commission Chairman Dario Herrera -- was slanderous.

Smith, who was fired from the county in 1998, has since made arrangements to resurrect snitchonclarkcounty.com and claims he will make it more aggressive than ever. And the American Civil Liberties Union says the former maintenance worker has every right to do so. "What the county did was something that was quite foolish and quite wrong," Allen Lichtenstein, the ACLU's attorney, said. "The county government cannot be libeled.

For a government to threaten a web server with that kind of legal action is totally and completely inappropriate." Castaldi wouldn't specify why the county changed how it will handle the growing number of websites that attack government policies or officials. When asked whether the county simply brought more attention to Smith's project, Castaldi said she did not want to speculate.

ACLU representatives have their own opinion. If Clark County officials went forward with a lawsuit against the Arizona-based Jomax, Lichtenstein said, they would have found themselves in the middle of a national civil rights dispute. "Perhaps they figured out if they continued with this sort of behavior, it would likely result in a lawsuit that would attract national attention," Lichtenstein said.

"We're not just talking bullying Gene Smith by indirectly going through his server. We're talking about attempts to bully servers in other states. "Then it's no longer just a Nevada issue, it's a national issue." Whether the county continues to pursue websites based on content or just copyright infringements, it likely has not heard the last from the ACLU. Lichtenstein said the county cannot prohibit citizens from using the county seal.

The seal, like the American flag, was produced by the government in the public domain and therefore belongs to the public, he said, adding the only case the county would have is if website owners were trying to pass off their site as a county page. Gary Peck, executive director of the ACLU of Nevada, said, "I am heartened to learn that the county probably will desist from harassing Mr. Smith and his new server, but I am disheartened to learn they stand by what they have already done."