Columnist Jeff German: Letting freedom ring in NLV

Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2003 | 11:22 a.m.

Freedom of speech is one of our most precious constitutional rights.

Far too often elected officials, looking to avoid public scrutiny of their actions, try to take that away from us. They try to restrict our ability to weigh in on issues important to us.

There's a free-speech debate taking place in North Las Vegas, and how it ends up could have a profound impact on the way local governments throughout Southern Nevada conduct business.

A group calling itself the Freedom of Speech Committee has obtained enough signatures to place an initiative to expand public participation at North Las Vegas City Council meetings on the spring ballot.

At the core of the initiative is a provision that would allow North Las Vegas residents to speak during a mandatory public forum at the beginning of each meeting.

The concept is a good one because in this case it would allow people to address issues that matter to them before -- not after -- a vote is taken.

If you want a guaranteed right to free speech before the City Council, you have to do it during a public comment session at the end of a meeting, when it's too late to make a difference.

Mayor Michael Montandon often lets people talk as items come up for votes, but he has the ability to pick and choose who can talk and when to cut them off.

The process moves the meetings along with few interruptions, but it's not very democratic.

Montandon and the City Council don't want to be forced to give up their authority to limit public participation. So this week they went to court to block the free-speech petition from getting on the primary ballot.

District Judge Mark Denton has promised a ruling soon.

Some aspects of the petition, such as changing the time of the City Council meetings and increasing the time for individual remarks during public comment sessions, are administrative matters that probably should be left to the will of the council.

But the overall intent of the initiative -- to open up meetings -- has merit.

The public, for example, would benefit greatly by a provision of the petition that would guarantee residents the right to voice opinions on consent items not generally open to debate.

Putting an item on the consent agenda is a sneaky way for elected officials to push something through a public meeting without holding it up to public scrutiny. The practice has become routine at the Las Vegas City Council and the Clark County Commission.

So maybe the residents of North Las Vegas have started something here.

Maybe this debate will encourage others in the valley to organize against secrecy and back-room dealing in government.

Let's root for the residents of North Las Vegas. Let's hope they get a chance to earn a victory for freedom of speech.