Editorial: Yucca talks should not be closed

Wednesday, April 28, 2004 | 8:52 a.m.

A group of public officials, including those representing the Caliente City Council and the Nye, Esmeralda and Lincoln county commissions, have met four times this year to discuss the Energy Department's plans for Yucca Mountain. The officials have closed all of their meetings to the public, on the grounds that Nevada's open-meeting law does not apply to their group.

Whenever public officials are asked why they aren't following the open-meeting law, one of these excuses is sure to be heard: Citizens would interrupt our meetings; We make no policy decisions; We're only a working group; Our meetings are held in various, oftentimes remote, locations; Our group does not represent a quorum of any elected body.

This particular group of public officials, who meet as The Central Nevada Community Protection Planning Working Group, is resorting to all of these excuses in defending its decision to bar the public from its meetings. They even came up with a novel line when questioned by Sun reporter Stephen Curran. The meetings are "neither closed nor open," several members said. Huh?

Attorney General Brian Sandoval's office is checking on the group to determine whether its closed meetings have violated the open-meeting law. We agree with Kent Lauer, executive director of the Nevada Press Association, who said, "The so-called working group, made up almost entirely of elected officials, has no legal right whatsoever to close its meetings." The open-meeting law requires all public bodies to meet openly, and defines public bodies as "any administrative, advisory, executive or legislative body of the state or government," which either spends or disburses taxpayer money or advises a government body that does. The group, whose meetings are paid for with taxpayer money, passed a resolution in January stating that its members will "make recommendations on policy ..." to their respective boards.

In the past, elected officials in Nye, Esmeralda and Lincoln counties, and the mayor of Caliente, have spoken favorably about burying high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, which we strongly oppose. But this group's agenda is not our immediate concern. We believe government officials, no matter where they stand on the issues, should respect the right of citizens to be informed about decisions affecting them.