Editorial: New culture of openness on horizon

Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2004 | 8:55 a.m.

On May 3 a Sun reporter asked the attorney for the Board of Regents to provide him with a document that by any reasonable interpretation of the state open-meeting law was public information. The attorney, Tom Ray, refused the request, citing, among other things, attorney-client privilege, which in this case was irrelevant. The document the Sun had requested was the university system's draft contract with Jim Rogers, whom the regents later appointed as interim chancellor. Ray had already sent copies of the draft contract to every member of the Board of Regents in preparation for their May 7 special meeting, at which they were scheduled to consider the contract. According to the open-meeting law, this act alone made the draft contract a public record, available to anyone who requested it.

The Sun followed up Ray's refusal with a complaint to Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval. On July 26 his office ruled that Ray's refusal indeed violated the open-meeting law. The ruling reflected the attorney general's growing impatience with the Board of Regents' history of disregard for openness, calling it a "serial violator" of the open-meeting law. Included among the past violations were the board's meetings on Nov. 17 and Nov. 20. A District Judge ruled that the board violated two provisions of the open-meeting law during those meetings, at which a sharply divided board demoted the top two officials at the Community College of Southern Nevada.

After the Sun's complaint and the attorney general's finding, Interim Chancellor Rogers moved to put an end to the board's culture of closed government. "I think if there is a question, you go with making the information public," Rogers, an attorney and owner of TV stations, told the Sun. On Friday, with Rogers acting as the mediator, the attorney general's office agreed to drop its charges against the board and the board agreed to drop its appeals of those charges. The board also formally agreed to comply with the open-meeting law in the future.

The Sun's complaint additionally generated action by six state legislators. They formed a committee to draft recommendations on how to clarify the open-meeting law, so that it can withstand arcane interpretations such as those used by Ray. The committee intends to present its recommendations, in the form of a bill draft request, to the 2005 Legislature. Sandoval's ruling, the agreement by the Board of Regents and this proposed legislative action are all signs pointing toward more open government in Nevada.