Housing agency must cancel meeting

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2004 | 11:04 a.m.

The Las Vegas Housing Authority, a $70 million agency that provides housing to about 15,000 people in the valley, had to cancel its monthly meeting Friday to avoid violating the state's open meeting law.

"We were wrong and have to do it over again," said Richard Martinez, deputy executive director of the authority, after the Sun began asking questions about the posting of the agenda for the meeting.

In addition to discovering that the December meeting's agenda had not been posted on time on the agency's Web site, the Sun also found the agency had not used the Web site to inform the public of at least one previous meeting, and several forms the public needs to apply for housing were also not available on the Web site.

The site also has not offered the public any news for nearly a year and a half.

The open meeting law states that agencies receiving public money must be open in their meetings and decisions. It stipulates, among other things, that the public should be notified of regular meetings by 9 a.m. three working days before the meeting is to occur, in public places and on the Internet if a Web site is available.

"Adequate and timely notice is a fundamental element of the open meeting law and without it and other provisions, taxpayers cannot effectively monitor the actions of government officials and participate in the process," said Kent Lauer, executive director of the Nevada Press Association.

The housing authority was due to have its December meeting Friday, meaning that, by law, the agency should have posted notices of that meeting Tuesday morning.

The postings were not made until about 1 p.m., after the Sun had made four calls seeking the meeting's agenda.

Later in the day, the housing authority consulted with its lawyer and was advised that the meeting had not been properly posted so the meeting would not be legal, Martinez said. A new date has not been set but the meeting must take place in December, the official said.

The agency's Web site had also not posted notices for its monthly meetings since September, apparently in violation of the law on at least one other occasion.

Martinez said there was no meeting in November and that month's meeting was combined with December's "due to the holidays." But there also was no notification posted on the Web site for October's meeting.

The agency's Web site also has a news link. On Tuesday morning the most recent news item on the site was dated August 2003.

"I can't tell you why there isn't anything in the news since then," Martinez said.

"Maybe we need to make improvements on the site," he said.

By 6 p.m. Tuesday, all the agency's previous news items had been removed from the site and an "under construction" symbol was posted in their place.

Under the Web site's category, "Available Housing Programs," one of the four types of housing offered is called "Scattered Site Homeownership Program" -- 400 units of housing the agency offers, according to Martinez.

"To find out more (sic) this exciting new program please click on the appropriate links below," the Web site says. The words "program requirements" and "application" follow, in English and Spanish. There are no links to click however.

Another type of housing involves Section 8 subsidies. The Web site says, "See the ... Tenant Informer for current events, up-to-date information and how-to's...." After clicking onto the link, the most recent issue of "Tenant Informer" appears. It's from October.

"Maybe the agency needs to be more timely and more informative," Martinez said.