Editorial: Destructive secrecy

Wednesday, July 28, 2004 | 8:40 a.m.

The Nevada attorney general's office has accused the university system of violating the state's open-meeting law in May when it refused to make public a copy of a proposed employment contract for the interim chancellor, Jim Rogers. Even though the Board of Regents' posted agenda for its May 7 meeting listed approval of the contract between the board and Rogers, the board's lawyer, Tom Ray, refused to give the Las Vegas Sun a copy of the contract. Ray's action stunned our newspaper, which filed a complaint with the attorney general, since state law clearly requires such supporting materials for board meetings to be made available to the public.

Deputy Attorney General Neil Rombardo, in an opinion Monday, called the board a "serial violator" of the open-meeting law. Unless the board agrees to a settlement in which the regents acknowledge they've broken the law and agree to implement procedures to ensure compliance, Attorney General Brian Sandoval will seek a court order enjoining them from further violations. The attorney general has drawn a line in the sand and we hope his action gives the board the wakeup call it needs to admit it was wrong and pledge to obey the open-meeting law in the future. If the regents continue to breed a culture of secrecy, public confidence in the board will dwindle even further, which is saying a lot considering how diminished the board's reputation is now.