NLV agency fails to post agenda

Wednesday, April 13, 2005 | 9:41 a.m.

The North Las Vegas Housing Authority, a $14 million agency, did not post an agenda on its Web site as of Tuesday afternoon for a regularly scheduled board meeting today, apparently in violation of state law.

Don England, chief executive officer of the housing authority, said the agenda was not posted "because the IT (information technology) guy is in the Marine reserves ... he left Wednesday night (April 6)."

The agenda was posted on the Web site as of this morning, but that appears to be too late to comply with state law, based on the Nevada Attorney General's manual on the law.

The manual on the open meeting law states that the public should be notified of regular meetings of public agencies receiving taxpayer money by 9 a.m. three working days before meetings occur, in public places and on the Internet if a Web site is available, "unless the public body is unable to do so because of technical problems relating to the operation or maintenance of its Web site."

England said Tuesday the absence of his staff member was a "technical problem." He did not return calls seeking comment this morning.

Kent Lauer, executive director of the Nevada Press Association, said the absence of a staff member "certainly doesn't qualify as a technical problem."

"Giving adequate notices of meetings is a critical component of the law and public boards have a responsibility to inform as many people as possible," he said.

England said "we are a small agency" and that other staff members couldn't post the agenda on the agency's Web site.

According to the agenda, which the agency sent by fax to the Sun, notice of the meeting and its agenda was posted on the Web site. It also said that the agenda was posted in five public areas, meeting another requirement of the law, which is for at least three public areas in the agency's jurisdiction.

The agenda said that items to be discussed in the meeting include "consideration and acceptance" of the housing authority's annual audit report for the fiscal year ended June 30.