Columnist Jeff German: Lawmakers must bolster meeting law

Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2005 | 11:05 a.m.

The Nevada Legislature has plenty on its plate this session.

But nothing may be as important as the effort to strengthen the state's open-meeting law.

This law is on the books to ensure that public officials conduct their business in the open.

It's generally one of the last things lawmakers want to debate because, like other public officials, their natural tendency is to avoid having their actions scrutinized in public.

So, in their mind, the more vague the law the better.

This session, however, lawmakers have no choice but to bolster the law -- though I'm sure that by the time they finish the debate, there will be several attempts to beat back the effort.

The secretive, mean-spirited and, yes, disgusting actions of the Board of Regents in November 2003 have forced this discussion in Carson City.

The regents conducted a professional lynching behind closed doors of Community College of Southern Nevada President Ron Remington and his lobbyist, John Cummings. Neither man had a chance to defend himself, and the public wasn't invited to the lynching.

Every conceivable loophole in the open-meeting law was exploited to purge the two men from their college posts -- drawing the ire of the public, the media, the attorney general's office and even a judge.

It resulted in today's campaign to make sure that no other public board is able to demonstrate this kind of arrogance and disdain for the law in the future.

The campaign is taking place on several fronts.

The attorney general's office wants the law clarified to specifically prohibit boards from deliberating at secret personnel sessions.

An interim legislative committee, chaired by Sen. Warren Hardy, R-Las Vegas, is seeking a measure that would allow the subject of a personnel session to be present and decide whether the meeting should be open or closed.

And most ambitious of all, Sen. Terry Care, D-Las Vegas, a lawyer and former television newsman, has submitted a bill draft that would open all personnel sessions for administrative employees who answer to public boards. That would include university presidents, school superintendents and city and county managers.

"These people are public figures," Care says. "There's no reason to hide what they do from the public.

What Care is suggesting, of course, is long overdue, especially in an era when information is constantly at our fingertips.

But more than that, Care says, "it's the right thing to do."

Politicians who have to conduct business in the dark simply can't be trusted. And if they can't be trusted, they have no business being politicians.

Believe it or not, because of the blatant open-meeting law abuses on the part of the regents, Care says the timing is right in Carson City to pass his bill.

Having seen so many other similar measures fail over the years, I'm not as optimistic as Care.

But I'm sure rooting for him.