Reno lawyer to represent tax board in open meeting lawsuits

Thursday, July 14, 2005 | 9:46 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Reno lawyer Thomas "Spike" Wilson will be paid $300 an hour to defend the Nevada Tax Commission from suits that allege it violated the open meeting law in two cases involving tax refunds of millions of dollars.

Wilson, a former state senator, said Wednesday he was "not prepared to discuss the case."

The state attorney general's office filed the suits last Thursday after the Tax Commission refused to rescind its votes made in closed sessions earlier this year.

Wilson said his "first exposure" to the case was at the Tax Commission meeting last week when members suggested the law allowed them to meet in private upon the request of a taxpayer.

"I'm trying to play catch-up and review the records," Wilson said.

He said he was asked to attend the meeting by Commission Chairwoman Barbara Smith Campbell.

Attorney General Brian Sandoval said Wednesday that Wilson agreed to a $300-an-hour fee. His office, Sandoval said, would monitor the billing. If the contract goes over $10,000, it must be approved by the state Board of Examiners.

Wilson will have 45 days from last Thursday to file an answer to the complaints.

Sandoval said the fees paid by the state for private attorneys range from $190 to $600, with those fighting the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear dump at the high end. The attorney general's office must approve the hiring of private counsel to defend a state agency.

Campbell has said there is an apparent conflict with the attorney general's office filing the suit and representing the commission.

She and other members of the commission say they are permitted to go into closed sessions at the request of the taxpayer. She said the commission is bound to keep those matters confidential and it would be impossible to deliberate and vote on the case in public without disclosing secret information.

The attorney general said the Tax Commission could meet in private but must be out in the open when the discussion and the vote are held.

At a closed session in May, the commission voted to approve a more than $40 million refund to Southern California Edison Co. on sales and use tax paid between 2001 and 2003 on coal that was mined in Arizona and shipped to Nevada.

Southern California Edison operates the Mohave Generation Station near Laughlin.

The suit by the attorney general's office seeks to invalidate the $40 million refund and have the court declare the commission in violation of the law. There are no criminal penalties sought.

The second suit involves Leisure Homes of Reno that protested paying the room tax on time-share units in Washoe County. The statute of limitation has run out on that case, so the attorney general's office is not seeking to invalidate the refund, only to have the commission cited for a violation of the open meeting law and a court order to prohibit the commission from doing it again.