Bill would let officials make their records secret

Thursday, March 10, 2005 | 11:12 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- State law should be changed to make secret the records of property owned by law enforcement, legislators and other public officials, police officials told lawmakers Tuesday.

But the request ran into opposition from assessors and from an organization that represents Nevada newspapers and advocates for the public's right to know.

The Assembly Government Affairs Commission heard testimony on Assembly Bill 142 that would allow police and 19 other classifications of people to request county assessors to keep confidential their home addresses, the home addresses of their spouses and minor children and photographs of their homes.

Besides allowing police and legislators to shield the information, the bill would grant the same right to social workers and investigators in child welfare services, the attorney general, judges and court employees, a state attorney or investigator, a district attorney or deputies, public defenders and deputies, city attorneys and deputies, elected or appointed members of a political subdivision and the surviving spouses and a minor children of peace officers killed in the line of duty.

AB142 would also cover psychiatric social workers employed by government, and state workers in the prison, the parole and probation division, the child and families services division, the parole board, the state prison commissioners and juvenile detention centers.

Property ownership records are public information mainly to ensure that anyone can check any piece of property to ensure that property taxes are being applied fairly to everyone.

That's why, even before the testimony, Assemblyman David Parks, D-Las Vegas, the chairman of the committee, said AB142 would need "extensive amendments" if it was ever approved by the committee.

David Kallas, representing the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, the organization that asked for the bill, said AB142 would help prevent retaliation against police officers and others who protect the public.

Kallas testified there was a former North Las Vegas police officer involved in a four-year investigation of the Crips gang that resulted in the arrest of the gang leader. Gang members got information about his home and his family, and he and he family had to be moved to protect them from an attack, Kallas said.

Ronald Dreher, representing the Peace Officers Research Association of Nevada, and Gary Wolff, a former Nevada Highway patrolman, also testified in favor of the bill.

But Kent Lauer, executive director of the Nevada Press Association, said that contrary to what the police officials indicated, this bill does not have anything to do with 9/11, the Oklahoma City bombing or the murder of family members of a federal judge.

Lauer also said the police officials failed to cite a single case in which information from the assessor's records was used for retaliation. He said the police officials wanted to create a "protected privileged class" and it does not make sense to single them out.

Assessors Mark Schofield of Clark County and Dave Dawley of Carson City said this same information is available in county recorders' offices and must remain available there for property transactions, so this bill would not eliminate the availability of that information.

Dawley said the records should be open because people want to know if they are being taxed differently than their neighbors.

Dawley and Douglas County Assessor Doug Sonnemann also said there are already options people can use to avoid having their names on assessor property records -- by putting the property in the name of a trust with a different name than the property owner, for example.

Schofield said he envisioned a "public relations problem" for the assessors if this bill passed. He said there would be thousands of calls from citizens wanting to know why they should not be covered. If this bill passes, Schofield said other groups would be back next asking for the same thing.

Kallas said this was not a "special privilege class" bill and he would "like to see it opened up to every single citizen" to have the option to keep the information confidential.

Parks noted that registered voters can ask that their home addresses and other information not be disclosed on voter rolls.

The committee did not take action on the bill.