Measure would open personnel sessions

Wednesday, March 23, 2005 | 9:06 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A bill to open more government meetings to the public, including personnel sessions with high-ranking officials, was introduced in the Senate on Tuesday.

Senate Bill 267 would prohibit a government body from meeting behind closed doors to consider the physical or mental health of "a person who is an appointed public officer or public employee and who serves on the personal staff of or in an advisory or policymaking position for an elected public officer of the state or a local government."

Sen. Terry Care, D-Las Vegas, said the aim of the bill is to force open personnel hearings when the person being evaluated is "somebody that has been appointed by an elective board" or "anybody in a high profile position." This would include unviersity presidents and undersheriffs, for example, Care said.

The bill would ban closed meetings by government groups for hiring to fill these types of high-level positions as well.

The bill also would give all government employees the right to open their personnel sessions.

"You could get a waiver and you could invite the press in because it may be the only chance to get our side of the story across" to the public, Care said.

And even if it is a closed personnel session, the agenda would have to list the name of the person who is being discussed, the bill says.

The bill would require that a person who is the subject of a closed session be allowed to attend when his or her physical or mental health is considered. And it gives the chairman of the public body the right to determine if other persons should be allowed to attend.

The bill also gives qualified immunity to witnesses who testify before a governmental body, he said.

Care noted that legislators are granted absolute immunity when they are discussing business. "The theory is you cannot have a free-wheeling discussion without the immunity."

Under Care's bill, people speaking at a government meeting could make negative comments about other people and as long as they were made in good faith the speakers could not be sued for slander.

The bill says, "A witness who is testifying before a public body is absolutely privileged to publish defamatory matter as part of a public meeting, except that it is unlawful to misrepresent any fact knowingly when testifying before a public body."

The bill was referred to the Senate Government Affairs Committee.