Officials speak out on public e-mail bill

Thursday, March 24, 2005 | 8:31 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A host of local government officials, including Las Vegas Councilman Michael Mack, urged an Assembly committee Wednesday to allow them to withhold from the public the e-mail addresses of people and companies that communicate with them electronically.

County and city officials told the Assembly Government Affairs Committee they encourage their citizens to communicate by e-mail for such things as meeting agendas, events and job opening.

But these lists are sometimes obtained by companies that then inundate citizens with spam and try to get the Social Security numbers, credit card or pin numbers, some of the elected officials said. Anyone can currently get the e-mail addresses for free and could sell them.

The cities and counties accepted an amendment by the Nevada Press Association that would close the database of the names of the private citizens. Association Executive Director Kent Lauer said this would prevent these companies from getting the wholesale list. But he said a person could make an individual request for the e-mail address of a citizen.

The bill would still require the e-mail addresses of those doing business with government to be a public record.

There was no opposition to the bill as amended, but the committee did not take any action on it.

Mack said he created an e-mail newsletter to citizens in his Ward 6 in Las Vegas. He is not running for re-election but, he complained, the candidates are asking him for the e-mail addresses.

"It's an inexpensive way to campaign," Mack said. He added that the residents are not happy about being "spammed" by the candidates. And he said real estate and insurance companies can use the e-mail addresses and it can be "quite harmful."

In addition, he said, some youngsters sign up by e-mail for leisure service activities and those lists might be used for illegal purposes.

Chris Matthews, e-government information officer for Washoe County, told the committee up to 800,000 Nevadans use e-mail to get information from their local governments.

The governments want to encourage people to use the electronic media because it is cheaper for government to provide the information electronically, Matthews said.

He said there are legitimate concerns about who might obtain the information and what it would be used for.

For instance, he said, phony banks can contact the citizens by e-mail, asking for Social Security numbers, credit card accounts or pin numbers. These bogus Web sites look like the legitimate bank or financial institution, he said.

They may be based in Russia or Hong Kong, out of the reach of law enforcement officers.

"We're hesitant to opening up our citizens to these kinds of things," Matthews said.

John Slaughter, management services director of Washoe County, said marketers get the names for free and then sell them to other companies. He emphasized that the e-mail addresses of those doing business with government would remain open under the bill.