Editorial: Power customers make power play

Saturday, Feb. 18, 2006 | 12:31 p.m.

Ask people what they most want to do this year, and "jury duty" likely won't make the list.

That is especially true of Nevada Power Co. customers who, President Pat Shalmy said in a Las Vegas Sun story this week, have sent e-mails and made phone calls "saying they absolutely don't want their information used to summon them for jury duty." The calls and messages started, Shalmy said, as a result of stories by the Sun that show Clark County's pool of potential jurors needs to be more diverse.

One good solution called for culling names from Nevada Power customer lists. Currently, names of potential jurors are obtained from Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles lists of people who hold driver's licenses or state identification cards.

But people from lower socio-economic groups often are left out. They move more often, so DMV addresses may not be up to date. Or they don't have driver's licenses to begin with.

Other states have added diversity to their jury pools by supplementing their DMV lists. Arizona also obtains names from telephone books, water service customers and welfare and unemployment rolls. California uses state tax returns and Social Security records, while Utah contacts registered voters.

Nevada Power officials have said a state law prohibits the release of the customer list. That law says public utilities in counties with fewer than 400,000 residents "shall provide" such lists for potential juror selection, but it is vague regarding larger counties. Court system officials say a bill to lift that cap is being drafted for the 2007 session. Meanwhile, court officials should expand their search to other sources, such as the state Welfare Division, county registrar and tax assessor's offices.