Editorial: A matter of record

Friday, April 13, 2007 | 7:12 a.m.

CORRECTION

April 14, 2007

The following editorial in the April 13, 2007 edition incorrectly reported that University Medical Center officials ignored a request by the newspaper for documents showing how the hospital awarded contracts. In fact, it was the Medical Executive Committee, which represents the hospital's medical staff, that declined to provide the documents.

The Sun regrets the errors.

A Nevada Senate subcommittee approved a piece of legislation this week that could help clean up and clarify the state's open records law.

Senate Bill 123, introduced by Sen. Terry Care, D-Las Vegas, seeks to set a time frame in which government agencies must respond to requests for public records. Too frequently agencies have simply ignored such requests and a Nevadan's only recourse sometimes has been to sue for release of the records and legally challenge a government agency that likely has more money and lawyers.

Care's original version, introduced in February, called for requiring government agencies to respond to public records requests in two days. Government agencies, however, wanted 10 days.

The compromise arrived at Monday gives government agencies five days to turn over the records or provide, in writing, a timetable for the records release or the reasons the request cannot be fulfilled.

The five-day time frame would apply only to public records requests made in writing. People still could make oral requests, but the five-day limit would not start until the request was made in writing.

This bill takes a positive step toward returning fairness and sanity to public records law. Over time the law has become muddied with provisions that allow government agencies to charge bloated fees for records searches or, worse, to simply ignore requests - just as University Medical Center officials did when the Las Vegas Sun requested documents showing how the public hospital awarded contracts.

The Sun eventually revealed that the hospital's administrator, since fired, had led the Clark County Commission to believe that the hospital's deficit was half as big as it was. And Metro Police now are investigating contracts that hospital administrators approved.

We hope this bill proceeds through the Legislature. Government's business is financed by the public to serve the public. Its records must be open and accessible.