Newspaper: Gibbons can’t issue blanket denial of e-mail access

By Cy Ryan

Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2008 | 3:44 p.m.

CARSON CITY – Gov. Jim Gibbons cannot issue a blanket rejection to a request to see his e-mail files, an attorney for a Reno newspaper argued in a lawsuit to obtain the messages.

Scott A. Glogovac, attorney for the Reno Gazette-Journal, said “Public record law in this state clearly does not allow a governmental agency to issue a blanket denial of access in response to a citizen’s request for multiple records in the possession of that agency.”

His statement comes in a reply brief in a suit filed by the newspaper to look at all of Gibbons’ e-mails for the first five months of this year.

District Judge Bill Maddox has set a hearing for Thursday on the request by the newspaper to order Gibbons to turn over the files.

Glogovac believes that if there is a blanket refusal, Gibbons still must provide the newspaper with a log or index that provides the date of the message, the name of the sender, names of the recipients, a brief statement of the subject matter and the legal argument why this e-mail is being denied.

The state attorney general’s office, representing Gibbons, has suggested that the judge go over the e-mails in his office to determine which, if any, are subject to Nevada’s Open Meeting Law.

James Spencer, chief of staff in the attorney general’s office, said some of the e-mails are personal and others are not subject to the law. He suggested Judge Maddox may consider “whether privacy, confidentiality or the best interests of the state outweigh the policy in favor of disclosure.”

But Glogovac says this shuts out the public from having access to these files. At the least, he argued the governor’s office should supply a log to allow the newspaper to determine which records it wants to examine. And then there could be the legal arguments whether these records are open for inspection.

Anjeanette Damon, the political reporter for the newspaper, also wanted to look at any e-mails Gibbons traded with his wife, his one-time lady friends, some of his staff and Warren Trepp, the businessman who was under investigation and cleared of allegations he gave gifts to Gibbons for helping deliver federal contracts to Trepp’s firm.

Gibbons refused to divulge any of these e-mails. He said his correspondence with his wife was personal and he did not trade any messages with his lady friends and Trepp.

Glogovac says the governmental agency, if it refuses access, must afford the citizen who files the suit access to a log or index that lists all of the requested records and “provides enough information about each record to allow the citizen to sufficiently assess whether access to that record has been properly denied.”

Cy Ryan may be reached at (775) 687 5032 or [email protected].