Judge rules on confidentiality of governor’s e-mails

By Cy Ryan

Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2009 | 4:41 p.m.

CARSON CITY – Gov. Jim Gibbons must release only six of the 104 e-mail messages sought by a Reno newspaper in an open records request, a district judge has ruled.

District Judge James Russell ruled the governor should turn over the six e-mails to the Reno Gazette Journal, which filed a lawsuit to obtain them. Concerning the remaining messages, Russell ruled that “Personal messages are not public records and transitory messages are considered non-record.”

“I’m disappointed,” says Scott A. Glogovac, attorney for the newspaper. “Due process has not been afforded.”

Glogovac and Jim Spencer, chief of staff for the state attorney general, said they are waiting to decide whether to appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court.

Spencer said Gibbons has not yet had a chance to read the decision.

The six e-mails will be released in 10 days to the newspaper unless there is an appeal filed with the Supreme Court.

The messages include notes on a March 21 re-appointment of members of the Athletic Commission; March 26 directive on Capitol Police; a May 22 decision regarding the open meeting law; an April 22 direction to the Nevada Military Blue Ribbon Committee; a Jan. 18 note on the Council of Economic Advisors; and an April 22 message that “constitutes a decision made after deliberation.”

The judge also rejected the petition by the Reno newspaper to see who the governor sent the 104 messages to, including the subject and the time.

Glogovac said it was unfair for the judge to not allow the newspaper to receive a small notation of the messages to determine if the newspaper should be entitled to receive the full message.

Anjeanette Damon, political reporter for the Reno Gazette Journal, filed a request to see the e-mail traffic between Gibbons and 10 individuals. She then broadened the request to include all of the governor’s e-mails for the first five months of the year.

Glogovac said he was disappointed that the judge refused to provide a log of the e-mails to the Reno newspaper. He wanted to see the messages sent by the governor to an individual, the time and the topic. In that way, the Reno lawyer said it would be judged whether it was a personal matter or not.

Russell said disclosure of this information on the log “would disclose otherwise confidential information.”

“The court does provide the following additional information, however: of the 104 e-mails, apparently 24 e-mails were of a personal nature, having no concern as to governmental activity, apparently 32 e-mails were of a transitory nature concerning communications to or from the governor or the governor’s staff and apparently 42 e-mails were of a transitory nature and/or covered by the deliberative privilege being communications to/or from the governor to his staff and not constituting a final decision.”

The judge said the bulk of all the transitory e-mails concern scheduling issues and routine business activities and do not have to be provided to the Reno newspaper in abbreviated form.

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