Newspaper files suit against governor on release of e-mails

By Cy Ryan

Monday, July 6, 2009 | 5:04 p.m.

CARSON CITY – A Reno newspaper has asked the Nevada Supreme Court to force Gov. Jim Gibbons to turn over 104 e-mails he sent to various individuals in the first part of 2008.

The Reno Gazette-Journal says the ruling of District Judge James Russell of Carson City should be reversed. And if the full e-mail message is not disclosed, then part of it should be revealed, the newspaper says.

“This coverage is important to the public as it provides a main source of information regarding the activity of government officials and of the trustworthiness of those officials and their suitability to maintain public office,” said the brief written by Scott A. Glogovac, the attorney for the newspaper.

Russell ruled that only six of the 104 e-mail messages authorized by Gibbons could be released to the newspaper. He ruled that the other 98 messages were not public records.

The state attorney general’s office, representing Gibbons, has 20 days to respond to the Reno newspaper's brief.

Glogovac says if the full message is not revealed, then the governor should disclose the date of the message, the name of the sender and all of the recipients, a statement on the message and the legal reason why access was denied.

Russell ordered Gibbons to turn over an e-mail of March 21, 2008, on reappointment of members of the Athletic Commission; a March 26 directive on Capitol Police; a May 22 decision regarding the open meeting law; an April 22 directive 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.”

Anjeanette Damon, political reporter for the Reno Gazette-Journal, filed a request last year to see e-mails exchanged between Gibbons and 10 other people. She then broadened the request to include all of the governor’s e-mail for the first part of last year.

In his ruling, Russell said 24 e-mails were of a personal nature; 32 were of a transitory nature concerning communications to or from the governor or the governor’s staff, and 42 e-mails were covered by deliberative privilege and did not constitute a final decision.