ACLU: Governor’s education panel meetings should be open

By Cy Ryan

Monday, March 22, 2010 | 5:45 p.m.

CARSON CITY – The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada says the meetings of Gov. Jim Gibbons’ Blue Ribbon Task Force on Education should be open to the public.

Keeping the meetings closed is a violation of Nevada’s Open Meeting Law, which could be a misdemeanor, says Margaret A. McLetchie, interim southern program director of the ACLU.

McLetchie said the task force is “dealing with the important issue of education (and) the public and members of the press should have full access to the deliberations.”

Daniel Burns, communications director for the governor, said it will turn McLetchie’s letter over to Senior Deputy Attorney General George Taylor, who gave a legal opinion the meeting could be closed to the public and the press.

Taylor said the governor is not subject to the Open Meeting Law and a committee he creates is not covered by the law.

The first meeting of the 29-member group was Friday in a ballroom at the Wynn Las Vegas. Elaine Wynn is vice chairwoman of the task force. There was no official notice or posting of the meeting.

Burns said the task force was organizing and wanted to avoid the “atmosphere created by the news media and other paparazzi.” He said some other meetings will be open and some will be closed.

Burns said groups that advise the governor don't have to hold open meetings, but those who make policy must meet in public, he said. But no public money was spent, he said.

McLetchie said, however, “While there may be an attorney general opinion exempting the governor himself, that does not apply to the task force. The Open Meeting Law applies to any advisory or executive body that makes recommendations to government.”

McLetchie said in her letter to the governor she would like a response by Friday.

The Nevada laws, she said "explicitly require that ‘all meetings of public bodies must be open and public, and all persons must be permitted to attend any meeting of these public bodies’ unless explicitly provided otherwise by statute."

McLetchie, in her letter, refers to the story in the Las Vegas Sun that the governor’s task force was going to meet behind closed doors.