Tag Archives: Open meetings

  In November, the Attorney General’s Office hosted a day of training for members of state boards and commissions subject to Nevada laws regulating their processes and conduct, including administrative rule making, state contracting and ethics in government.   The training also featured modules on the responsibilities of official boards …

Complaints to the Nevada attorney general of violations of the state’s open-meeting law have continued to decline over the past half-dozen years, according to the attorney who investigates them. Since January 2014, the Attorney General’s Office has averaged 32 complaints a year, according to George Taylor, the senior deputy who …

Is government too open? Have our records and meeting laws actually gone too far in pushing transparency, such that they interfere with the decision-making process of democracy to the detriment of our society? My answer, of course, is no. But I was intrigued by the question offered as a recent …

Now that I’ve vented my frustrations with the Legislature’s refusal to release records, I have some suggestions for how to fix it. In fact, the Legislature can make itself far more accountable on both records and meetings without sacrificing its authority to make its own rules and live by only …

Here’s my quote in the Associated Press story about the Legislature’s response to a request for some records: “I’m appalled by the breadth of the arrogance in this response.” I told reporter Michelle Rindels quite a bit more, too (which I’ll get to later), but I think this pretty well …

The following column is being published in Nevada newspapers this week. By Barry Smith In an age when government leaks, classified e-mails and court orders to unlock phones seem to make the news daily, it’s worth remembering why we insist on open and transparent government. Sunshine Week is the annual …

A coalition of media groups today urged every U.S. Senator to support legislation that establishes a presumption of openness in law, encourages agencies to use public-friendly technology, and makes other changes to the way agencies respond to requests for information from the public. The Sunshine in Government Initiative (SGI) sent …

The best disinfectant. Let’s give credit where credit is due, as this is all about newspapers and journalism, where attribution is everything. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote it: “Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; …

Don’t listen to what they say. Watch what they do. Here are two instances reported by Columbia Journalism Review of city officials trying to hide in plain sight. In one, a California town tried to claim video of its council meetings was copyrighted. The judge hearing the case, Michael Fitzgerald …

I’m not an attorney, and I try not to sound like one when I’m giving advice or testifying in front of the Legislature. However, I do spend a lot of time analyzing statues such as Nevada’s records and open-meeting laws, which gives me an opinion on whether they are difficult …