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Advocates of open government had a very good session in the Nevada Legislature in 2021. Only two bills containing provisions the Nevada Press Association opposed became law and their impact on transparency will be relatively minor. The other bills we fought either died in committee or were amended to our satisfaction before they were approved by the Legislature.
[The bills NPA tracked this session are listed and briefly described in this chart.]Moreover, the two bills that did pass — Senate Bill 77 and Assembly Bill 58 — were both improved via amendment as a result of the advocacy of NPA and members of the Nevada Open Government Coalition. NOGC had a significant impact in the 2021 session.
SB77 exempts from the Open Meeting Law local and state governments participating in National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) proceedings. The exemption allows more than one public official to participate in NEPA reviews without violating the Federal Government’s more-secretive rules. A Public Records Act exemption originally included in the bill was removed prior to passage.
AB58 gives the Attorney General authority to investigate whether state or local law enforcement agencies have engaged in conduct leading to a “pattern and practice” of civil rights violations, and to file suit if there’s reasonable cause to believe they have. The original version of the bill would have made the underlying investigative records confidential unless the AG filed suit. The amended version of AB58 requires the AG to issue a report if there is no “pattern or practice” or if one “could not be substantiated”, but keeps the underlying records hidden.
The one bill we supported this session — Assembly Bill 276, which would have trebled legal costs recovered by prevailing plaintiffs in public records lawsuits — didn’t make it out of committee but that wasn’t completely unexpected. It was sponsored by a first-term Republican in a session in which 18 percent of the 560+ bills signed by the Governor were sponsored by a member of the minority party.