Is AG Aaron Ford's degree of slowness directionally proportional to the General Election?
Between delays and stonewalling, the Nevada Public Records Laws need some attention this legislative session to bring these agencies to heel. Picon has faced all sorts of delays, stonewalling and denial of records we know exist. In Nevada, every record created by a government entity is presumed by law to be a public record. The limited exceptions to the law are often left to interpretation by the agency holding the record. The refusal to release a record is limited by statute and case law, navigating that network is difficult and often frustrating for our citizens.
Apparently, the Attorney General’s Office does not seem to care that voters need information to make informed choices on their ballots. We know reliance on the media is a mistake, therefore platforms such as ours provide readers the opportunity to pull the curtains back and see how their resources are being managed. In this case, the matters surrounding Mike Clark were of interest.
Although Mike Clark had extensive media coverage of his restraining order, there was zero coverage explaining how evidence used against him was derived, how fellow county employees were treated in comparison or how the Sheriff handled a complaint filed by Clark disparately. Picon believes the Attorney General is in possession of emails that would shine light on these and other issues.
Ask yourself, if you were being sued in court, would the Sheriff take special interest in you and provide secret service level protections to you? If someone mailed out public records that exposed prior employment issues about you, would the Sheriff search United States mail to intercept them? What if your wife’s business in the City of Reno suffered a theft, would the Sheriff send a detective to personally take your case? Of course not. These are examples Picon was able to expose based on public records. And has the county or the involved elected officials responded to any of our inquires? No they have not.
In sum, public records are an important resource to hold our elected leaders accountable. Our readers will be disappointed to learn that the Attorney General has delayed our requests, one submitted in July and another in August, until December. Five months to search for a few emails? Seems unreasonable. We are not the only outlets facing delays, stonewalling and outright ignorance of the law. The Reno Gazette Journal has litigated to obtain records and more recently Bob Conrad, with This is Reno, has a case before the Supreme Court. Unlike government actors, these outlets have to find and hire attorneys to do this work. These agencies have scores of attorneys able to spend hundreds of hours defending the status quo. It is truly a David versus Goliath story.
While we wait for these records, Picon will continue to use a variety of methods to bring our readers fact based reporting of the issues often overlooked and ignored by the media.