Monday, March 10, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- The telephone number for the Las Vegas Municipal Court is 229-6421. But you'll never talk to a live person if you call that number.
Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, wants to put a stop to that.
"You can't reach them," Neal complained. "You need to be able to reach a judge in his office and they've got these systems you dial this number with the message on it and you have to listen to that and then you dial the person and the person is not there.
"The Municipal Court is the poor man's Supreme Court," said Neal, arguing that the public should be able to get in touch with the judge or at least a secretary. He introduced a bill Thursday to require the municipal judges to list their office telephone numbers.
Right now, the public can call the central number. The automatic answering device says the caller can be connected to a specific department if he or she knows the extension.
But no extensions are listed in the telephone book for the judges' offices, so callers are out of luck.
The automatic answering machine then goes on to tell the caller to press any number from 3 to 8 to be transferred to a specific program such as fine collections, bonds, traffic violations and community service. But those numbers are also all recorded numbers.
Neal said justices of the peace and district judges all have office numbers listed and so should the municipal judges. He gets a lot of complaints from citizens that they can't reach the judges.
"I hate those message phones where you are trying to get somebody," he said. "Sometimes if you don't get right information, you don't get the person you are calling. The municipal courts should go to regular telephones."
He hasn't heard from any of the municipal judges but "if (Senate Bill 193) starts running, I think they are going to make a move to keep it out of statute."
Asked if the bill should be expanded to other government agencies, Neal said he's concentrating on Municipal Court first.
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