Legislator says deadline means doom for public records bills

Assembly Government Affairs Chairman Doug Bache, D-Las Vegas, said his committee lacks time to hear the two public records bills before a midnight Friday deadline.

Under new legislative rules, all bills that don't pass out of a committee by that time are considered dead.

Bache's committee this year introduced two public records bills: AB102, proposed by Secretary of State Dean Heller, and AB625, sought by the Nevada Conference of Sheriffs and Chiefs.

"We got along without the bills before, we can get along without them now," Bache said. "A lot of bills will not be heard this session."

Both bills would have kept confidential personnel records of public employees. The Heller bill passed the Assembly two years ago but then was killed in the Senate Government Affairs Committee.

The police bill contained provisions to ensure that the identities of informants and victims would not become public. It also would allow any public agency to determine whether items could be released to the public.

Nevada's current public records law, enacted in 1911, says all records of government agencies are open to public inspection. But scattered throughout the state law books are more than 200 exemptions.

Kent Lauer, executive director of the Nevada Press Association, hailed Bache's decision to let the bills die.

"We did not support either of those bills, especially the closed records bill, the one proposed by the association of police," Lauer said. "The bills give agencies too much authority to keep confidential public information."

Unless voters next year approve a constitutional amendment that authorizes annual sessions of the Legislature, Bache doubts legislators ever can reach an agreement on a new public records bill. Legislators have tried three times this decade to amend the old law.

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