Attorney general investigates private meetings with city council

"We have to find out who met who and where and what happened," said Greg Salter, deputy attorney general in charge of open meetings cases.

Former Reno mayoral candidate Sam Dehne filed a complaint with the Nevada Attorney General's office after the Reno Gazette-Journal reported that the judges and an architecture firm held a series of meetings with small groups of council members.

Five council members and the mayors were invited in small groups at different times to the municipal courthouse to discuss a $42 million city hall expansion.

"It was not a meeting in the sense of the law," City Attorney Patricia Lynch said. She described it as a "briefing."

The law prohibits council members from meeting privately only when a majority is present, Lynch said. She said no decisions were reached during the meetings.

Dehne, a local activist and loser in the September mayoral primary who gets up to speak at most council meetings, said it was a "serial meeting" that violates the spirit of the open meetings laws.

"They were trying to come up with a consensus, so when it comes up (in public) they already know how it will go. ... They brought them in one-by-one-by-one," he said.

Municipal Judge Jay Dilworth denied the meetings were done to avoid public scrutiny. He said the judges wanted to present plans for a new court house that will be discussed at a city council meeting next month.

Salter said serial meetings are allowed unless members use it to make a decision.

The state law says, "If serial communications are used to line up a walking quorum to take action, they may violate the Open Meeting Law."

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