


Editor's note: Brian Duggan, the executive editor of the Reno Gazette Journal

Democracies depend on government transparency. 

We need transparency to make important decisions before elections. We need it to hold those in power accountable. And we need it to have a constructive public conversation about our government. 

That's why the Reno Gazette Journal joined a statewide coalition of media organizations, good government groups and individuals to support a major reform to Nevada's public records law during the 2019 Legislature with Senate Bill 287.

What we've reported: This public records bill could help your right to know in Nevada. Some agencies are fighting it

Nevada's public records law gives you the right to a copy of a police report, empowers you to know how much we pay our public employees, lets you know the outcomes of investigations after major tragedies or scandals. 

So why does this law need reform? 

Too often, Nevadans are denied access to public records because of unreasonable fees, potential expensive court battles to get access to documents or because their request is ignored altogether. 

Examples of public records nightmares are not hard to come by in this state, unfortunately. Just look at a few examples on the Right to Know Nevada coalition's website:

Senate Bill 287 would be a step in the right direction toward solving some of those problems. 

Limit fees: Public documents should only cost what's literally needed to reproduce them — like the cost of paper and ink. What shouldn't be included in that fee? The staff time used to make the document available to the public — which is exactly what the city of Reno did last year when it started charging $45 for a copy of a police report. 

Add penalties: If a government official willfully and unlawfully withholds or restricts access to public records, a court must be allowed to impose monetary sanctions in response. Without a strong incentive to follow the law there's often little recourse for citizens facing the most egregious government behavior. 

Provide help: The bill would also require government officials to actively offer help to citizens in search of a public record. In other words, government officials should lend a hand in the pursuit of transparency rather than simply shut down if a requester doesn't know the specific terminology of the records they're after. 


Senate Bill 287 got a hearing on April 3 in Carson City. The RGJ's James DeHaven reported the opponents to the bill included state and local government agencies like the city of Reno and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. 

Their primary concern could be boiled down to this: The time and cost to fulfill records requests would be too much to bear if the proposed reforms were approved. 

That's an implicit admission by our government officials that the status quo is bad for public records transparency: We currently don't have the resources dedicated to providing the public the documents that are rightfully theirs. 

That's wrong and it needs to change. Nevada is a transparency backwater compared to 23 other states that already have "teeth" in their public records laws to ensure compliance by government agencies.

Our coalition includes the Nevada Press Association, news organizations and advocacy groups including KOLO 8, This Is Reno, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the Nevada Independent as well as the ACLU of Nevada and the Nevada Policy Research Institute. 

If you also care about the future of government transparency in Nevada, the Reno Gazette Journal encourages you to speak up in favor of Senate Bill 287. You can contact your Nevada Assembly member here and your Nevada Senate member here.

Brian Duggan is the executive editor of the Reno Gazette Journal. Do you care about democracy? Then support local journalism by subscribing to the Reno Gazette Journal right here

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