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December 26, 2003
Shining the light of day on government
There's the usual list: lose weight, give up drinking, improve your love life or get that job promotion. One New Year's resolution I would hope would be on the minds of Nye County Commissioners would be to spend less time in executive session in 2004. The Nye County clerk said she didn't keep a log of when commissioners went into executive (or closed) session and when they returned to open session. So I did it for her. Most executive sessions are held at the end of the meeting. While I was anxious to hit the road back from Tonopah, or the crowd had filtered out to only a few hardy souls at the Bob Ruud Community Center, I stuck around waiting for the commissioners to return, like jurors rendering a verdict. But I felt somebody had to be there when they reemerged from behind closed doors, so commissioners wouldn't take advantage of the lack of a crowd to do something else. After all the waiting, I was usually disappointed to hear the usual refrain in open session following the executive session: "No action taken." By my calculation, Nye County Commissioners spent 21 hours and 17 minutes in executive sessions in 2003. I was trying to think of what I could've done during that amount of time. I could've hopped in my pickup truck and, driving 65 mph make it from Pahrump to Des Moines, Iowa. I could've driven to Los Angeles, and taken a flight to Paris and back. Instead, I sat in the meeting room, listening to someone's theories on politics, or what they did the previous weekend. During a particularly lengthy executive session in Tonopah, I was engaged with local residents who attended the annual pig roast in Gold Point over Labor Day weekend. A reporter in Texas used to regale me with his knowledge of Texas history during executive sessions. At one time, all five public entities I covered - three municipal boards, a school board and utility district - were each having an executive session at every meeting. At one Nye County Commission meeting I was so bored I was tempted to start singing karaoke while commissioners were talking behind closed doors. It was a perfect setup, with a microphone and public address system. In fact if commissioners ever set up videoconferencing, there would be a large television where they could display the lyrics. Perhaps I'll buy a pizza, and put it near the opening under the door, so commissioners can smell it, realize they're starving, and reconvene in public. The boilerplate language is on every county commission agenda under the board of commissioners section: "Closed meeting, pursuant to NRS 288.220 for purposes of conferring with the county's management representatives regarding labor negotiations, issues and other personnel matters." Another regular item states: "Closure of meeting, pursuant to NRS 241.015 2(b) 2 for purposes of conferring with counsel regarding potential or current litigation." No names of personnel are ever identified in that executive session, except once when the agenda mentioned the session was to consider the professional competence and character of former Nye County Manager Dave Chavez. No lawsuits are ever mentioned under the agenda item listing potential or current litigation. Isn't any topic subject to potential litigation? At the Aug. 19 meeting in Pahrump, my jaw dropped when I heard a county commissioner announce there would be no executive session. It was the first meeting where commissioners didn't retreat behind closed doors all year. Again on Sept. 16, it was announced executive session items were "pulled" from the agenda. Likewise on Nov. 4, Nov. 18 and Dec. 16, there were no executive sessions, a pleasant ray of sunshine broken only by a one hour, 45 minute session Dec. 2. Perhaps commissioners are already trying to exercise their New Year's resolution. A few times action was announced after a specific closed session. On March 4, commissioners emerged to announce they approved an amended contract with the Nye County Law Enforcement Association. On June 17, after the second longest executive session of the year, two hours and 35 minutes, commissioners announced they were terminating Chavez. During that session, Commissioner Joni Eastley walked out of Room A at the Pahrump Community Center and marched outside, where she briefly talked with Chief Civil Deputy District Attorney Ron Kent at a picnic table at Petrack Park. After a half-hour executive session Sept. 2, commissioners said they would hire Mike Maher as permanent county manager. An Oct. 21 executive session resulted in acceptance of the Nye County Employees Management Association contract. Sometimes, people get overly anxious to find out what's being discussed behind closed doors. Once, while covering a meeting of the Point Isabel Independent School District in Texas, an unscrupulous reporter from a competing newspaper left a tape recorder running, hidden among some books, in the room where school board members were meeting. When the superintendent opened the door to reconvene the public meeting, he promptly handed the tape recorder to the reporter. On another occasion, in the same town, the Port Isabel city manager had his ear glued to the wall, listening to the city commissioners discussing his fate in the next room. When the city manager suddenly stormed out of city hall in disgust, he obviously knew what his fate was. At least I didn't have to sit outside waiting for the 17-hour executive session held by the board of regents over two days, after which Ron Remington got the ax as president of the Community College of Southern Nevada. I sometimes wish I were a mouse, one that could fit underneath the door and listen to the discussion, unnoticed. But since I'm not, I'll have to rely on our political leaders to be on their best behavior, and only discuss what absolutely must be disclosed in private, by state law. Until then, I can only think of Charlie Rich, who sang, "No one knows what goes on behind closed doors." Write to Mark Waite at mwaite@pvtimes.com. |
