Open meetings

Nevada’s open meeting law requires public bodies to deliberate and vote on matters that come before them in open, public meetings. In fact, a majority of any such board can’t meet in private, at all — except for incidental contact, where members may find themselves attending the same social function, for example.

Agendas must be posted days in advance, and — to prevent actions being taken without giving interested parties a chance to attend and comment — actions on matters not specifically listed in those agendas are barred. Actions taken in violation of these rules are considered null and void.

But when the Nevada Legislature enacted this law, years ago, lawmakers exempted one notable public body — the Legislature itself.

Now come Republican Assemblymen Pat Hickey, Randy Kirner, Paul Anderson, Michele Fiore, Tom Grady, John Hambrick and Cresent Hardy, joined by Republican state Sens. Greg Brower and Mark Hutchison, to propose Assembly Bill 118, the Legislative Open Meeting Law, which would impose these same rules on legislative committees meeting when the Legislature is not in session.

The bill, from the official summary, calls for “providing that meetings of legislative committees must be open and public, during any period in which the Legislature is not in session; providing that any member of the general public may attend such meetings; establishing the minimum requirements for public notice; … requiring that written minutes and an audio recording be kept … (and) providing that any action taken in violation of the Legislative Open Meeting Law is void.”

The Assembly Legislative Operations and Election Committee will hold a hearing on the proposal Thursday.

In fact, it should be possible to extend provisions of the open meetings law even further, to cover many of the Legislature’s activities even when lawmakers are officially in session. Sponsors say the long-term goal is indeed to move in that direction. Concerns were raised, however, over the need of party caucuses to continue to meet privately in order to plan strategy, leaving this as the partial step most likely to win approval in the short run.

The perfect should not be allowed to become the enemy of the good. Applying to themselves the same standards of openness which the lawmakers require of every other public body is a logical step that is long overdue. The Legislature should make it so.