Four-year fight over Gibbons emails makes important point

Is that all there is? Well a big so what, who cares.

The Reno Gazette-Journal's four-year legal battle to obtain former Gov. Jim Gibbon's emails didn't uncover any smoking gun as the newspaper surely hoped, since Gibbons fought so ferociously to keep 104 emails closed to the public.

The emails showed that there was infighting among his top administrators, particularly Chief of Staff Mike Dayton and Chief Operating Officer Dianne Cornwall. Well, we already knew that.

One suggested he liked gin. Well, we knew the Republican was a tippler before voters elected him in 2006, because of the Chrissy Mazzeo incident at the McCormick & Schmick bar, not to mention that absurd picture of him in the Wall Street Journal where his head scarf surely was motivated by liquor.

We figured he had friends who supported him and sent him supportive emails. Northern Nevadans seem somewhat intrigued by the relationship the emails showed with developer Perry Di Loreto.

The emails resulted in some news coverage over a short time period but left people scratching their heads about why the governor didn't release the rather innocuous missives.

Forgotten by many nonjournalists: Both sides were battling over principle and precedent.

The Gazette-Journal proved its point that a governor's emails using state-paid equipment are open records and he needed a good reason to keep them private. That applies not just to this governor, but future Nevada governors and other state officials, setting a valuable precedent for news gatherers.

The governor's office lost its argument that it could merely say, "No, that's private." Governors will have to provide lists of why each email is not subject to the open records law and provide some basic information such as a description of each record withheld.

It's that precedent that Gibbons failed to prevent.

Over the years, the Nevada Supreme Court has favored more openness and fewer barriers. This opinion authored by Justice Nancy Saitta kept to that philosophy, upholding a ruling by Carson City District Judge James Russell, who already had found in the newspaper's favor.

For that, I bow humbly to the justices and the judge.

Barry Smith, executive director of the Nevada Press Association, said, "Newspapers do this and they do it on behalf of the public. Nobody else really does this."

Newspapers commit big bucks to doing this. Stephens Media LLC, the parent company of the Review-Journal, files open records requests regularly. A handful end up in litigation each year.

Yet many times, when the records are finally obtained, it's not worth reporting or doesn't make a real riveting story.

Case in point: The Review-Journal filed a request seeking cellphone records for 1996 and 1997 for county commissioners, former County Manager Dale Askew and Aviation Director Randy Walker. It was part of an investigation into the influence lobbyists had over county commissioners.

Askew released the records - with the numbers blacked out. The Nevada Supreme Court ruled in 2000 the cellphone records were public.

No big conspiracy was revealed, even though the county commissioners at that time included Erin Kenny, Lance Malone and Dario Herrera, who all went to prison for acts of corruption. Obviously, the newspaper's instincts were right.

The result: County commissioners who had used the county phones for their personal calls ended up reimbursing the county.

The more important result: The open records law was made stronger for the next time a similar request is made.

Newspapers don't know ahead of time what they're going to find when they start the process and commit to paying for it. The taxpayers paid for the governments' resistance.

Praise be to the Reno-Gazette Journal for having the grit and spending the money to pursue the Gibbons' emails.

Even if the final stories were pretty ho hum, much like the former governor.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. Email her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0275. She also blogs at
lvrj.com/blogs/morrison.