Henderson hires law firm in public records fight with RJ
Henderson has retained an outside law firm to defend the city against a public records lawsuit filed by the Las Vegas Review-Journal rather than rely on a legal staff that includes 12 civil attorneys and a city attorney who earns an annual salary, other pay and benefits of more than $300,000.
The city hired the firm Bailey Kennedy — which charges $495 per hour for the work of senior partners — for help in responding to a lawsuit filed by the Review-Journal demanding access to documents that detail the work of a communications consultant.
“I think taxpayers paying for three city attorneys to be in court, and one private attorney, is perhaps a lawyer too many,” said Review-Journal attorney Maggie McLetchie.
“It seems like an accepted waste of taxpayer dollars,” McLetchie added.
The decision to use outside counsel was made by City Attorney Josh Reid. In an email, Reid said Henderson is currently using outside counsel on only one civil matter out of 23 civil cases the city currently has pending in either state or federal courts.
“Over the past five years since I was appointed as city attorney, my office has reduced the amount spent on outside counsel by an average of $1 million per year, which has resulted in a total savings to the city of over $5 million,” Reid said.
The lawsuit alleges that the public records, which the Review-Journal requested Oct. 4 under the state’s public records law, have been unjustifiably withheld and that the city is charging illegal fees for the collection and review of the documents.
“The city has so little respect for the public’s money that, after spending thousands of dollars on a communications consulting contract of questionable value, it’s willing to spend thousands more dollars on private counsel to try to obstruct public scrutiny of that contract,” Review-Journal Managing Editor Glenn Cook said.
The city said the request would take up to three weeks, citing the need for its attorneys to review, for “privilege and confidentiality,” 5,566 emails that matched the newspaper’s search criteria. The city also demanded payment of almost $6,000 to continue its review.
“It’s not permissible for a city to charge the public for municipal attorneys to keep public documents out of the hands of the public,” McLetchie said.
After the lawsuit was originally filed, Reid agreed with Review-Journal counsel on wanting a court to address the question of whether it’s legal for a municipality such as Henderson to enact a policy or ordinance that is at odds with the Nevada Public Records Act.
“Clarity is in everybody’s interest,” McLetchie said. “The question of whether a city can enact a rule, policy, ordinance or practice that is inconsistent with Nevada’s Public Records Act is an important one.”
Meanwhile, the city agreed to a short-term solution, and allowed a Review-Journal reporter to review the documents at city offices on a city computer.
Bailey Kennedy did not immediately return a request for comment.
Contact Natalie Bruzda at nbruzda@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3897. Follow @NatalieBruzda on Twitter.