County meets notice standards – and then some

To the editor:

In his Oct. 7 commentary, "Lack of disclosure making meetings anything but public," Martin Dean Dupalo of the Nevada Center for Public Ethics suggests that Clark County plays "hide-and-seek" with town board agendas while failing to disclose and advertise our public meetings. This position does not accurately reflect the county's compliance with Nevada's open meeting law and our efforts to keep citizens informed and get them more involved.

The majority of the 19 town advisory boards and citizen advisory councils meet on a monthly basis. Clark County is committed not only to meeting NRS posting requirements, but also to engaging diverse groups of citizens in our outreach. Practical experience has shown that relying solely on postings within public buildings results in notification to only the particular citizens who frequent those public buildings. By posting in locations that have a larger and more diverse foot traffic, Clark County staff hopes to encourage participation by a wider group of citizens.

Of course, finding businesses that have true community bulletin boards and will agree to have these postings on a regular basis is a challenge. Nevertheless, we are committed to making every effort to seek them out.

In addition, Clark County recognizes that more and more citizens are getting their information from the Internet. A recent review of traffic to Clark County's website (www.ClarkCountyNV.gov) tracked more than 250,000 visitors each month, generating more than 1 million page views. As a result, Clark County has a website page dedicated to each town advisory board and citizen advisory council, where citizens can access a schedule of meetings, detailed agendas, minutes and recordings.

In addition to postings and the Internet, Clark County also communicates information through staff community liaisons, who work directly with the constituents in the community. These community liaisons attend every town board meeting as well as speak at various community and public events, town halls, homeowners association meetings and neighborhood meetings. The community liaisons reach out to citizens about the advisory board meetings, convey the importance of their participation and let citizens know where to find the agendas.

If a citizen does not want to use a posting location or the Internet, our staff puts them on a mailing list and sends them every agenda in compliance with the open meeting law. Additionally, if there is a zoning item that directly impacts a citizen's surrounding neighborhood, the county sends them a direct mail notification for when the item will be heard at a meeting of the town board, citizen advisory council, Planning Commission and/or the Board of County Commissioners. As far as the concern about broadcasting meetings that have decision-making authority, the county's cable channel (CCTV) does just that.

It is important to remember that town advisory boards and citizen advisory councils are advisory in nature and have no decision-making authority. Their recommendations about zoning and community issues are forwarded to the Planning Commission and Board of County Commissioners, who render the final decision. As always, County Commission meetings and Planning Commission meetings are broadcast live on CCTV and repeated several times after the initial broadcast, and videos of these meetings are archived on the county's website and available for an extended period of time.

Sabra Smith Newby

Las Vegas

The writer is director of administrative services for Clark County.