Joe Lombardo is once again breaking his promise to be transparent with Nevadans. Now, an agency in his administration is imposing massive fees to prevent the release of public records. New reporting reveals the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation set a fee of $650,000 in order to fulfill a public records request from the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“Dave Cuillier, director of the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information at the University of Florida, said excessive copy fees are one of the most common barriers people have in accessing their government — only behind delays and arbitrary denials. ‘It’s a problem because they’re used as a weapon of secrecy,’ Cuillier said.”
The opacity comes after Lombardo broke bipartisan precedent by registering his inaugural committee as a dark money group, hiding donors who may be trying to buy influence, and vetoing legislation that would have required him, other constitutional officers and future governors to disclose inaugural committee donors.
Nevada State Democratic Party Executive Director Hilary Barrett released the following statement:
“Joe Lombardo hasn’t been transparent a single day in his decades-long career as a politician. Imposing a massive six-figure fee is his newest tactic after forming a dark money group to shield him and his donors from the public, vetoing legislation to expand transparency, and blocking media from attending his events.”
Las Vegas Review-Journal: What are they hiding? State agency quotes high fees to bog down records requests
By McKenna Ross
September 8, 2023
Key points:
- Since the pandemic’s onset, the Las Vegas Review-Journal has regularly received complaints from people who couldn’t get their unemployment insurance checks, were victims of fraudulent claims or received unexpected over-payment notices from the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.
- But when the newspaper requested records to look into the problems this year, the agency responded with a series of demands for money, including $650,000 to review emails about the backlog of claims.
- Dave Cuillier, director of the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information at the University of Florida, said excessive copy fees are one of the most common barriers people have in accessing their government — only behind delays and arbitrary denials.
- “It’s a problem because they’re used as a weapon of secrecy,” Cuillier said. “Often, if they want someone to go away, they’ll say, ‘We’ll give this to you, but we’ll charge you $50,000.’”
- DETR declined to comment for this column.
- The Review-Journal was unable to obtain the records because of the costs.
- “One of the duties of governmental entities is to provide the public with public records upon request,” Review-Journal Chief Legal Officer Benjamin Lipman said. “The public already pays government salaries. People requesting records should not have to pay those salaries a second time just for asking the government to do its job.”
- DETR will receive $312.5 million in public money for its operations during the 2023-2024 fiscal year, according to the state.
Read the full story here.
###
