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Filed a public records request in Reno for a city council agenda and got back 14 pages of nothing
Last month I asked the city clerk in Reno for the emails behind a council vote on a new sign rule downtown, thinking I'd get a clear paper trail. What came back was 14 pages with every name and budget line blacked out, and the clerk's note cited 'deliberative process' as the reason. Is that exemption really supposed to cover an entire email thread, or is it just a catch-all people use when they don't want to hand anything over?
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thomas2911d ago
Dealt with the same runaround in Sparks last year when I asked for emails about a rezoning vote near my street. Got back a stack where the whole body of every message was blocked out, only the "hi" and "thanks" lines survived. The clerk told me it was covered under deliberative process too, like the whole back and forth counts as one big private talk. From what I found out after, that exemption is meant for the advice and opinions going into a decision, not for hiding the facts and who said what. Cities lean on it because it is vague and most people just give up instead of pushing back. You can appeal it or ask the state open records office to weigh in, since they have to show a real harm and not just wave that phrase around.
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