Records lawsuit fees focus of court hearing

During a status hearing Thursday in an open records case against a majority of Douglas County School Board trustees, attorneys debated whether the trustees could be held accountable for the attorney fees and a possible civil penalty.

A briefing in Miller v. Douglas County School District was ordered by Douglas County District Judge Thomas Gregory and scheduled for Aug. 8 with a reply expected by Aug. 15.

During the hearing, petitioners’ attorney Richard McGuffin, School District representative Anthony Hall, and Robert Smith representing school board trustees David Burns, Katherine Dickerson, Susan Jansen and Doug Englekirk presented updates on the case, along with concerns that could affect which witnesses and information would be presented during a Sept. 17 evidentiary hearing.

McGuffin said the documents he received were incomplete.

During the March 27 court hearing, school board trustees had sworn and notarized affidavits that they’d produced all the communications requested in the petition.

However, an email provided by Dickerson referenced emails from the other three trustees that were not produced and during the status review on Thursday, McGuffin said he received roughly 128 incomplete documents from the school district on July 2 and 6,100 pages from Smith Wednesday evening.

“It is our position that the reproduction was incomplete,” said McGuffin. “It (the records request) requested all communication between the individuals, including text messages, emails, and included record requests to and from third parties, so it was clear what we were looking for there.”

McGuffin said the documents produced were overly redacted and did not provide any reason why.

 “If they were correctly redacted it would have provided statute rules or regulations supporting the redactions supplied by NRS. 239,” he said. “There has to be justification and not just ‘we believe this should be redacted.’”

The public records request was filed in August 2023 accusing Burns, Dickerson, Jansen, and Englekirk of deliberating through private communications, which is considered to be a violation of the Nevada Open Meeting Law.

A settlement was reached March 27 where it was ordered that a search be performed for the school district by Douglas County School District IT Director Michael Roth and that the trustees perform another thorough search from a mutually agreed third party, the trustees receive training on Nevada’s Open Records laws, and the district be responsible for financial obligations.

The settlement was brought before the April 9 school board meeting where the four accused trustees abstained from comment and voting due to perceived conflict of interest.

Yvonne Wagstaff made a motion to deny the settlement and to have attorneys negotiate more favorable terms for the district. The motion was seconded by trustee Carey Kangas. Vice President Linda Gilkerson called for a vote and the motion passed 3-0.

The underlying favorable term was whether the school district and taxpayers should be responsible for the majority’s legal bills.