2011 — Marilyn Kirkpatrick

    Marilyn Kirkpatrick is one of the few people in the Legislature willing to say she actually likes newspapers.

But that alone is not enough to get named a First Amendment Champion.

    As you might expect, that’s often an uphill battle. Let’s take AB442 from the 2009 session for example. It tried to get a handle on how much state and local governments spend on lobbying. It also required government lobbyists to disclose potential conflicts of interest, and who their other clients are, and whether they’re also working on somebody’s campaign.

    Of course, it died.

    She was one of the sponsors this year of AB239, which would have required public bodies to post their meeting agendas and other public documents on their websites.

    Of course, it died.

    OK. Here are a couple that passed: AB1 and AB242.

    You may not have heard a lot about these, but they are the kind of nuts-and-bolts bills that gets to the heart of transparency in government.

AB1 requires boards and commissions to report the taxes and fees they are collecting, what they’re not collecting, and what they’re holding in assets. It’s about accountability and oversight — and whether anybody is keeping an eye on what their government is doing.

Similarly, AB242 requires quasi-public organizations to file reports with the Legislative Commission on what they actually do with the money given to them by the state.

    It’s always interesting to sit in hearings on bills like these and hear the groans from bureaucrats about all the paperwork they have to fill out. The rest of us, though, refer to all that paperwork as ‘public documents’. And all that money they’re keeping track of is, well, public money. It is of utmost importance to have someone in the Legislature willing to demand that kind of accountability.

    As much as the bills she has sponsored, however, it is Assemblywoman Kirkpatrick’s chairmanship of the Government Affairs Committee that allowed her to demonstrate her commitment to open government. Her committee is the gatekeeper for open records and open meeting laws and the printing of public notices.

    It’s the place where the First Amendment needs more than a friend — it needs a champion.

    Here’s something Marilyn said when a local-government official complained that all this transparency costs time and money:

    “The whole point is to allow the public to be more informed. I find it frustrating that once again, local government does not want to go the extra mile. I do not want to hear any crying anymore. The public wants to know what’s going on.”

    “When the public does not know what is going on and they cannot get answers and, if you are a person like me, you kick and stomp your feet enough that people will finally call you back and get what you want. To me, we have to start doing things a little bit better.”

    It does an old reporters heart good to know a legislator is willing to do some kicking and stomping — just to get some information. We’ve all been there.

    Come to think of it, maybe that’s why she likes newspapers.

2010 — Gary Peck

For 13 years as executive director of the ACLU of Nevada, Gary Peck was on the front lines as a defender of First Amendment principles.

Peck, who left the post earlier this summer, stood up for free speech, free press and open government from Las Vegas Boulevard to Fremont Street to the state ethics commission without regard to political persuasion or the popularity of the cause. If you recall, the key people in the ethics commission lawsuit — the people Peck and the ACLU were arguing for — were Chris Giunchigliani and Bob Beers, on opposite poles of Nevada’s political spectrum.

Peck helped build the Nevada ACLU from a 98-pound weakling to a force, not only to be reckoned with, but to be widely respected around the state for its willingness to take a stand where few dared to tread.

The list of battles is a long one — some successful, some not so much, and some that apparently will go on as long as there are Hula Hoops and a Fremont Street Experience. Some of those issues include the rights of the homeless, student conduct codes at UNLV, a civilian review board of Metro Police, the right to gather signatures for ballot initiatives, the publication of brothel ads in CityLife and other causes near and dear to our hearts.

Never shy about his passion for civil liberties, Peck’s out-front and outspoken advocacy didn’t always win him fans, of course.

We can’t resist quoting one anonymous commenter on a Las Vegas newspaper web site not known for subtlety: “Hey Peck,” the commenter suggested, “why don't you take a dive off Hoover Dam, maybe say on the downstream side!”

Gary Peck is the kind of champion the First Amendment needs — not when it’s convenient, not when it’s politically correct, but when it’s painful and unpopular. The Nevada Press Association is proud to add him to our roster of people who have stood with the newspaper industry to defend our freedoms — and, just as important, to remind us all of the responsibilities that come with them.

2009 — Guy Rocha

Retired Nevada state archivist Guy Rocha has a line below his email signature, and it reads simply: The Truth Does Matter.

Those four words do a pretty good job of summing up the First Amendment, especially the ‘free press’ and ‘free speech’ principles that define the newspaper industry’s role in a democracy.

The truth does matter to Rocha. If you’ve ever written about Nevada history and gotten something wrong, you could expect a detailed message to be on your voice mail when you arrived at work. And don’t get him started on Wikipedia …

Beyond his unflagging desire to ‘get it right’, though, is Guy Rocha’s dedication to First Amendment principles — the reason the NPA presented this award to him. As an archivist and historian, he not only well understood the need for a clear and unimpeachable record of historical event, but worked hard over the years to make sure the public would have access to it.

Most of the public records laws and policies in this state — the ones that favor openness, anyway — have Guy Rocha’s fingerprints on them. He knew what needed to be done, and he spoke with authority to legislators and executives to see that they would be done.

2008 — William Maupin

    The award for 2008 was given to Nevada Supreme Court Justice William Maupin, whose term on the court will end in January.

A graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno and the University of Arizona Law School, Judge Maupin already had 22 years of legal experience in the private and public sectors when he was appointed to the District Court bench in Clark County in 1993. He served as a public defender in murder cases and then focused on civil litigation as a partner in the firm of Thorndahl, Backus, Maupin and Armstrong. He was elected to the Supreme Court in 1996 and 2002.

The first is the Commission on Preservation, Access and Sealing of Court Records which, led by Washoe District Judge Brent Adams and Justice James Hardesty, for the first time in Nevada formulated statewide policies for public access to court files. The rules adopted by the Supreme Court under Justice Maupin set a standard of openness and forbid “supersealing” of cases. They replaced a court-by-court system that was, at best, lax and inconsistent and, at worst, had been abused on behalf of the privileged and powerful.

Earlier, Maupin as chairman of the Nevada Commission on Judicial Selection opened the doors for what the Las Vegas Review-Journal called “a healthy dose of sunshine.”

The commission conducts interviews and recommends finalists whenever retires or leaves for a higher office. Before this year, that process took place in private. This year, however, thanks to the groundwork laid by Justice Maupin, the interviews and discussions were opened to the public.

“The commission believes in the quality of the process and firmly believes the public should see it,” Maupin said at the time. “This is an experiment in open government we know will succeed.”

Thanks to Justice Maupin for not only understanding how openness in government is essential to the rights of the First Amendment, but for contributing in significant and lasting ways to the public’s access to Nevada’s judicial system.

2007 — Barbara Buckley, Terry Care

    This award by the Nevada Press Association was given for the first time in 2007 to Barbara Buckley and Terry Care for their work during the 2007 Nevada legislative session.

It recognizes extraordinary effort toward advancing the principles of the First Amendment, particularly free press and free speech, and to maintain an open government.

Their bills were signed into law and helped make the 2007 legislative session a successful one for open-government advocates.