Election

The links gave access to electronic versions of such reports as the contributions-and-expenditure reports for such elected council people as Mayor Bob Cashell, Councilwoman Sharon Zadra and Councilman Dwight Dortch. The site also included the documents for the losers of the 2002 election and other elected officials, such as City Attorney Patricia Lynch and Municipal Court Judge Jay Dilworth.

“[City webmaster] Chris Good called and said they were cleaning up all the departments’ pages,” said City Clerk Lynnette Jones.

Jones said there will be new forms for political hopefuls and incumbents to fill out this year. Those documents will combine three forms—Contributions & Expenditures, Disposition of Unspent Contributions and Campaign Contributions the Totals of Which Exceed $10,000.

“Those reports [on the Web site] were getting a little old. I’m sure they could probably restore them, though,” Jones said.

Good was on vacation and unavailable for comment.

Steve George, public information officer for the Secretary of State’s Office, which posts election forms for statewide offices as far back as 1998, said it’s important to give the public as much access to as many documents as possible.

“[Nevada Secretary of State] Dean [Heller] has always come down on the public’s right to know,” George said. “He likes them to be able to see where politicians or ballot measures are getting their money from. Lots of times that’ll show how they are going to vote. … More disclosure is better.”

However, for those who are considering running for Reno City Council in 2004—Wards 1, 3 and 5 are up for grabs—or just interested in keeping tabs of where politicians’ money came from, the 2002 documents are still on the city’s server, even though they are not linked from the clerk’s page or available through the search engine. Simply go to www.cityofreno.com/city_clerk/election .