Legal briefing tells Clark County officials: assume communications are public records and use county accounts

Clark County legal staff warned council members to assume that writings, emails, metadata and many communications about county business are public records and therefore subject to disclosure under the Public Records Act. "Assume it's a public record," the presenter said, advising officials to keep county business on county email and not on personal devices.

The presenter summarized the three elements of a public record under state law: it must be a writing (broadly defined to include modern metadata), relate to the conduct of government, and be prepared, owned, used, or retained by the county. She noted that large or complex requests—such as body-worn camera footage or extensive email collections—can require significant staff time to search and produce, and that the county has trained public-records staff assigned to departments.

Timelines, retention and devices

The presenter reminded officials that the county must respond to a public-records request within five business days by producing records, asking for clarification, or explaining a staged delivery. She warned that courts have ordered seizure and search of personal devices when records on those devices were relevant and not produced; the recommended practice is to use county email and, when a constituent contacts an official by personal email, forward the message into the county email and ask the sender to use the county address going forward.

Ending

The presenter also noted that different types of records have different retention schedules (litigation files can be kept for long periods) and urged officials to retain county records in county systems rather than deleting them from personal devices.