# Pillen's refusal to carry state phone raises transparency questions  
**Published:** 2026-06-24T08:00:08.000Z  
**Source:** [Nebraska Examiner](https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2026/06/24/gov-pillen-doesnt-carry-a-state-issued-phone-critics-call-it-an-abuse-of-state-disclosure-laws/)  
**AI-generated:** yes (claude-haiku-4-5-20251001)  
**Canonical:** https://lincolne.news/article/pillen-s-refusal-to-carry-state-phone-raises-transparency-questions

Gov. Jim Pillen does not use a state-issued cellphone, marking a departure from at least 20 years of Nebraska gubernatorial practice and raising concerns among transparency advocates about public records access.

The revelation came after [the Flatwater Free Press](https://flatwaterfreepress.org) filed a public records request seeking call logs from Pillen's cellphone dating back to September 2023. [The governor's general counsel](https://nebraskaexaminer.com), Michael J. Donley, responded more than four months later with a terse answer: "Governor Pillen does not have a state-issued mobile phone."

[Common Cause Nebraska director Gavin Geis](https://commonecause.org) said the decision appears designed to circumvent state law. "It's absurd to think that simply moving his business to a private cellphone means that none of those records are available to the public," Geis said. "That's just an abuse of the whole public records process."

The move represents Pillen's latest step to limit public access to his communications. In March 2023, just two months into his first term, he broke with [more than 30 years of gubernatorial practice](https://omaha.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/nebraska-gov-pillen-not-releasing-event-schedule-criticized-for-lack-of-access-accountability/article_643e7642-c4e1-11ed-822a-8f51f4534d2d.html) by refusing to release a public schedule. Later that year, his office cited "executive privilege" — a phrase that does not exist in Nebraska's public records laws — to withhold four of his emails.

[Nebraska law states that "all records and documents, regardless of physical form, of or belonging to this state" are public records](https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=84-712.05). [Since 1997, Nebraska attorneys general have held](https://ago.nebraska.gov/sites/default/files/docs/opinions/AG%20Opinion%201997-033.pdf) that "public records need not be in the physical possession of an agency to be subject to disclosure under state records acts."

Former Republican governors Pete Ricketts and Dave Heineman both confirmed to Flatwater that they carried state-issued mobile phones for conducting official business. Heineman suggested that Gov. Mike Johanns, his predecessor as governor, also had one.

The controversy began after [the Nebraska Examiner reported in January that Pillen had steered the state to award a $2.5 million no-bid emergency contract to a lobbyist](https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2026/01/15/auditor-flags-possible-pillen-favoritism-in-2-5m-no-bid-bioeconomy-contract-with-lobbyist/) who traveled with him to South Korea and Japan.

Max Kautsch, a Kansas-based First Amendment attorney who practices in Nebraska, said ["In Nebraska, there is a collective hunch that public officials cannot conduct the public's business on private devices," adding that "the governor wants to push back on what the consensus is on the law."](https://nebraskapublicmedia.org)

Pillen's spokeswoman Laura Strimple declined to elaborate on whether the governor uses his personal phone for state business or whether such communications would be considered public records.

## Sources

- [Nebraska Examiner](https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2026/06/24/gov-pillen-doesnt-carry-a-state-issued-phone-critics-call-it-an-abuse-of-state-disclosure-laws/)
- [Flatwater Free Press - transparency advocacy organization](https://flatwaterfreepress.org)
- [Common Cause Nebraska](https://commonecause.org)
- [Nebraska Public Records Statutes](https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=84-712.05)
- [Nebraska Attorney General opinion on public records (1997)](https://ago.nebraska.gov/sites/default/files/docs/opinions/AG%20Opinion%201997-033.pdf)
- [Omaha World-Herald article on gubernatorial schedules](https://omaha.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/nebraska-gov-pillen-not-releasing-event-schedule-criticized-for-lack-of-access-accountability/article_643e7642-c4e1-11ed-822a-8f51f4534d2d.html)
- [Nebraska Public Media coverage](https://nebraskapublicmedia.org)

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This article was generated by AI (claude-haiku-4-5-20251001) based on source material from Nebraska Examiner, enriched with 3 web searches. The original source is available at https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2026/06/24/gov-pillen-doesnt-carry-a-state-issued-phone-critics-call-it-an-abuse-of-state-disclosure-laws/.