NCPE at NV Legislature SB 495 provides a one-year cooling offperiod for persons leaving the Public Utilities Commission, the Gaming Control Board, or “former public officers or employee
To: Chairwoman Senator Barbara Cegavske and Members, Senate Legislative Operations and Election Committee
From: Craig Walton, President, and Members, Nevada Center for Public Ethics Date: April 2, 2007
Subject: Support for SB 495, with comment and suggestions.
Here is the testimony we plan to present on Thursday, April 5, in support of SB 495.
My name is Craig Walton, and I am speaking as President, and behalf of the members of the Nevada Center for Public Ethics. The following comments are limited to puzzling or very high- profile sections of the bill.
Sec. 1, #1, 2 and 3, pp. 2-3, provides a one-year cooling off period for persons leaving the Public Utilities Commission, the Gaming Control Board, or “former public officers or employees”. Does this include legislators? It would seem to, and if it does, we strongly endorse this Section, because at present a cooling off period is widely imposed, but apparently not for legislators or these other public officers. #4 offers conditions for an exception, but also provides that the NCOE may write, not only if it grants but also if it denies the request for an exception. #6, pg. 4, also makes this decision binding and subject to penalties if ignored. These are helpful changes, lending seriousness to the cooling-off rules.
Sec. 1, at p. 3, line 44, and then throughout the bill, references to “this chapter” or ‘the code of ethical standards in NRS 281.481” are all replaced by the more exact reference to NRS 281.411-581. This should remove any ambiguity about where to look for the ‘Ethics in Government” provisions.
Sec. 6, pg. 6, allows not only the Ethics Commissioners, but now also the NCOE Executive Director, to prescribe the duties of the Commission Counsel. This would prevent conflicts of the kind that occurred recently, at least administratively. But there is no provision for appeal or a channel for reconsideration, so that the Commission Counsel, who is professionally bound by the ABA Canon of Ethics, could be ordered by the Executive Director, who usually is not a member of the bar and has no national professional code of ethics by which to guide her or his daily practice, to carry out an act or policy creating an ethical conflict. Is it enough, in such a case, simply to say, as Sec. 6 does, that in such a case the Executive Director is empowered to give that assignment, “take it or leave it”? I would recommend that in such cases the Attorney General be asked to resolve the conflict, if such were to occur.
Sec. 8, pg. 7, is a strong improvement: it removes the ‘after one year, the complaint is moot’ logic of the current law, and replaces it with a 3-yr. statute of limitations at #3, and the 3 year limit does not begin until the NCOE has completed discovery of the facts in the alleged violation.
Sec. 11, pg. 10, #3, lines 35 – 44, a confusion in the current law is not resolved. The confusion is between a public officer’s request for an advisory opinion and receipt of a complaint against a public officer. The first, the advisory, needs prompt treatment, while the second can and, by the NCOE’s own statistics, take on average 150 days to resolve. Here, at #3., the one-size-fits-all deadline is changed from 45 to 60 days, but this is not borne out by the NCOE’s own history. We need 2 deadlines here: 45 days for advisory opinions, and 120 days for complaint opinions. As you may know, AB 143, just passed out of committee last Thursday, provides for these 2 repairs.
Thank you for your consideration.
Craig Walton, President, on behalf of the members, Nevada Center for Public Ethics
Go to other 2007 testimonies
AB 80, to require Limited Liability Corporations (LLC’s) to report contributions. As to the relationship to NCPE's 11 proposals, AB 80, is close to NCPE's proposal on p. 1 of our doc.
AB 109, - allows leftover campaign monies to go to a public-purpose Trust Fund.
AB 143, - changes the NV. Commission on Ethics deadline for completing an inquiry from 45 days to 1 year, and also allows the complainee to be told what is happening to his or her complaint.
SJR 1 - removes the requirement that affidavits be provided with ballot initiative petitions.
SB 79 - brings our statutes into line with a court ruling that the affidavit requirement for ballot petitions is a violation of the First Amendment.
SB 144, to require Limited Liability Corporations (LLC's) to report contributions.
AB 142 - to require ethics instruction and lobbyists to the Executive Dept. to register and report expenditures.
AB 605 requires ethics training for new public officers and also for lobbyists, forbids the use of one’s office staff or equipment for campaign purposes, and doubles the three levels of penalties for violating ethics laws.
SB 495 provides a one-year cooling offperiod for persons leaving the Public Utilities Commission, the Gaming Control Board, or “former public officers or employee Original Testimony Revised Comments
SB 494 - dealing with primary, general, and municipal elections, SB 494 changes the filing deadline for campaign contribution reports.
