Judge: Ethics complaints can’t be sealed

Thursday, June 20, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A law that kept ethics complaints about public officials secret has been declared unconstitutional by a federal judge.

U.S. District Judge Howard McKibben of Reno ruled that complaints made to the Nevada Ethics Commission can no longer be sealed, that they are public from the time of filing.

Deputy Attorney General Louis Ling said the Ethics Commission decided not to contest the suit because the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has already held as unconstitutional a similar law in Hawaii.

"Things are more open today in Nevada than they were yesterday," said Ande Engleman, who filed the suit on which McKibben ruled.

Engleman, former executive director of the Nevada Press Association, filed an Ethics Commission complaint on April 23. She asked the commission to rule on whether city officials in Reno were wrong when they solicited money from private sources to hold a retreat at Donner Lake, Calif.

The commission agreed to accept the complaint but informed Engleman via letter of the law stating that she must not speak publicly about the issue.

If she violated the confidentiality, the commission wrote, she would be subject to a $5,000 fine. She then filed suit and asked for a restraining order against the Ethics Commission.

When the commission did not contest the suit in a court hearing Wednesday, McKibben ruled the law invalid.

Ling said this means that "third-party complaints" -- those made by the public against public officials -- are public from the minute they are filed. It also means that show-cause hearings are now public. These hearings -- in the past confidential -- are held to determine if there is enough evidence to proceed with a formal hearing.

Engleman said the confidentiality law still applies when a public official asks the commission for advice. She also said it is a crime if somebody files a complaint and lies about the behavior of some official.

Engleman was represented in her suit by Las Vegas attorney Donald Campbell.