Bible wants ethics meetings to remain open

Monday, July 19, 1999 | 11:34 a.m.

RENO -- Bill Bible plans to continue to keep meetings of the state Ethics Commission open to the public as much as legally possible.

Bible, the commission's new chairman, said he will follow the procedure of former Chairwoman Mary Boetsch, who decided that hearings on complaints and the board's deliberation would be done in open. Bible said that was an "appropriate" policy, even though the commission is exempted from the state's open meeting law on those hearings.

Hearings are closed when the commission, at a preliminary stage, hears testimony and decides if there is enough evidence to merit an open hearing on the complaint.

Bible, former chairman of the state Gaming Control Board and now a private consultant, was elected chairman at the meeting Friday in Reno. Mario Recanzone, a retired district judge from Fallon, was re-elected vice chairman.

The commission also set in motion plans to hire new staff. It was authorized to hire an executive secretary for up to $70,450 and an attorney for $67,095. Bible said advertisements seeking applicants will be placed in newspapers in Las Vegas and Reno and in legal journals.

He wants the staff to be on board by Oct. 1, when the commission is enlarged from six to eight members. At that point changes will go into effect designed to produce quicker decisions.

Bible said he was "troubled" in the past to see cases before the commission lag for six months or longer. "You will see a quicker turnaround," he said, noting the Legislature has given the commission a full-time staff for the first time.

Until now it had only a program assistant to do most of the work, and it got part-time help from the attorney general's office.

The new law, to become effective Oct. 1, establishes panels of commissioners to consider the complaints filed.

Under the new deadlines, the new executive director will have 15 days to decide if there is merit to move forward with a complaint. It then goes to a two-member panel of the commission, which has 15 days to decide if there is just cause for the full commission to consider the case. The commission then has 30 days to hear and render a decision.

Each of these deadlines can be extended for 30 days for good cause.

The next commission hearing will be Aug. 12-13 in Reno.