PUC attorney to run ethics panel

Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2000 | 10:29 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Polly Hamilton, a staff attorney for the state Public Utilities Commission in Carson City, has been named executive director of the state Ethics Commission.

Hamilton will take over the $71,859-a-year job on Dec. 4. She succeeds Kenneth Rohrs, who resigned earlier this year to take over as head of the state Museum and History Department.

The commission, meeting in Reno, interviewed five applicants last week and four on Monday before narrowing the choice to Hamilton and Ron Meyers of Las Vegas. Meyers, a lawyer, formerly was commissioner of the Public Disclosure Commission in the state of Washington.

Hamilton received her bachelor's degree from Rutgers University in 1980 and her law degree from Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul, Minn., in 1988. She then served as a law clerk in Minnesota and joined the utilities commission in August 1989.

Her most recent job was as the executive assistant and legal adviser to former PUC Commissioner Judy Sheldrew, who resigned recently.

Ethics Commission Counsel Nancy Varnum, who has been acting executive director since the departure of Rohrs, said Hamilton has experience in administration, investigation, detailed analysis and dealing with the Legislature.