Ethics panel violates state open-meeting law

Wednesday, April 24, 2002 | 10:49 a.m.

SUN CAPITAL BUREAU

CARSON CITY -- The state attorney general's office says a subcommittee of the Nevada Commission on Ethics violated the open-meeting law when it discussed the waiver or reduction of fines for public officials in private.

Chief Deputy Attorney General Norman Azevedo said, however, the state would not take legal action, because there were no previous violations by the subcommittee or the Ethics Commission itself.

But he warned that legal action would be taken in the future if there are more violations.

The Ethics Commission on Jan. 10 appointed two commissioners to review requests for waivers or reduction of fines by public officials who were late in filing their financial disclosure forms.

The subcommittee held a telephone conference call on Jan. 29 and made recommendations of which fines to waive or reduce. Azevedo said it is "undisputed that this conference was not conducted as an open, public meeting."

The full commission later approved the recommendations of the subcommittee with little discussion.

Azevedo said the subcommittee was a public body, which the law describes as any group that "advises or makes recommendations to any entity which expends or disburses or is supported in whole or in part by tax revenue, including, but not limited to, any board, commission, committee, subcommittee or other subsidiary."

If subcommittees were not subject to the open meeting law, Azevedo said, "public bodies would be encouraged to break into little unofficial groups and do business in the shadows, stepping into the sunshine to perfunctorily approve what has already been decided, which would be completely contrary to the intent" of the open meeting law.

Ethics Commission counsel Nancy Lee Varnum said the subcommittee did not violate the open-meeting law, because it did not have authority to take action on the requests.

But Azevedo said the subcommittee controlled the recommendations it would make.

"If a subcommittee could hold private meetings to reach recommendations to be made to the public body that appointed it, the language of (the open-meeting law) defining a public body to include subcommittees which make recommendations to another public body would be meaningless," he said.

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