Perkins, Sandoval team up on open meetings, ethics

Wednesday, April 13, 2005 | 10:48 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, and Attorney General Brian Sandoval, a Republican, joined forces today to urge passage of a bill to strengthen the open meeting and ethics laws.

Perkins said he worked with Sandoval on Assembly Bill 419 to raise the standard of conduct of public officials.

Sandoval, a Republican, said there have been abuses at every level of government and there has been a "severe deterioration of public trust."

The bill provides for a $5,000 fine on a public body that violates the open meeting law twice within five years and $10,000 if there are more violations within the five year period.

There are no fines authorized now.

The bill increases the fines the state Ethics Commission can levy from $5,000 to $10,000 for the first offense, $15,000 for the second offense, up from $10,000 and $30,000 for the third or subsequent offense, up from the preent $25,000.

Maddy Shipman, representing the Nevada District Attorney's Association, said the bill "needs a lot of work." She noted that a similar open meeting bill was killed earlier in the Senate Government Affairs Committee.

She said the bill language was not clear enough regarding the proposed violation of the open meeting law. She asked what would happen if, for example, a secretary makes a mistake putting out the agenda. There is a big difference between that and a public official attending a meeting where there was no public notice. Yet under the bill, both cases could draw the same types of fines.

Shipman said these penalties in the open meeting bill would also apply to advisory citizens groups and it could have unintended consequences.

But Perkins, a candidate for governor next year, said, "If we don't have a fully open government, we are doing a disservice. We want to have the public trust."

The bill also would provide protection for whistleblowers. It says the identity of a state or local government employee who discloses information on improper actions may not be disclosed during the investigation.

It also provides for disciplinary action against anyone who retaliates against anyone who raises allegations about improper government action.

Perkins, a police officer in Henderson, also wants to put a restriction on campaign fundraising for local officials.

His bill would stop local officeholders from raising campaign funds during the off-election years. His bill would prohibit local officeholders from accepting any campaign donations from 30 days after taking office to 30 days before the filing deadline of the office.

Assemblyman Joe Hardy, R-Boulder City, said he immediately saw a major problem with the bill: It would give an unfair fundraising advantage to challengers who are not local officeholders because they would be free to raise campaign money while the incumbent could not.

The committee did not take action on the bill.