Friday, April 22, 2005 | 5:28 a.m.
WEEKEND EDITION
April 23 - 24, 2005
Three strikes, you're out.
That's the simple proposal from Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, who argues that public officials who admit to three ethics violations should be thrown out of office.
His proposed constitutional amendment, Assembly Joint Resolution 9, passed the Assembly this week.
It's one of several bills designed to crack down on public officials. Between legislative sessions there were a handful of cases in which officials were charged with unethical behavior but typically let go with a fines.
The bill follows last year's impeachment of state Controller Kathy Augustine and the indictment of several Clark County Commissioners on political corruption charges.
Attorney General Brian Sandoval told an Assembly committee this month that there has been "a severe deterioration of public trust."
Voters should feel more assured about the honesty of public officials and elections after this session, several legislative leaders said.
But some bills have sparked debates about how open government should be, and about how to crack down on public officials without discouraging people from running for office.
Other bills in the Assembly outlined hard ethics rules, including that legislators could not receive a total of more than $50 in gifts from anyone who might be trying to curry favor.
That idea, along with a motion to require legislators to opt out of votes if there is any doubt they might have a conflict, died in a committee.
Instead, the Assembly Committee on Elections, Procedures, Ethics and Constitutional Amendments voted to tighten up the definition of a "willful" violation of standing laws.
Committee members decided the best policy was already in the law and just needed to be better enforced. Nevada law stipulates that, to prove they did not willfully violate the law, an official must have consulted an attorney, tried to get an opinion from the Ethics Commission and made sure he didn't violate previous published opinions on ethics laws.
Some officials have gotten away with saying they did one of the three requirements, said Asssemblyman Marcus Conklin, D-Las Vegas.
"It clearly says that you must be doing all three," he said.
And, to ensure officials know about previous rulings on ethics laws, the committee voted to require public officials to go through ethics training.
Another Assembly bill sponsored by Perkins and supported by Sandoval would increase the penalties that the state Ethics Commission can levy up to $10,000 for a first offense, $15,000 for a second offense and $25,000 for a third offense. The bill passed out of committee and is awaiting a vote in the Assembly.
In the Senate, a bill died that was crafted directly in response to charges that Augustine forced her employees to work on her campaign.
The measure, sponsored by Sen. Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, would have prohibited officials from using their employees to campaign.
Some senators sought to change the bill so employees in legislative offices and the governor's office would be exempt, but the bill eventually died.
"It's a philosophical difference over what people think should be allowable for state employees to do," Horsford said.
And the Senate passed a bill sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, that would require public employees to take an unpaid leave while they serve in the Legislature. The bill came ain response to complaints last session that some public employees were double-dipping.
Perkins, who is a public employee himself, opposes the bill, saying it would make it prohibitively expensive for public employees to run for office. Titus, who is also a public employee, said she expects it will die quietly in the Assembly.
Assemblywoman Sharron Angle, R-Reno, calls many of the bills a "knee-jerk reaction to Kathy Augustine."
Augustine, for example, went through a process of impeachment through the Assembly and then a trial in the Senate.
"That's due process, and I think the system works," Angle said.
Angle said it's difficult enough to recruit candidates to run for public office. Many of the new proposals will make people fear for their family's privacy.
"All of that stuff just says to a person, 'We want to dig more deeply into your personal life,' " Angle said.
She voted against Perkins' "three-strikes-you're-out" measure, saying his bill, like others before the Legislature, is so broad it could scare people from running for office.
Perkins' response: "I hope these (bills) scare unethical people away from office."
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