Executive Director Russell Armstrong reported operational and legislative updates to the Nevada Commission on Ethics during the commission’s meeting.

Staffing and operations: Armstrong told commissioners the senior legal researcher position has been vacant since March (nearly a year) and presented an associate-counsel pipeline plan that would promote a qualified internal candidate upon passage of the bar and use underfill, emergency appointment or contracted SLR services as interim measures. Armstrong said many state-level agencies face similar attorney-staffing shortages.

Technology and budget: Armstrong said the governor included funding in the proposed budget to replace the commission’s case-management system. The commission also requested continued funding to transition Nevada Ethics Online from federal ARPA support to the regular funding formula and requested additional funds to implement parts of the commission’s language access plan, including translating vital documents into the top three non-English languages; fiscal staff estimated translation costs higher than initial projections and funding could arrive in April or June.

Legislative items the commission is monitoring: Armstrong named two constitutional amendment proposals to watch. He described Assembly Joint Resolution 3 (a proposal from Assemblymember Kasama to place legislative disclosure requirements in the constitution) and Senate Majority Resolution 5 (sponsored by Senator Stone), which would create a constitutional political-practices enforcement commission modeled on California’s system; that proposed commission would, if enacted, assume enforcement of ethics law and expand coverage of lobbying, campaign finance and financial-disclosure topics. Armstrong said staff planned meetings with sponsors to provide feedback and that the commission is monitoring related legal and separation-of-powers questions.

Other items: Armstrong reported the agency continues to evaluate time-study data and that outreach and education goals are advancing. He also said staff are monitoring SB 78 (a Department of Business and Industry bill to centralize certain boards and commissions) to ensure it does not expand scope to include the commission. Meeting locations and upcoming schedule were announced: April 16 in Reno and June 18 in Ely; no March meeting is scheduled.

Why it matters: Staffing gaps affect the commission’s capacity to handle complaints and issue opinions; a budgeted case-management replacement could improve workflow; constitutional changes under consideration could alter the commission’s jurisdiction and enforcement structure if adopted by voters.