Ethics office launches post-election outreach and expanded training for newly elected officials

The Nevada Commission on Ethics’ Outreach and Education Office told commissioners on Nov. 13 it is conducting post-election outreach aimed at newly elected and appointed officials, adding training and communications to encourage early compliance with ethics requirements. Outreach and Education Officer Harvey said the office released a LinkedIn article on Nov. 12 with a step-by-step guide for newly elected officials and plans a 45-minute online ethics briefing on Jan. 13 for newly elected officials, plus presentations at the annual County and League of Cities trainings. “We released an article on LinkedIn giving newly elected a step by step guide for how to comply with the law most notably related to acknowledgments,” Harvey said. The office is also pursuing three live trainings for the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District with the aim of training all 700 library staff by mid-January and continuing online training via the Nevada ethics online platform. Harvey reported the commission’s newsletter list has grown to roughly 1,400 contacts compiled from county directories, the governor’s office and agency trainings. Harvey noted the office will begin monthly reviews of the published manual to update content and said public-records requests have risen: 43 total requests to date this fiscal year, versus 14 public records requests at the same point last year. Commissioners asked staff to coordinate outreach to county clerks to ensure newly elected and appointed local officials receive required acknowledgment forms; Executive Director Ross Armstrong noted the statute places some clerk-level duties for localized acknowledgment distribution and staff said online acknowledgment forms reduce staff processing time. No new regulations were adopted at the meeting; staff will continue outreach, publish a post-meeting press release and track quarterly training metrics to compare against prior years.