Ethics commission staff proposes agency remediation plans to catch up thousands of state employees on mandatory training

Staff recommended a shift in approach to catching up state employees who missed required ethics training, asking agencies to submit remediation plans and prioritizing live sessions for the backlog rather than forcing all delinquent employees to take two trainings in 2026. "Adding the individuals ... that number that's in excess of 90,000 individuals, and it could be over a 100,000 who require training," said Sandy Burland, Executive Director, arguing the double-training approach would be impractical.

Why it matters: staff told the committee that using agency remediation plans would reduce an otherwise "impossible burden" on the training unit and on agency operations. The proposal asks agencies to work with the commission's training unit to identify employees missing completion dates, prioritize those employees for live training early in 2026, and submit a timeline for how they will bring the remainder of their workforce into compliance later in the year. The committee reached consensus to recommend the proposal to the full commission; there was no formal committee vote.

What staff proposed and how it would work: staff will provide agencies with customized spreadsheets showing employees missing completion dates, request updated contact information, and require agencies to file phased plans (staggered tranches) for remediation. The commission's training unit will make additional live sessions available and offer data-support assistance, but told commissioners it lacks the staff and budget to deliver a full double-training program on its own.

Next steps: committee members asked staff to circulate a more detailed, measurable implementation outline and to present an updated progress report to the full commission in April. The recommendation was recorded as a committee consensus to move the remediation-plan approach forward for full-commission consideration.