Dina Titus Proposes 12-Step Plan To Restore Trust In Nevada Government

Press Release

Pointing to a string of public corruption cases, investigations of public officials for alleged abuse of their offices, questionable airport land deals and large contributions by developers to influence land use decisions, State Senator Dina Titus today proposed sweeping reforms to toughen and enforce Nevada ethics laws.

The Titus proposals would eliminate "pay to play" in local government decisions, reduce the influence of lobbyists and shine the full light of disclosure on campaign contributions.

"Today is the day we make a beginning to end the chain of corruption that is destroying public confidence in government in Nevada," Dina Titus said at a news conference in front of the Clark County Detention Center. "This is the day we join together to send our public officials the message that if they commit a political crime, they'll do the time."

Among her reforms, Dina Titus is proposing creation of a new political enforcement arm within the Nevada Attorney General's Office; a ban on contributions from developers and others to local officials while they are considering land use applications; and a prohibition against all public officials accepting any gifts from lobbyists.

Dina Titus, a Democratic candidate for governor, proposed 12 steps to restore public confidence in state and local government in Nevada. The first step is to acknowledge the problem and resolve to fix it. The following 11 steps tighten Nevada's ethics and disclosure laws to ensure open and honest government. The Titus reform proposals would:

? Hold public officials to a higher standard by investigating and prosecuting all violations of ethics and disclosure laws, not just those that are considered "willful" violations under current state law.

? Create a Political Integrity Unit within the Office of the Attorney General, Nevada Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute violations of Nevada ethics and disclosure laws, with a staff of investigators and attorneys to enforce compliance with campaign finance, lobbying and conflict of interest laws.

? Prohibit contributions from individuals or corporate entities to city council members or county commissioners while a land use, licensing or permit application is pending and for one year after final action is taken on that application.

? Prohibit elected officials or public employees from accepting any gift from lobbyists or others with any business before state or local governments. Current law allows officials to receive free meals and entertainment, but under the Titus proposal public officials would be banned from taking anything of value, including meals, concert tickets, golf games or trips, with the exception of charitable dinners in Nevada and ribbon-cutting events.

? Prohibit candidates from receiving campaign contributions in cash.

? Prohibit candidates from putting family members on campaign payrolls.

? Require campaign disclosure reports for city, county and state candidates to be filed quarterly in an election year, starting with January 1 covering the preceding year.

? Require candidates to detail in their campaign disclosure statements the identities of corporate officers, directors, and principals with an ownership interest of 10% or more in any contributing corporate entity, including for-profit and non-profit corporations, limited liability companies and limited partnerships. These filings also would require that occupations and addresses of individual donors be disclosed, similar to Federal Election Commission requirements.

? Require officeholders to more fully disclose on their personal financial disclosure statements their personal assets, including stock and bond ownership; and require the Nevada Secretary of State's website to improve public access to campaign disclosure and personal financial disclosure reports by installing a system capable of downloading integrated, searchable data related to campaign contribution and expenditure reporting forms.

? Prohibit former elected officials from lobbying their former colleagues for two years after leaving office.

? Require state legislators to take an unpaid leave of absence from a job in a state or local government while serving in a regular or special legislative session.

"These measures are intended to put teeth in Nevada's ethics laws, put the public interest before special interests, place lobbyists in their proper role of providing information rather than favors, and give the public a much better idea who is contributing to campaigns and when," Dina Titus said. "Given the cloud hanging over local and state politics from corruption indictments, allegations of insider airport land deals and abuses of public office, Nevadans will not have faith in our political system until we address what is wrong with it. These measures do that."

Dina Titus said the Public Integrity Unit in the Nevada Attorney General's Office is necessary to provide in a single place formal investigative and prosecutorial powers to enforce ethics and disclosure laws, rather than relying on investigations and referrals by the Ethics Commission and the Secretary of State's Office. The Public Integrity Unit would be partially funded through consolidation of functions now in the Ethics Commission and the Secretary of State's Office. She said public officials also should not be able to escape prosecution by claiming they had insufficient knowledge of ethics and disclosure laws - and the violations were not "willful."

"Ignorance is no excuse in upholding other laws. It shouldn't be any different in the world of politics," Dina Titus said.

"Nevadans are rightly concerned that special interests, particularly development interests, have too much influence over local land use and other decisions," she said. "That's why we need to rid local government of the ‘pay to play' mentality by cutting off campaign contributions before, during and after land use, permitting and licensing applications are being considered by local governing bodies, just as we have done at the state level with contributions at the Legislature during years it is in session."

"Lobbyists provide valuable information - and that's all they should provide," Dina Titus said, explaining her proposal to ban lobbyists from offering and all public officials, including appointed officials and civil servants, from receiving any gifts, meals or entertainment from lobbyists.

Dina Titus said more detailed disclosure of who is behind corporate entities contributing to Nevada campaigns is necessary because of the widespread practice of the same donors using a multitude of limited liability companies to circumvent the intent of Nevada law to limit contributions from individuals and corporate entities to $10,000 to a single candidate in one election cycle.

"We've seen hundreds of thousands of dollars bundled to individual candidates this way," Dina Titus said. "At the very least, the public should be informed about who is putting how much money behind which candidates. That's the whole point of disclosure."

If she is successful in her bid for governor, Dina Titus said she would present a fully detailed ethics and disclosure reform package to the 2007 Nevada Legislature as one of its first orders of business, and would seek to have it take effect upon passage.

"Much of this gubernatorial campaign should focus on which candidates are going to force serious consideration of ethics reform in Nevada and which candidates are going to support politics and business as usual," she said.

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