Jim Hartman
The Nevada Supreme Court on June 18 unanimously ruled in favor of Gov. Joe Lombardo’s effort to dismiss sanctions imposed by the state’s ethics commission.
It’s the most recent development related to Lombardo’s use of his Clark County uniform and badge while running for governor in 2022. The high court’s ruling does not absolve Lombardo of wrongdoing but opens the door for ultimate dismissal of the case.
The Nevada Commission on Ethics in July 2023 in a 4-2 decision voted to censure and fine the Republican governor $20,000 for violating state ethics law prohibiting public officials from using government property or equipment “to benefit a significant personal or pecuniary interest.”
However, Lombardo sued to dismiss the sanctions months later, challenging the commission itself for violating the state Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine because some members are appointed by the Legislature.
The hyper-partisan, weaponized Commission on Ethics then consisted of eight members, only two of whom were Republicans. Four members were appointed by the Democratic Legislature and two were appointed by former Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak.
This began in October 2021 when a lawyer, Democrat Mathew DeFalco, closely associated with then-Gov. Sisolak, filed a purely politically-motivated complaint with the ethics commission accusing Lombardo of illegally wearing his police uniform and badge in photographs used by his campaign.
DeFalco twice asked the commission to withdraw his complaint, which he personally did not write. But, on both occasions the commission refused to allow him to withdraw it.
In May 2023, Ethics Commissioner Damien Sheets, a Democrat appointed by Sisolak, was so outraged by the process that he resigned in protest.
In his resignation letter, Sheets called the investigation into Lombardo “unacceptable” and wrote that though the commission is “suppose to investigate complaints without bias, prejudice, or preference, the commission’s recent actions have shown it has little desire to do so.”
The commission’s decision to self-initiate a complaint beginning shortly after Lombardo announced his candidacy for governor “appeared to be nothing more than a politically motivated hit job,” Sheets wrote.
The ethics commission’s then-Executive Director Ross Armstrong was a Sisolak sycophant with a partisan axe to grind. His heavy-handed gross overreach was aimed at derailing Lombardo’s candidacy.
While the complaint arose out of nothing more than 34 postings of four photographs depicting Lombardo in his sheriff’s uniform and badge on his campaign website and social media, Armstrong proposed slamming Lombardo with an astounding fine of $1.665 million.
The fine sought was 67 times higher than the highest fine ever imposed by the commission ($25,000); and nearly 10 times the governor’s annual salary.
Armstrong also threatened Lombardo with impeachment – just months after Nevada voters elected him in the 2022 gubernatorial election – based on the same photographs.
The commission asserts the images of Lombardo in uniform gave him an “unwarranted advantage” in his campaign for governor. Certainly not among “defund the police” voters.
And Sisolak himself launched a major advertising campaign attempting to discredit Lombardo’s record as sheriff while depicting him in uniform.
The commission has been inconsistent in past decisions about use of uniforms and badges in campaigns.
For example, in 2016 Elko County Sheriff Jim Pitts running for re-election used a picture of himself in uniform on his website. No violation found. However, Douglas County Sheriff Dan Coverley wore his uniform in endorsing Adam Laxalt in 2022. Violation found.
Prior to the complaint against Lombardo, the commission never deemed a sheriff’s use of his uniform and badge in a political campaign to be a willful violation or ever imposed any civil penalty.
In Lombardo’s case, the commission adopted an unprecedented finding of willfulness, imposed a $20,000 civil penalty and censured the governor.
Lombardo’s appeal of the commission’s decision may cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorney fees.
This complaint wasn’t about “ethics.” It’s pure politics.
E-mail Jim Hartman at lawdocman1@aol.com.