Nevada Commission on Ethics is looking for a new executive director following the resignation of Caren Cafferata-Jenkins, who is stepping down amid a complaint that she used her office to advance her campaign to become a Washoe County Family Court judge.
Former ethics commission investigator Michael Lawrence filed a complaint against her in June, claiming she turned the commission office into her own personal print shop. Cafferata-Jenkins denied the allegations, and told the Reno Gazette-Journal that Lawrence was bitter after losing his job in April.
She told the Gazette-Journal that she’s resigning because the complaint is brining negative attention on the commission. Cafferata-Jenkins plans to resign on Thursday.
She is not the first director to resign. In 2007, about a year after taking the job, Patrick Hearn stepped down to return to his family in Oregon. Prior to coming to Nevada, Hearn spent 15 years as executive director of Oregon’s Government Standards and Practices Commission.
Hearn replaced Stacy Woodbury, who resigned as director of the commission. The commission enforces the state’s Ethics in Government law.
GUEST:
Emerson Marcus, reporter with the Reno Gazette-Journal
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