Adds ethics in public service to the list of items for which public officials may be investigated. This act authorizes the appropriate ethics board to charge additional ethics violations discovered during the investigation of the initial, alleged violation. This act also allows an ethics board to work with the Attorney General’s office, or other contracted-for services, in pursuing alleged violations.   Official Text and Analysis.

Changes the requirement that every state officer attend ethics training within one month of taking office is changed to sixty days and the requirement that the training be taken every two years thereafter to every three years.

Requires that a person must have completed ethics training in the prior 24 months before he or she can accept outside employment. States that ethics training should be coordinated with other mandatory training such as sexual harassment training, but not less than every three years. Persons in regulatory or contracting positions subject to RCW 42.52.150(4) must be provided specialized or enhanced ethics training.

Provides that, after the filing of any complaint, the appropriate ethics board shall investigate the allegations in the complaint but may also, at the discretion of the investigating ethics board, investigate other potential ethics violations discovered during the course of its investigation when the employee is not subject to the civil service laws. If a conflict of interest with agency staff is determined to exist, the agency designates an independent employee with no conflict of interest to assist the ethics board with its investigation. If an investigation involves an exempt employee under the civil service laws, the Office of the Attorney General (AG) may conduct the investigation. Each agency designates an ethics advisor or advisors to provide informal ethics advice to state officers and employees and to ensure uniformity in the agency's operation with respect to the ethics in public service law. This act provides requirements for regular ethics training for state officers.