281A.510 - Public officer or employee prohibited from accepting or receiving honorarium; penalty.

281A.510  Public officer or employee prohibited from accepting or receiving honorarium; penalty.

      1.  A public officer or public employee shall not accept or receive an honorarium.

      2.  An honorarium paid on behalf of a public officer or public employee to a charitable organization from which the officer or employee does not derive any financial benefit is deemed not to be accepted or received by the officer or employee for the purposes of this section.

      3.  This section does not prohibit:

      (a) The receipt of payment for work performed outside the normal course of a person’s public office or employment if the performance of that work is consistent with the applicable policies of the person’s public employer regarding supplemental employment.

      (b) The receipt of an honorarium by the spouse of a public officer or public employee if it is related to the spouse’s profession or occupation.

      4.  As used in this section, “honorarium” means the payment of money or anything of value for an appearance or speech by the public officer or public employee in the officer’s or employee’s capacity as a public officer or public employee. The term does not include the payment of:

      (a) The actual and necessary costs incurred by the public officer or public employee, the officer’s or employee’s spouse or the officer’s or employee’s aid for transportation and for lodging and meals while the public officer or public employee is away from the officer’s or employee’s residence.

      (b) Compensation which would otherwise have been earned by the public officer or public employee in the normal course of the officer’s or employee’s public office or employment.

      (c) A fee for a speech related to the officer’s or employee’s profession or occupation outside of the officer’s or employee’s public office or employment if:

             (1) Other members of the profession or occupation are ordinarily compensated for such a speech; and

             (2) The fee paid to the public officer or public employee is approximately the same as the fee that would be paid to a member of the private sector whose qualifications are similar to those of the officer or employee for a comparable speech.

      (d) A fee for a speech delivered to an organization of legislatures, legislators or other elected officers.

      5.  In addition to any other penalty imposed pursuant to NRS 281A.480, a public officer or public employee who violates the provisions of this section shall forfeit the amount of the honorarium.

      (Added to NRS by 1991, 1592; A 1999, 2745; 2007, 640)—(Substituted in revision for NRS 281.553)