A. Each elected statewide executive branch public officer shall adopt a general code of conduct for employees subject to the officer's control. The New Mexico legislative council shall adopt a general code of conduct for all legislative branch employees. The general codes of conduct shall be based on the principles set forth in the Governmental Conduct Act.

B. Within thirty days after the general codes of conduct are adopted, they shall be given to and reviewed with all executive and legislative branch officers and employees. All new public officers and employees of the executive and legislative branches shall review the employees' general code of conduct prior to or at the time of being hired.

C. The head of every executive and legislative agency and institution of the state may draft a separate code of conduct for all public officers and employees in that agency or institution. The separate agency code of conduct shall prescribe standards, in addition to those set forth in the Governmental Conduct Act and the general codes of conduct for all executive and legislative branch public officers and employees, that are peculiar and appropriate to the function and purpose for which the agency or institution was created or exists. The separate codes, upon approval of the responsible executive branch public officer for executive branch public officers and employees or the New Mexico legislative council for legislative branch employees, govern the conduct of the public officers and employees of that agency or institution and, except for those public officers and employees removable only by impeachment, shall, if violated, constitute cause for dismissal, demotion or suspension. The head of each executive and legislative branch agency shall adopt ongoing education programs to advise public officers and employees about the codes of conduct. All codes shall be filed with the state ethics commission and are open to public inspection.

D. Codes of conduct shall be reviewed at least once every four years. An amended code shall be filed as provided in Subsection C of this section.

E. All legislators shall attend a minimum of two hours of ethics continuing education and training developed and provided, in consultation with the director of the legislative council service, by the state ethics commission or a national state legislative organization of which the state is a member, approved by the director, biennially.

History: 1953 Comp., § 5-12-11, enacted by Laws 1967, ch. 306, § 11; 1969, ch. 93, § 1; 1993, ch. 46, § 34; 2003, ch. 33, § 1; 2019, ch. 86, 23.

The 2019 amendment, effective January 1, 2020, required codes of conduct to be filed with the state ethics commission, and required that the ethics continuing education and training that each legislator must attend biennially be developed by the state ethics commission or a national state legislative organization and approved by the director of the legislative council service; in Subsection A, deleted "By January 1, 1994"; in Subsection C, after "All codes shall be filed with the", deleted "secretary of", and after "state", added "ethics commission"; and in Subsection E, after "education and training", added "developed and provided, in consultation with the director of the legislative council service, by the state ethics commission or a national state legislative organization of which the state is a member, approved by the director".