Frank J. Daley, Jr., Executive Director
AGO 19-11
No. 19-011
Nebraska Attorney General Opinion
State of Nebraska Office of the Attorney General
September 5, 2019
SUBJECT:
Calculation of the Period Within Which Candidates for Certain
Public Offices Must File Statements of Financial Interests
REQUESTED
BY: Frank J. Daley, Jr., Executive Director Nebraska
Accountability and Disclosure Commission
WRITTEN
BY: Douglas J. Peterson, Attorney General, Lynn A. Melson,
Assistant Attorney General
INTRODUCTION
You
have requested our opinion "as to how to calculate the
period within which candidates for certain public offices
must file Statements of Financial Interests with the
Commission pursuant to § 49-1494(5) of the Nebraska
Political Accountability and Disclosure Act (NPADA)."
That statute provides that a candidate who fails to file a
statement of financial interests with the Nebraska
Accountability and Disclosure Commission
["Commission"] within five days after the deadline
specified in subsection (3) or (4) of § 49-1494 shall
not appear on the ballot. The issue is how to calculate the
five day provision of § 49-1494(5) for the upcoming
election year of 2020.
In your
request letter you point out that, in 2020, March 1 falls on
a Sunday, which affects the filing deadlines set out in
§ 49-1494(3) and (4). These deadlines, in turn, impact
the calculation of the five day period set out in §
49-1494(5). You ask whether, in a year such as 2020 in which
March 1 falls on a Sunday, the five day period set out in
subsection (5) would then be calculated with March 2 as the
first day of the statutory five day period or with March 3 as
the first day of the statutory five day period.
ANALYSIS
Several
Nebraska statutes have application to your question. First,
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 49-1493 (Cum. Supp. 2018) requires
that individuals who hold specified public offices must file
a statement of financial interests disclosing such
information as the officeholder's sources of income,
business associations, and financial holdings. The contents
of the statement of financial interests are enumerated at
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 49-1496 (2010).
Neb...