Ethics Training Courses For State Officials
FREE ON-LINE ETHICS TRAINING COURSE AVAILABLE FOR LOCAL OFFICIALS
Cities, counties and special districts in California are required by law (AB 1234, Chapter 700, Stats. of 2005) to provide ethics training to their local officials. A free on-line ethics training course is available to satisfy the local government ethics training requirement. Use the link below to access the course available from the state Fair Political Practices Commission:
AB 1234 Ethics Training for Local Officials
Other training courses may be made available from commercial enterprises, nonprofit organizations and a local agency’s own legal counsel. Persons preparing ethics training courses should review the Attorney General’s guidelines.
See Attorney General Guidelines on Course Accuracy and Sufficiency 
[PDF 45 kb / 5 pg]
Other Resources
California law requires state officials to complete an ethics training course within six months of their hiring, and every two years thereafter. To help state officials meet this requirement, the Attorney General’s Office and the Fair Political Practices Commission have developed the ethics training course available here.
State officials who wish to use this course to satisfy their mandatory ethics training requirement should check with their agency first.
Choose among the following formats:
- Interactive Online Ethics Course. Best viewed at screen resolution 800 x 600. Requires Netscape or Internet Explorer version 7.0 or higher. Best supported by Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 5.0 Update 12. Also see Troubleshooting Tips. To view “pop ups” such as the certificate of completion, turn off pop-up blocker prior to launching course.
- Non-Interactive Course. This is the text-only version of the online ethics course.
For members of the State Bar of California, the interactive ethics training course is certified for two hours of general self study.