The Las Vegas Sun covers lobbying in Clark County, Nevada.

On more than 170 occasions this year, lobbyists failed to file disclosure forms when they visited Clark County commissioners, leaving the public in the dark about what issues they were pushing and on whose behalf.

The failures expose flaws in the disclosure policy — and confusion about that policy among commissioners and lobbyists alike. Although the county requires more than federal and state governments do, it doesn’t impose penalties for violations.

As a result, lobbyists are regularly flouting the rules, failing to disclose their private meetings with commissioners, sometimes on controversial issues, such as new regulations for payday loan stores and Republic Services’ proposed rate increase on trash collection.