BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS, REAPPORTIONMENT AND
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Loni Hancock, Chair
BILL NO: AB 1921 HEARING
DATE: 6/15/10
AUTHOR: DAVIS ANALYSIS BY:
Darren Chesin
AMENDED: AS INTRODUCED
FISCAL: NO
SUBJECT
Statements of Economic Interest: electronic filing: pilot
program
DESCRIPTION
Existing law requires that candidates for and current
holders of specified elected or appointed state and local
offices and designated employees of state and local
agencies file statements of economic interest (SEIs)
disclosing their financial interests, including
investments, real property interests, and income.
Existing law establishes a pilot project which permits Los
Angeles, Merced, Orange, and Stanislaus Counties to allow
the electronic filing of an SEI in accordance with
regulations adopted by the Fair Political Practices
Commission (FPPC). The pilot project covers the reporting
periods of 2008 through 2010 and requires each
participating county to submit a specified report to the
FPPC not later than July 1, 2011. The FPPC must then
transmit these reports, as well as any comments on the
reports, to the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) no later
than August 15, 2011, and requires the LAO to provide a
report to the Legislature evaluating the pilot project not
later than February 1, 2012.
This bill would permit Santa Clara and Ventura Counties and
the City of Long Beach to participate in this ongoing pilot
project.
BACKGROUND
Statements of Economic Interests . As part of the Political
Reform Act's comprehensive scheme to prevent conflicts of
interest by state and local public officials, existing law
identifies certain elected and other high-level state and
local officials who must file SEIs. Similarly, candidates
for those positions must also file SEIs. Other state and
local public officials and employees are required to file
SEIs if the position they hold is designated in an agency's
conflict of interest code. A position is designated in an
agency's conflict of interest code when the position
entails the making or participation in the making of
governmental decisions that may foreseeably have a material
financial effect on the decision maker's financial
interests. While the exact number of people that are
required to file SEIs is unknown, the FPPC previously has
estimated that the number exceeds 130,000 officials and
employees statewide. The information that must be
disclosed on a SEI, and the location at which a SEI is
filed, varies depending on the position held by the
individual who is required to file an SEI. Although there
are some exceptions, individuals who are required to file a
SEI typically must file that document with the agency of
which they are an elected official or by which they are
employed.
COMMENTS
1.According to the author , AB 2607 (Davis) of 2008 provided
Los Angeles, Orange, Merced and Stanislaus Counties with
the ability to participate in a pilot program to provide
constituents with the option of filing their Form 700
SEIs using a secure electronic template. The program
provides a safe, cost-effective and workload-reducing
option for the filer to utilize to fulfill their annual
filing obligation.
Assembly Bill 1921 would add Santa Clara and Ventura
Counties, as well as the City of Long Beach, to the
existing pilot project. These entities are prepared to
administer the electronic filing option immediately, and
require legislative action to provide them the avenue
needed to officially launch their programs. The language
in AB 1921 will provide the referenced entities with an
additional year of financial and workload savings.
AB 1921 (DAVIS) Page
2
2.Better Late than Never ? AB 2607 (Davis), Chapter 498,
Statutes of 2008, established a pilot project which
permits Los Angeles, Merced, Orange, and Stanislaus
Counties to allow the electronic filing of an SEI in
accordance with regulations adopted by the FPPC. AB 1149
(Davis), Chapter 139, Statutes of 2009, made two minor
changes to that pilot project. The pilot project began
in 2009 for SEIs filed for the 2008 calendar year, and is
scheduled to conclude with SEIs filed for the 2010
calendar year. The Legislative Analyst is required to
provide a report to the Legislature by February 1, 2012
evaluating the pilot program.
This bill seeks to add two additional counties (Santa Clara
and Ventura) and a city (Long Beach) to the ongoing pilot
project that was created by AB 2607. It is fairly
uncommon for the participants in a pilot project to be
changed after the pilot project has already begun, in
part because such a modification may make it difficult to
evaluate the impacts of the pilot program.
3.According to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors ,
a co-sponsor of this bill, "Our County is well suited to
begin immediate participation in the pilot program. In
October 2009, our Board authorized the purchase of an
e-filing software program for Form 700 submissions to
simplify the current submission process for both filers
and the Clerk of the Board. The software offers an
electronic submission feature, which would be easy to
implement if AB 1921 is enacted. Our Clerk of the Board
is the local filing officer for over 4,000 filers in
Santa Clara County. Most of these filers would qualify
for electronic filing under the pilot program. This
includes various county employees and members of local
school boards and special districts.
As you can imagine, the large number of filers in our
county creates a tremendous amount of work for the
Clerk's Office. The ability to accept electronic
submissions of statements of economic interest forms will
result in staff efficiencies, reduce the risk of errors,
and provide some cost savings."
AB 1921 (DAVIS) Page
3
PRIOR ACTION
Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee: 7-0
Assembly Floor: 69-1
POSITIONS
Sponsors: California Association of Clerks and Election
Officials
Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors
Ventura County Board of Supervisors
City of Long Beach
Support: City Clerks Association of California
City of Thousand Oaks
Orange County Board of Supervisors
Oppose: None received
AB 1921 (DAVIS) Page
4