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Clerk proposes posting Inyo County disclosure statements online after streamlining filings
Summary
The county clerk reported that local disclosure forms (a county-level disclosure created in 1974) are now being digitized and will be posted after a courtesy notice; the office will track who has filed and publish the list of filers and non-filers at the end of the period.
Danielle Sexton, Inyo County clerk-recorder and registrar of voters, briefed supervisors on the county’s local disclosure-statement filing requirement and proposed a change to how the office will handle the forms.
Sexton said the local disclosure requirement (ordinance 271, passed by voter initiative in November 1974) asks elected and appointed officials to disclose certain land transactions with specific agencies (Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and the California State Division of Highways). The clerk’s office has digitized the county form and is offering Adobe Sign online filing for convenience.
Sexton said the office will send one courtesy notice to filers, maintain the filer list and at the end of the filing period post who has filed and who has not, and make the submitted forms available online or by request while ensuring compliance with any rules about public posting. She noted the county code provides no enforcement mechanism, so the clerk’s office prefers transparent public posting rather than a compliance-enforcement effort that lacks a statutory penalty.
Supervisors discussed that filing requirements can discourage volunteer service for some special-district board members. The clerk said the county will continue to assist filers and will post compliance status to increase transparency rather than devote staff time to enforcement where no enforcement mechanism exists.
No formal board action was required; Sexton sought feedback on the proposed posting and outreach process.
