Ethics Commission approves regulations to require electronic filing of Form 700 for city employees

The San Francisco Ethics Commission voted unanimously to adopt regulations that will require city employees who must file the state Fair Political Practices Commission Form 700 to use a single electronic filing system.

Senior policy staff Pat Ford told commissioners the regulations aim to eliminate a two-tier disclosure system in which many employees file paper forms with their departments while elected officials and some senior officials file electronically. The proposed e-filing regime would create a centralized, searchable database for Form 700 statements; staff said that would make disclosures more accessible to the public and allow searches by company, interest or other parameters rather than only by filer name.

Ford and staff described steps to ease the transition: meet-and-confer with employee bargaining units, deadlines for filers to provide contact information to their filing officers, a process for filing officers to create online accounts, training materials, and a temporary customer-support specialist to help designated filers. The regulations and related administrative procedures were noticed for public comment and staff said the meet-and-confer process with unions had concluded.

Commissioners asked about implementation dates and legal conflicts with state law; staff replied the regulations include staggered operative dates for different provisions and the chief points of implementation are scheduled such that e-filing would begin on Jan. 1, 2021, with other procedures phased in earlier. The commission approved the regulations by roll-call vote.