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Committee narrows disclosure bill for retirement and health board elections after Ethics Commission raises implementation concerns
Summary
President Cohen’s ordinance to align disclosure for certain board elections was forwarded with clarifying amendments after the Ethics Commission warned some new advertisement disclosures would be paper‑only and costly; the committee agreed to limit immediate ad‑copy filing to mass mailings while working toward electronic reporting.
The Rules Committee on July 25 advanced an ordinance from President Malia Cohen’s office that would require candidates and third parties in Retirement Board, Health Service Board and Retiree Health Care Trust Fund elections to file campaign disclosure forms and identify authors of paid campaign materials.
The proposal would require candidate committees to open, file Form 10 intention statements, Form 700 disclosures, semiannual campaign reports and to file copies of campaign advertisements and related notice information. Ethics Commission staff and the City Attorney raised implementation concerns: some of the required advertisement disclosures currently would be paper filings and not machine‑readable, making public searching difficult and creating an immediate cost to build an electronic system.
Pat Ford of the Ethics Commission told the committee the agency is broadly supportive of the ordinance’s transparency goals but recommended narrowing the immediate advertisement‑copy requirement to mass mailings so the disclosure could fit into existing systems; he noted an electronic implementation could cost about $60,000 without changes. The committee accepted clarifying language that limits the immediate requirement to mass mailings (while preserving broader disclosure goals) and directed staff to prepare the technical edits for the full Board.
What’s next: The ordinance will go to the full Board as amended; supervisors said they expect follow‑up work with the Ethics Commission and City Attorney on definitions and electronic filing.
