FPPC unveils redesigned website and searchable Form 700 portal

The Fair Political Practices Commission demonstrated a redesigned public website and a new public-official financial-disclosure portal at its March 19 meeting, describing improvements intended to make campaign and ethics information easier to find.

The new site (fppc.ca.gov) organizes content by audience, with a dedicated filing-officers tab, and introduces a richer search taxonomy that lets users filter by publication type (advice letter, form, stipulation), topic (candidates, conflicts) and other tags. Chair Silver, who opened the demonstration, said the search is markedly improved: "The new website search feature is really remarkable. It makes it so much easier to search through advice letters and enforcement data, agenda items."

The Form 700 portal, presented by communications and admin staff, adds the ability to search inside Form 700 filings for keywords and to filter by schedule (assets, income, gifts, travel). That lets users find, for example, filings that mention a particular company or gifts above a chosen dollar range. Staff noted the portal shows highlighted filing cards with the matching disclosure segments and links to the full PDF. The portal includes an autocomplete agency/position search and options for exact or partial matches, and it includes a mobile-friendly interface.

Staff cautioned that gift and travel entries can be legally exempt in certain circumstances and urged users to consult FPPC guidance before drawing conclusions. Communications director Sher Yang and the portal team said they will continue to refine Boolean/phrase search behavior in response to early user feedback and to provide help videos and guidance for commonly used queries.

Next steps: staff will continue vendor tuning and user outreach; commissioners asked staff to surface the how-to videos more prominently and to collect and respond to public feedback.