TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Kim Alexander, California Voter Foundation
DATE: April 10, 1997
RE: CA Legislature to take up electronic filing billsHi Folks,
First, let me apologize in advance for the length of this email message - there are a lot of issues and events to cover, and I have made this update as brief as possible. There are many important, recent developments with electronic filing legislation, so I encourage all of you to read this message carefully and, as always, feel free to pass it along or repost it to other related newsgroups and email lists.
Next week several bills mandating electronic filing of California political disclosure records will be heard by the State Legislature's elections committees. This edition of CVF-NEWS will provide details about those bills and how people can participate in the process.
Public input and attendance at these hearings is critical if the Legislature is going to continue to address the need for electronic filing in a meaningful way. Media attendance and coverage is also crucial if this issue is going to remain high on the Legislature's agenda. Next week's hearings are the last scheduled by the elections committees prior to April 25, which is the deadline for bills to pass out of the house of origin's policy committees. So, in effect, next week's hearings represent the final opportunity for electronic filing legislation to move this session.
I have some good news to share from the East Coast - the Maryland State Legislature just last week passed a mandatory electronic filing bill. This is very significant because Maryland's records - like California's - have only been available in a paper format, and have never before been computerized. The Maryland Legislature was apparently initially very reluctant to pass an electronic filing law, but finally came through with a successful proposal. I am happy to send a recent article from the Washington Post to anyone who is interested in finding out more about what happened in Maryland. (Thanks to Larry Bush for the tip!)
BACKGROUND ON THE LEGISLATIVE PROPOSALS
There are currently three electronic filing bills under consideration in the California Legislature. While there are some important distinctions between these bills, there also appears to be some consensus developing, particularly on the issues of thresholds and a timeline for implementation.
THRESHOLDS: The threshold for filers to be included in the mandatory electronic filing program is likely to be $50,000 per election - this means that candidates and other filers who raise or spend a total of $50,000 in their election will be required to file their disclosure records electronically. The threshold will be different for lobbyists, who will likely be required to file their reports electronically if they spend $5,000 or more per calendar quarter to influence legislation.
TIMELINE: The Secretary of State's office has outlined a 23-month timeline to bring the full-scale program online. (According to their office, the state's procurement process is one of the reasons why the timeline is so long). The result is that, even if the Legislature passes a bill this year, we won't see any implementation of electronic filing for the 1997-98 election cycle. The timeline provided for in all three bills is generally the same: voluntary electronic filing in 1999, limited mandatory for the first half of 2000, then full-scale mandatory electronic filing for the General election in 2000. (FYI: many of us involved with promoting computerization of, and Internet access to disclosure records are now considering what kinds of data-entry systems can be put together so that some computerized, online data is available for the 1998 election cycle - I welcome your input on this discussion.)
INTERNET ACCESS: All three bills specify that the electronically-filed data will be placed on the Internet by the Secretary of State's office.
CONTINUED PAPER FILING: All three bills specify that paper filing shall continue for some period while the electronic filing system is coming online.
APPROPRIATION: The appropriation to the Secretary of State's office for implementation of the new program also seems likely to be somewhere between $550,000 - $750,000. We anticipate that the Secretary of State's office will be presenting a budget to help clarify the appropriation amount, but relative to other state information technology programs, the cost appears to be rather insignificant.
STATEMENTS OF ECONOMIC INTEREST: All of the bills exclude the Statements of Economic Interest (also referred to as conflict-of-interest statements) from the electronic filing program.
STANDARD FILING FORMAT: All bills direct the Secretary of State to specify a standard filing format to be used by software companies that provide electronic filng legislation, to certify programs that meet the requirement, and to provide candidates with a list of those certified programs.
PRIVACY: Residential street addresses are likely to be omitted from the online records in order to provide some degree of protection of donors' privacy (other donor information, including name, occupation, employer, city, state and zip code will be available online. Donors' addresses will still be available through the Secretary of State's office.)
2/3 VOTE: Because these bills amend the Political Reform Act, it will take a two-thirds vote on the floors of both houses in order to pass any electronic filing proposal, necessitating bipartisan support and cooperation.
ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS HEARING - Monday, April 14
The Assembly Elections Committee will meet next Monday, April 14th at 3 p.m. in Room 447 of the State Capitol. At this hearing they will take up AB 63/Cunneen. This bill differs from the other electronic filing bills in that it contains three provisions dealing with commercial use, harassment, and "credible threatening" in relation to use of the online data. As many of you recall, last year it was the harassment language that some members - in particular, Senate Leader Bill Lockyer - found objectionable. There is concern that the harassment language contained in AB 63 may represent a violation of First Amendment rights. The bill specifically states that:
"For the purposes of this section, "harass" means a knowing and willful course of conduct directed at a specific person that oppresses, annoys, torments, or intimidates, and that serves no legitimate purpose. The course of conduct must be the kind of conduct that would cause a reasonable person to suffer substantial emotional distress and must actually cause substantial emotional distress. Constitutionally protected activity is not included within the meaning of "course of conduct." "I am hoping that some folks with legal expertise will provide some input on this provision.
Another important difference with AB 63 deals with software. The bill states that "the market shall determine the price requirements of the filer software". In contrast, one of the Senate bills, SB 49, states that the Secretary of State shall determine whether a software program is available for $99 or less and, if not, the entire electronic filing program is repealed.
AB 63 is authored by Jim Cunneen (R - Cupertino), and co-authored by Assembly Members Peter Frusetta (R - Tres Pinos), Bob Margett (R - Arcadia), Tom McClintock (R - Simi Valley), and Senators Bruce McPherson (R - Santa Cruz) and Quentin Kopp (I - San Francisco). I have been told by Cunneen's staff that the Secretary of State's office supports AB 63, but is not a sponsor of the bill.
Assembly Elections committee members include Chairman Edward Vincent (D - Inglewood), Vice-Chairman Peter Frusetta (R - Tres Pinos), Tom Bordonaro (R - Paso Robles), Lou Papan (D - Millbrae), Kevin Shelley (D - San Francisco), Helen Thompson (D-Davis), and Roderick Wright (D - South Central L.A.).
Position letters can be sent to Chairman Edward Vincent, State Capitol, Room 5119, Sacramento, CA 95814, or via fax, 916-327-3517. There are also email addresses available for the following committee members:
Peter Frusetta
Tom Bordonaro
Lou Papan
Kevin ShelleyPlease keep in mind that members are more likely to be responsive to input from their constituents. Also, I have never personally used any of these email addresses, so I don't know how frequently they are checked.
A total of 13 or 14 bills will be heard at the Assembly Elections hearing. If you are planning to attend and testify, it's a good idea to call the committee ahead of time and inform them. You can reach the committee's secretary, Margie Crump, at (916) 322-5249.
SENATE ELECTIONS COMMITTEE HEARING - Wednesday, April 16
The Senate Elections Committee will meet on Wednesday, April 16th, at 9:30 a.m. in Room 3191 of the State Capitol. Two electronic filing bills are set to be heard at this hearing -- SB 7/Kopp, and SB 49/Karnette. These were the two bills that had been set to be heard on April 2, but were put over in an attempt to craft one proposal. Last Friday several Senate staffers met with representatives of the Secretary of State's office and several groups supporting electronic filing, including CalPIRG, Common Cause, the California Newspaper Publishers Association, Consumers Union, the Center for Governmental Studies and the California Voter Foundation. We are still waiting to find out which bill or bills will be amended, but the consensus points I outlined at the top of this update represent the general provisions that can be expected to be included in the Senate's proposal.
SB 7, as originally introduced, is sponsored by the Secretary of State, and has strong, bi-partisan support, with co-authorship from Democratic legislators including Tom Hayden, John Vasconcellos, Dede Alpert, Diane Watson, Elaine Alquist, Dion Aroner, Louis Caldera, Wally Knox, Ted Lempert, and Helen Thompson, and from Republicans including Bruce McPherson, Jan Goldsmith, Bob Margett, Bernie Richter, and Tom Woods. SB 49/Karnette is co-authored by Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer.
Senate Elections committee members include Chairwoman Betty Karnette (D - Long Beach), Vice-Chairman Bill Craven (R - Oceanside), John Lewis (R - Orange), Richard Polanco (D - Los Angeles), and Herschel Rosenthal (D - North Hollywood).
Position letters can be sent to Chairwoman Betty Karnette, State Capitol, Room 5046, Sacramento, CA 95814, or via fax, 916-445-2496. You can also email Senator Karnette via her chief of staff, at charles.wright@sen.ca.gov
A total of 20 bills are expected to be heard at the Senate Elections hearing. If you are planning to attend and testify, it's a good idea to call the committee ahead of time and inform them. You can reach the committee's secretary, Frances Tibon-Estoista at (916) 445-2601.
Kim Alexander, Executive Director, California Voter Foundation
cvf@netcom.com
916/325-2120Home | Legislative Updates | Publications | News Stories | Search