HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-06-02 Ordinance 5249Ordinance No. 5249
Ordinance of the Council of the City of Palo Alto Approving the
Use of Online or Electronic Filing of Campaign Statements
The Council of the City of Palo Alto does ORDAIN as follows:
SECTION 1. Findings and Declarations. The City Council finds and declares as follows:
A. California Government Code Section 84615 provides that a local agency may
require an elected officer, candidate, committee, or other person required to file statements, reports, or
other documents, except an elected officer, candidate, committee, or other person who receives
contributions totaling less than one thousand dollars ($1,000), and makes expenditures totaling less
than one thousand dollars ($1,000), in a calendar year, to file those statements, reports, or other
documents online or electronically with the local filing officer.
B. The City has entered into an agreement with Westcoast Online Information
Systems, Inc. dba NetFile, a vendor approved by the California Secretary of State, to provide an online
electronic filing system ("System") for campaign disclosure statements and statements of economic
interest forms.
C. The System will operate securely and effectively and will not unduly burden
filers. Specifically: (1) the System will ensure the integrity of the data and includes safeguards against
efforts to temper with, manipulate, alter, or subvert the data; (2) the System will only accept a filing in
the standardized record format developed by the Secretary of State and compatible with the Secretary
of State's system for receiving an online or electronic filing; and (3) the System will be available free of
charge to filers and to the public for viewing filings.
SECTION 2. Section 2.40.065 (Electronic Filing of Campaign Statements) of Chapter 2.40
(Municipal Elections) or Title 2 (Administrative Code) of the Palo Alto Municipal Code is hereby added
to read as follows:
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"Section 2.40.065 Electronic Filing of Campaign Statements
(a) Any elected officer, candidate, committee, or other person required to file statements,
reports or other documents described by Chapter 4 (Campaign Disclosure) of Title 9
(Political Reform) of the California Government Code, and that has received
contributions and made expenditures of $1,000 or more, shall electronically file such
statements using procedures established by the City Clerk.
(b) Once an elected officer, candidate, committee, or other person files a statement,
report, or other document electronically pursuant to subsection (a), all future
statements, reports, or other documents on behalf of that filer shall be filed
electronically.
(c) In any instance in which an original statement, report, or other document must be filed
with the California Secretary of State and a copy of that statement, report, or other
document is required to be filed with the City Clerk, the filer may, but is not required to
file the copy electronically.
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(d) If the City Clerk's electronic system is not capable of accepting a particular type of
statement, report, or other document, an elected officer, candidate, committee, or
other person shall file that document with the City Clerk in an alternative format."
SECTION 3. If any section, subsection, clause or phrase of this Ordinance is for any
reason declared invalid, such declaration shall not affect the validity of the remaining portion or
sections of the Ordinance. The Council hereby declares that it should have adopted the
Ordinance and each section, subsection, sentence, clause or phrase thereof irrespective of the
fact that any one or more sections, subsections, sentences, clauses or phrases be declared
invalid.
SECTION 4. This ordinance shall be effective on the thirty-first day after the date of its
adoption.
SECTION 5. The Council of the City of Palo Alto hereby finds that this is not a project under
the California Environmental Quality Act and, therefore, no environmental impact assessment is
necessary.
INTRODUCED: May 12, 2014
PASSED: June 2, 2014
AYES: BERMAN, BURT, HOLMAN, KLEIN, KNISS, PRICE, SCHARFF, SCHMID, SHEPHERD
NOES:
ABSENT:
ABSTENTIONS:
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