Form 700 Electronic Filing - Regulation 18756

(a) Database Design

To permit compatibility among systems, an agency's electronic filing system for statements of economic interests under Section 87500.2 shall accept a filing using a system that permits data to be exported to a common file format such as comma separated values (CSV) or Extensible Markup Language (XML), allowing the data to be easily retrieved on a variety of spreadsheet and database applications.

(b) Features

In addition to the requirements set forth in Section 87500.2, an agency's electronic filing system for statements of economic interests shall include the necessary industry best practices to ensure that the integrity of the data and information is not jeopardized or compromised by using technology such as secured authentication, complex password requirements, secure sockets layer (SSL), Web encryption, enterprise-level network firewalls, database encryption, password encryption, system hardening procedures, a backup and restore process, disaster recovery capability, and the capability to completely redact or omit information from an Internet posting of the form.

(c) Proposal and Fee

Pursuant to Section 87500.2, an agency seeking approval and certification of an electronic filing system for statements of economic interests shall submit the following to the Commission:

• (1) A description of the electronic filing system that the agency proposes to use with documentation showing compliance with the technical requirements of Section 87500.2, and this regulation, including system overviews, specifications and network diagrams.
• (2) A certification fee of $1,000 payable to the Fair Political Practices Commission.

(d)

The Commission shall complete the review and certification process as soon as practicable after receiving the agency's submitted proposal.

(e) Redaction

A local agency that chooses to post statements of economic interests online shall redact the address, telephone number, and signature block of a public official's statement of economic interests from the cover page before it is made available on the Internet. An agency may, at the request of a public official, redact additional information from the official's statement of economic interests for purposes of the Internet posting if the public official has a reasonable privacy concern related to an individual's address, or a family member's name or other personally identifiable information as set forth in Regulation 18313.6.

(f) Updates

An agency shall be required to update its electronic filing system annually to conform to the Commission-approved changes to the statement of economic interests forms.

(g) Re-certification

An agency shall be required to request re-certification of its system by resubmitting a description of the electronic filing system each time either of the following events occurs: (1) a significant change of product or system architecture takes place or (2) five years have passed since the initial or most recent Commission certification. The Commission may, at its discretion, charge a $1,000 re-certification fee, depending on the complexity of the system review.

(h)

Failure to comply with subdivisions (f) or (g), above, may result in revocation of an agency's system certification. 

1/2013