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<br />The legislation provides that a city may adopt charter provisions or ordinances that designate the city <br />elections officer as the filing officer for campaign finance reports that would otherwise be filed with the <br />Secretary of State. A city could require additional reports to be filed in paper format. <br /> <br /> <br />RELATED CITY POLICIES <br />No policy issues are related directly to this item. The City’s Voluntary Campaign Finance Program will <br />not change as a result of the State legislation. <br /> <br /> <br />COUNCIL OPTIONS <br /> <br />A. The City Council can take no action. <br />Effective January 1, 2007, the Secretary of State would become the filing officer for all campaign <br />finance reports, except chief petitioner committees for local initiative, referendum and recall <br />petitions. Committees would be required to file campaign finance information electronically. <br />Active candidate and measure committees that have filed with the City Recorder previously would <br />be advised of the changes. <br /> <br />Advantages of the new State filing system include the following: <br />automatic calculation, thereby reducing errors; <br />? <br /> <br />accessible to all candidates and committees through any public or private computer with <br />? <br /> <br />web access; <br />information readily available to the public as soon as transactions are completed; <br />? <br /> <br />with continuous reporting, information is more current than the present “periodic” <br />? <br /> <br />reporting schedule allows. <br /> <br />According to State Elections Division Director John Lindback, the new system will streamline and <br />simplify the filing process for candidates and treasurers, and will further Oregon’s objective of <br />transparent campaign finance reporting. <br /> <br />B. The City Council can direct staff to prepare an ordinance requiring local electronic filing. <br />All provisions of ORS 260.163 that become effective January 1, 2007, would still go into effect. The <br />difference would be that a local elections filing officer, presumably the City Recorder, would be <br />designated as the recipient of the campaign finance reports filed electronically by local candidates <br />and committees. <br /> <br />This option would impact the City financially. The Secretary of State’s Office has spent <br />approximately $700,000 to develop its electronic filing system, on which ten developers have <br />worked full time for the past year. The complex and intricate system is entering its internal test <br />phase now and is expected to be operational in January. <br /> <br />Should the City of Eugene opt to implement its own fully electronic campaign finance filing system, <br />as would be required if the council chose this option, similar costs and investment of time might be <br />necessary. It is unclear at this time whether the State would be willing to sell or enter an agreement <br />for use of its system. <br /> <br /> <br /> L:\CMO\2006 Council Agendas\M061009\S061009B.doc <br /> <br />