Director reports Form 700 e-filing rollout, 92% on-time filing rate; ethics training completion lags

In the Executive Director’s report on April 8, staff said the commission’s homepage was updated to give direct access to Form 700 economic interest statements following the first year of electronic filing for designated filers. Director Powell reported that as of April 1 roughly 92% of designated filers had filed on time, and about 89% of elected officials, board and commission members and department heads had timely filings. However, required ethics and sunshine training certification for those board/commission members and department heads was reported at roughly 77% completion as of the same date.

Powell said staff will examine the causes for lower training completion rates and flagged recruitment for four 'Ethics & Work' positions to support citywide training; application deadlines were set for April 22 and hires were expected by June for deployment in the next fiscal year. Staff also announced that Ashley Moffett joined as a senior investigator.

Commissioners asked when new hires would be on board; Powell said new positions would likely be filled by June and that a work plan for the Ethics at Work program was targeted for implementation in the fall.

Public commenters again urged accountability and faster action; staff said follow-up and transparency charts (including snapshots of non-filers) are available on the commission’s landing page.