In a time when we are seeing less and less transparency at the capitol, its good to see that the county board is trying to add transparency. Meeting tonight if you’d like to support this effort! Thanks Kyle Richmond and county board supervisors supporting this!
County Executive Committee Takes Up Proposals to Require Electronic Filing and Posting of Statements of Economic Interest
The Executive Committee of the Dane County Board tomorrow evening – Thursday, June 9 – will consider two proposals to make county public officials’ political and personal finances more available for public scrutiny.
Ordinance Amendment 38 would require all candidates for county office to file their campaign finance reports electronically, as well as on paper, to encourage public access to election contribution information. A companion proposal, Resolution 323, calls on the County Clerk to make County public officials’ Statements of Economic Interests available for review online.
“In a time of less and less news media coverage of local government, it’s extremely important that Dane County citizens can have access to campaign finance reports,” said Supervisor Kyle Richmond, primary sponsor of both proposals. “My constituents want to know who’s paying to get local candidates elected.”
The ordinance would also require the County Clerk’s Office to post those reports for Internet viewing within 48 hours. The State of Wisconsin requires all state candidates to file electronically so that their reports may be immediately viewed in the state’s Campaign Finance Information System (CFIS).
Currently, county candidates are only required to file paper reports with the County Clerk, while electronic filing is optional. Citizens who wish to see those paper reports must go to the Clerk’s Office and pay twenty-five cents per page for a paper copy.
Dane County requires a Statement of Economic Interest be filed by elected officials, appointees and specified employees to allow the public to be aware of those officials’ investments and other economic interests, some of which could directly or indirectly pertain to their County work.
“On occasion, it is important to know about a county official’s financial interests,” Richmond said.
Both the ordinance amendment and the resolution were co-sponsored by 18 County Board Supervisors. The Board’s Executive Committee will meet at 6:00 p.m. in Room 357 of the City- County Building.
I have a work meeting and will miss this, but applaud the efforts!
