The Board of Directors of the Tennessee County Commissioners Association is scheduled to meet on Wednesday, February 6, 2008. The meeting will begin at 11:00 AM in the ground floor conference room of the Capitol Boulevard Building at 226 Capitol Blvd. in downtown Nashville.
Apart from a few routine administrative matters, the meeting will focus on pending legislation of interest to the association. If you need further information or directions to the meeting, please contact the association office at (615) 532-3767. If any person desiring to attend the meeting needs special accomodations, please contact the association at the same number to inform us of your needs.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Update on Filing Disclosure Statements
Our organization and several others expressed concerns to the Ethics Commission about the ability of local officials to comply with the electronic filing requirement for disclosure statements. At a meeting earlier this week, the Ethics Commission considered the issue and voted to change the practice for this year. The commission will allow both paper and electronic filing and has stated that it will not pursue sanctions for failure to meet the January 31 deadline so long as the statement is filed, electronically or by paper, by February 15. Printable forms are now available on the ethics commission website: www.state.tn.us/soc/tec
The Ethics Commission was very responsive to our association's concerns and I appreciate very much their consideration on this matter and willingness to work with us. I believe the commission's staff has also been working very hard to assist a great number of officials who called them with problems they were having with the electronic system. According to the commission website, over 2100 local officials have successfully filed electronically since January 8 when the portal was activitated. The commission is still very committed to moving toward electronic based filing for this statement to the extent possible. If you have internet access and an e-mail account (which you probably do if you are reading this post), I encourage you to use the electronic filing system.
The Ethics Commission was very responsive to our association's concerns and I appreciate very much their consideration on this matter and willingness to work with us. I believe the commission's staff has also been working very hard to assist a great number of officials who called them with problems they were having with the electronic system. According to the commission website, over 2100 local officials have successfully filed electronically since January 8 when the portal was activitated. The commission is still very committed to moving toward electronic based filing for this statement to the extent possible. If you have internet access and an e-mail account (which you probably do if you are reading this post), I encourage you to use the electronic filing system.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Filing your 2008 Disclosure of Interest Statement
For elected county officials, the 2008 Disclosure of Interest Statement is due January 31, 2008.
This is the disclosure statement that was formerly filed with your local county election commission office. After the passage of the Comprehensive Governmental Ethics Reform Act of 2006, the form is now filed with the State Ethics Commission. You should have filed a disclosure statement with that office in January 2007.
This year, the Ethics Commission is requiring that the statement be filed electronically. According to the Ethics Commission website, county elected officials should have received an authorization number in the mail which will permit filers to access the system starting on Monday, January 7, 2008. Filers will be required to sign in on the Conflicts portal, establish a TN.gov account with their authorization number and complete the Disclosure of Interest Statement. The Ethics Commission is indicating that it will no longer be accepting paper Statements. The Ethics Commission also has posted a schedule of statewide training seminars to instruct you on how to file your statement electronically. It appears there will be 17 training seminars taught across the state during January, so you should be able to find one near you. You can find that schedule of times and locations here: http://state.tn.us/sos/tec/TrainingClasses.pdf
The primary Ethics Commission Website is here: http://state.tn.us/sos/tec/
If you are reading this information here, you probably will not have substantial difficulty using their websites or filing electronically. Many of your fellow commissioners will not have it as easy. There are still many county commissioners who do not have e-mail or internet access. If you or one of your fellow commissioners has concerns about this requirement for electronic filing, please let me know ASAP. The Ethics Commission will meet on Jan. 15th and there may be a chance to present these concerns to the Ethics Commission at that time.
This is the disclosure statement that was formerly filed with your local county election commission office. After the passage of the Comprehensive Governmental Ethics Reform Act of 2006, the form is now filed with the State Ethics Commission. You should have filed a disclosure statement with that office in January 2007.
This year, the Ethics Commission is requiring that the statement be filed electronically. According to the Ethics Commission website, county elected officials should have received an authorization number in the mail which will permit filers to access the system starting on Monday, January 7, 2008. Filers will be required to sign in on the Conflicts portal, establish a TN.gov account with their authorization number and complete the Disclosure of Interest Statement. The Ethics Commission is indicating that it will no longer be accepting paper Statements. The Ethics Commission also has posted a schedule of statewide training seminars to instruct you on how to file your statement electronically. It appears there will be 17 training seminars taught across the state during January, so you should be able to find one near you. You can find that schedule of times and locations here: http://state.tn.us/sos/tec/TrainingClasses.pdf
The primary Ethics Commission Website is here: http://state.tn.us/sos/tec/
If you are reading this information here, you probably will not have substantial difficulty using their websites or filing electronically. Many of your fellow commissioners will not have it as easy. There are still many county commissioners who do not have e-mail or internet access. If you or one of your fellow commissioners has concerns about this requirement for electronic filing, please let me know ASAP. The Ethics Commission will meet on Jan. 15th and there may be a chance to present these concerns to the Ethics Commission at that time.
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