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.