Subject: County of Monterey Ordinance re Disclosure Ordinance

Supervisor David Potter, Chair
Monterey County Board of Supervisors
168 West Alisal
Salinas, CA 93901

Dear Chairman Potter and Members of the Board:

In 2006, the Board revised the regulations that affected the distribution of campaign finance disclosure documents and removed the requirement that these documents be provided to the County libraries (April 2006). The League wrote to you at that time expressing our concerns related to the availability of these documents to the public.

County Code, Section 1.10.030, Duties of the Registrar of Voters, Part G, states: “Make the information contained in each campaign statement of a candidate for elected office or a committee regulated pursuant to this Chapter available for public review over the Internet.” Our April 2006 letter stated:

Full disclosure with easy and timely public access is imperative. The League has spent more than a year studying a wide range of campaign finance and conflict of interest regulations for local government. The State, along with cities and counties, is moving towards electronic, web-based submission and access of disclosure documents. For examples, see State of California: http://cal-access.ss.ca.gov and City of Sacramento: http://www.cityofsacramento.org/-clerk/olcf/.

The information from the 2006 Board of Supervisors was not published on the internet. In light of the upcoming June 2007 election and the 2008 Supervisor elections, we would urge the Board to direct that staff comply with the ordinance.

Sincerely,

Marilyn Maxner, President                              MaryEllen Dick, President
LWV of the Monterey Peninsula                       LWV of the Salinas Valley