The Ethics Commission will seek additional public comment regarding whether its Financial Disclosure Statements will be made available online and, if so, what information they will contain.
The report is required of state officers, certain state employees, and candidates running for office who file declarations of candidacy with the State Election Board.
Currently, the reports are available publicly in printed form only.
The reports will be filed and could be available electronically once the commission’s new software system is implemented. It is expected to go online in 2015.
Commission Chair Cathy Stocker, a former district attorney, had asked that the matter be put before the commissioners.
“I’m probably a bit more sensitive to the reality of people being targeted for criminal activity than an ordinary citizen would be.” She also said she was concerned about privacy issues that could arise by making personal information readily accessible online.
Stocker said she supports making the financial disclosure information publicly available but not available online. “I am not in support of making those records available so that anyone can just sit and start going through them,” she said.
