E-News from State and Federal Communications, Inc.
JUNE 2018

Celebrating our Silver Anniversary

You can consider this Silver Anniversary—Part One. On July 1st, State and Federal Communications, Inc. will celebrate its 25th anniversary. WOW! That is a long, long time and I have been here every minute of it.

We are going to take the opportunity to celebrate this event in Akron, Ohio and in Washington, DC and I hope you can all join us.

Feel free to respond to this email and I will make sure you receive an invitation. We are looking forward to opening our doors to all of our clients and friends around the country.

Thank you…Thank you for always relying on our quality services and knowing we are here to make sure government affairs world a lot easier.

Looking forward to seeing you soon.

Elizabeth Z. Bartz

President and CEO
@elizabethbartz

Oklahoma Amends State Ethics Rules

Katlin Newman, J.D.,
Research Associate

In February, the Oklahoma Ethics Commission submitted the 2018 Promulgated Ethics Rules to the governor and both houses of the Legislature. By joint resolution, lawmakers rejected several proposed rule amendments, including those prohibiting certain state officers and agency directors from lobbying after leaving state service. Gov. Mary Fallin agreed with the decision, claiming the commission lacks the authority to prohibit employment opportunities for private citizens, including former state employees. Surviving amendments to the ethics rules that were not rejected by lawmakers became effective May 3, upon adjournment of the Legislature.

One rule change affects both lobbying and campaign finance documents electronically filed with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission. Documents required to be filed electronically must be filed on the day specified, even if the due date falls on a weekend, holiday, or day the commission offices are closed. If a due date for a document not required to be filed electronically falls on a day other than a business day, the document may be filed on the next succeeding business day.

The amendments also make minor changes to several campaign finance requirements. The name, address, occupation, and employer are now required to be disclosed for all individual contributors, unless the contribution is anonymous. Another amendment confirms the prohibition on corporate contributions for golf fundraisers applies only to contributions to political party committees, limited committees, and candidate committees. The prohibition does not apply to contributions to unlimited committees. Clarifying language has also been added to the rules for limited liability company and partnership contributions. Any committee receiving a contribution from an LLC or partnership is required to report the contribution by attributing it to the individual member or partner in proportion to the individual’s ownership interests in the LLC or partnership.

Though many of the rule amendments are inconsequential and are merely the by-product of the commission’s effort to tidy up existing ethics laws, PACs will be pleased to find new rules regarding contributions to candidates. Changes to Rule 2.33 and Rule 2.34 remove the prohibitions on limited committee contributions to candidates after the general election if the limited committee contributed prior to the general election. Therefore, a limited committee may now make contributions both before and after the general election, provided the PAC’s aggregate contributions to a candidate committee do not exceed contribution limits.

[The details for this article have been updated on our website in the Contributions and the Registration and Reports Required sections of Political Contributions Compliance Laws for Oklahoma.]

Summary of Changes UPDATE
Note Recent Changes to Compliance Regulations 

Michael Beckett, Esq., Research Manager

BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA: Amendments to the Lobbyists Registration Act (LRA) have come into force. Former public office holders are prohibited from lobbying, in relation to any matter, for a period of two years after the date of leaving office. Covered public officials include members of the Executive Council, individuals employed in the members’ offices, and parliamentary secretaries. Covered officials also include individuals who formerly occupied senior executive positions in a ministry, associate deputy ministers, assistant deputy ministers, and persons in a position of comparable rank in a ministry. The legislation also increased the reporting requirements for consultant lobbyists and senior officers of organizations. In addition to reporting the names of ministers and members of the Legislative Assembly lobbied or expected to be lobbied, the reports must now include, if applicable, the names of the ministers’ and members’ staff lobbied or expected to be lobbied.

FLORIDA: The Constitution Revision Commission voted to place a six-year revolving door restriction directly on the November general election ballot. Proposal 6007 would also ban state and local officials from lobbying the Legislature, executive branch, and the federal government while in office. If approved by 60 percent of voters, the lobbying ban will take effect December 31, 2022. The proposal would also prohibit public officials from abusing their position to obtain a disproportionate benefit. The Commission on Ethics will be responsible for defining the term disproportionate benefit, prescribing the requisite intent for finding a violation, and enforcing the prohibition against the abuse of a public position. The new ethics rule will take effect December 31, 2020, if passed by 60 percent of voters.

MARYLAND: Gov. Larry Hogan signed legislation involving sexual harassment. House Bill 1342 bans lobbyists from sexually harassing a member, employee, intern, or page of the General Assembly, an employee of the Department of Legal Services, an official or employee of the executive branch, or an individual regulated lobbyist. Additionally, a lobbyist may report a violation of antiharassment policy and procedures by a member of the General Assembly to the State Ethics Commission. The bill is effective immediately, however, the provisions involving lobbyists will not be effective until July 1, 2019.

NEW YORK: The Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) adopted Part 943, commonly referred to as the Comprehensive Lobbying Regulations. The adopted regulations compile existing guidelines and advisory opinions regarding rules and requirements related to lobbying. For example, the adopted revised rules include an online ethics training requirement for lobbyists and provide further clarification regarding reportable expenses attributable to social media activities and grassroots lobbying. The rules were originally introduced in 2016 and have gone through several revisions before becoming effective on January 1, 2019.

SOUTH DAKOTA: Gov. Dennis Daugaard recently signed several campaign finance bills into law. Senate Bill 8 requires aggregate contributions to be treated as a single contribution with respect to contribution limits. House Bill 1002 changes the definition of ballot question committee to clarify ballot question committees include groups opposing the placement of ballot questions on the ballot. Senate Bill 128 makes changes to the procedure for ballot question committees filing termination reports. Under the new law, if a statewide ballot question committee does not list any activity on the next required campaign finance report submitted to the secretary of state, the committee has until the next reporting period to report activity. If the committee does not have any activity to report by the next reporting period, the committee must submit a termination report by the reporting period deadline. House Bill 1002 and Senate Bill 128 are both effective July 1. Senate Bill 8 is effective January 1, 2019.

Legislation We Are Tracking

At any given time, more than 1,000 legislative bills, which can affect how you do business as a government affairs professional, are being discussed in federal, state, and local jurisdictions. These bills are summarized in State and Federal Communications' digital encyclopedias for lobbying laws, political contributions, and procurement lobbying and can be found in the client portion of our website.

Summaries of major bills are also included in monthly email updates sent to all clients. The chart below shows the number of bills we are tracking in regard to lobbying laws, political contributions, and procurement lobbying.

ASK THE EXPERTS

State and Federal Communications’ Experts Answer Your Questions

Here is your chance to “Ask the Experts” at State and Federal Communications, Inc. Send your questions to experts@stateandfed.com. (Of course, we have always been available to answer questions from clients that are specific to your needs, and we encourage you to continue to call or email us with questions about your particular company or organization. As always, we will confidentially and directly provide answers or information you need.) Our replies are not legal advice, just our analysis of laws, rules, and regulations.

State and Federal Communications, Inc.
Scrapbook - June 2018

State and Federal Communications, Inc. shares the excitement of our former interns who have now graduated from University.   We have had an internship program for many years.  Their focus is varied depending on the department they are assigned.  This past May we had two of our former interns graduate.  We are excited and proud of their success.   Congratulations to Olivia Williams and Zachary Koozer on this great milestone.   Olivia Williams on graduation day at Kent State University.   Zack Koozer with his fellow Kent State University Alumni, Elizabeth Z. Bartz and Helen Bartz Daley. Celebrating Staff Anniversaries at State and Federal Communications, Inc. In May we celebrated the anniversaries of four staff members - Nola R. Werren, Esq., Lisa Stutzman, Craig Swanson, and [not pictured-Nicolette Bartz Koozer.]  We appreciate our hard-working staff.

Always happy to support our local AA Baseball Team - The Akron Rubber Ducks.
We congratulate the team and Ken Babby, their owner, on another great year.

Plan to say hello at future events where State and Federal Communications, Inc.
will be attending and/or speaking regarding compliance issues.