Compliance & Filing Assistance

Financial Disclosure

Annual financial disclosure requirements help ensure good government by requiring public officials to disclose sources of income, creditors, gifts, and certain business or real estate interests. Members of the public can use this information to assess what interests may affect an official’s decision making. The City's Ethics Code requires an annual statement of financial interest from elected officials and other high-ranking City officers and employees. Additionally, the State Ethics Act requires a statement from any City officers or employees with supervisory or discretionary responsibilities. While the two forms have some differences, both capture information related to sources of income, business interests, directorships, gifts, and other financial interests.

For both forms, the deadline for most filers is usually May 1. For FY2022, the deadline was May 2 due to the fact that May 1 fell on a weekend. In 2021 and 2020, the deadline was pushed back to June due to the COVID pandemic. The return to a May-based deadline is a welcome sign of the filing process returning to normal.

Amendments to Regulation No. 3 (Financial Disclosure)

In March of 2021, City Council amended Section 20-610 of the Ethics Code to update the requirements related to the City's Statement of Financial Interest (the “City Form”). Following this amendment, in April of 2021 the Board issued Regulation No. 3 to provide detailed guidance on the new revised requirements.

In December of 2021, the Board again amended Regulation No. 3 in order to (1) account for changes to Code Section 20-610 that were due to become effective in January of 2022; and (2) provide further guidance in particular sections of the Regulation. The revised amendment also addresses some frequently asked questions and incorporates information from the filing instructions to assist filers in understanding both what to disclose and how to disclose it.

Interactions with the Regulated Community Regarding Financial Disclosure Requirements

The Board’s usual preparations for financial disclosure season are always extensive and begin months before the filing deadline. For example, the electronic filing system is prepared, employee data is reviewed and uploaded, and communication and outreach plans are developed.

With regard to outreach, in FY2022 Board Staff continued the strides made in FY2021. First, Board Staff refined its use of software that allows for better targeting of email communications. Board Staff also sent reminders close to the deadline to any City employees who had not yet filed. Second, Board Staff continued to use newly developed “Financial Disclosure 101” information sessions to provide basic information to filers and to give them the opportunity to ask questions. These sessions took place on Zoom, which allowed participants to attend from anywhere they had phone or internet access. Board Staff continues to believe these sessions would not have been as well attended if they were provided solely as in-person events. As such, Board Staff plans to continue to use such virtual informational sessions even when City offices reopen. Third, Board Staff issued a series of educational documents to assist filers with the filing process. These included (a) an updated Frequently Asked Questions document; (b) a “Who Files What” document explaining which City officers and employees need to file which financial disclosure forms; and (c) a revised set of Instructions for filing the City Form that takes into account all the recent amendments to City Code Section 20-610 and Regulation No. 3.

Board’s Financial Disclosure Filing System

In June 2020, the Board implemented a new Financial Disclosure System (FDS) that replaced the previous, 13 year-old system.

No significant changes were made to the system in FY2022, but Board Staff notes that it has been invaluable during the continued irregularities caused by the COVID pandemic, allowing the Board to carry out its duties and obligations regarding financial disclosure almost seamlessly in FY2022. Board Staff continues to credit much of this to its new Financial Disclosure System and all the hard work it took in previous years to make it viable.

Lobbying

The City’s Lobbying Law ensures public disclosure of who is spending money to influence City governmental action. It requires those who pay people to lobby City officials to file regular reports detailing their expenditures. The City’s Lobbying Law is found at City Code Chapter 20-1200 and Board Regulation No. 9, which provides a detailed interpretation of Chapter 20-1200. Lobbyists, lobbying firms, and principals mandated to file by the Lobbying Law do so through the online Philadelphia Lobbying Information System (PLIS). PLIS is also the portal through which the public may search for information concerning lobbying activity in the City.

Lobbying compliance has largely been unaffected by the pandemic. Registration and reporting as well as technical support have been a web-based electronic process through PLIS since 2014.

Lobbying Registration

The City’s Lobbying Law has two disclosure requirements. The first requirement is that principals who spend more than $2,500 on lobbying activity in a quarter must register with the Board. When they register, principals must provide basic information about themselves as well as listing any lobbyists or lobbying firms they are using. Lobbying firms and lobbyists must also register if they receive more than $2,500 for lobbying activity in a quarter, although if a lobbyist is an employee of a principal, they only need to register if they spent 20 hours or more on lobbying activity in the quarter.

*2022 includes data through June 30, 2022

Lobbying Expense Reports

The second disclosure process in the City’s Lobbying Law is the Lobbying Expense Report. The expense report is filed by the principal and captures the detail of the lobbying activity in that quarter. This includes the amount of expenditures, the detail of communications, and any gifts, hospitality, or transportation provided to City officials and employees.

There are two types of lobbying communications reported each quarter: Direct Communications and Indirect Communications. Direct lobbying communications include, but are not limited to, written, in-person, telephone, and email contacts between a lobbying entity and a City official or employee to affect legislative action or administrative action. Indirect lobbying communications occur when a lobbying entity makes an effort to encourage others, including the general public, to take action that is intended to directly influence legislative action or administrative action. Examples of indirect lobbying methods include letter-writing campaigns, mailings, telephone banks, print and electronic media advertising, billboards, publications and educational campaigns on public issues.

Total expenditures on communications can fluctuate from quarter to quarter and year to year depending upon the topics of interest to the public and the agendas of City Council and City agencies. Information disclosed in quarterly expense reports filed by principals is available on the Board’s website in a searchable database.

*2022 includes data through June 30, 2022

Using City Lobbying Data

The City Lobbying Law is a disclosure law and helps ensure transparency in City government. Its purpose is to provide the information that members of the public can use to learn who is spending money to influence City policy. Information disclosed by the filers in the lobbying community may be explored through the online lobbying system.

Members of the public can use the database to search for, among other things, amounts spent on Philadelphia lobbying by principals, to identify City officials who were contacted by lobbyists and the subjects of those contacts, and to determine whether gifts were given to elected and appointed City officials. The public can search through the individual registrations and expense reports or may use several pre-set options to generate reports from the database. Board Staff Members are always available by telephone, email or in-person to assist interested individuals who want to search and sort the information in the searchable PLIS database.

Lobbying Training and Educational Documents

As in previous years, in FY2022, the Board offered trainings covering the basic requirements of the City's Lobbying Law for lobbyists, lobbying firms, and principals. Such trainings provided technical guidance regarding registering and filing expense reports with the Board of Ethics in Philadelphia's Lobbying Information System (PLIS). Due to the ongoing COVID pandemic and people’s health concerns regarding attending in-person meetings, these trainings were conducted virtually which have continued to be very successful as it appears such virtual trainings allowed more attendees to attend. Further details regarding these lobbying trainings (and other trainings offered by the Board in FY2022) are discussed in the Training section of this Annual Report.

Campaign Finance

City Code Chapter 20-1000 and Board Regulation No. 1, Campaign Finance, establish the requirements that apply to candidates for City elective office, candidate political committees, and political committees. One of the most important requirements is that these entities must file campaign finance reports electronically. As a result, contribution and expenditure information quickly becomes publicly available in a searchable online format.

To accomplish electronic filing, the Board provides a free filing software program to all candidates and committees.

Campaign Finance Trainings and Educational Documents

With regard to the 2021 General Election for City Controller and District Attorney, the Board offered its usual program of Campaign Finance training and support services. In light of the ongoing COVID pandemic, Board Staff continued to utilize the virtual online trainings via Zoom that proved popular in FY2021.

Further details regarding these campaign finance trainings (and other trainings offered by the Board in FY2022) are discussed in the Training section of this Annual Report.

Amendments to City’s Campaign Finance Law

In Spring of 2022, City Council passed two new bills amending the City’s Campaign Finance Law.

Bill No. 220361 amended Code Chapter 20-1000 to make technical changes to ensure consistency and clarity of language in the City’s Campaign Finance Law. It also clarified the time period in which contributions from a candidate to their own campaign will be counted towards the threshold for the doubling of the contribution limits.

Bill No. 220049 amended Code Chapter 20-1000 to:

Prohibit candidates from making expenditures through any person other than their designated candidate committee unless specifically provided for in Chapter 20-1000.
Permit campaign to make expenditures for advertising through another person, as is standard business practice, so long as the campaign obtains and maintains receipts and documentation of where and when the advertising ran, which shall be made available to the Board upon request.
Permit a vendor to incur costs incidental to the provision of the services they provide so long as such costs are promptly invoiced and promptly reimbursed. For such reimbursements, a campaign shall obtain and maintain appropriate receipts and documentation, which shall be made available to the Board upon request.
Revise an existing rule that permits a candidate to pay a political committee to have their name placed on a sample ballot distributed by that committee without the committee’s expenditures to print and distribute the ballot counting as in-kind contributions to the candidate, so long as the recipient political committee offers similar services to other campaigns and the amount charged is commensurate with the services provided.
Permit candidates to pool resources to jointly pay for campaign literature, advertising, or get-out-the-vote activities so long as each campaign contemporaneously pays its fair portion of the costs and obtains and maintains appropriate documentation, including invoices and printer’s samples, which shall be provided to the Board upon request.

Throughout FY2022, members of the Board and Board Staff worked closely with City Council members and their staff regarding this legislation, culminating in the Board’s General Counsel testifying (on behalf of the Board) before City Council’s Committee on Law and Government in May 2022 in support of the two bills.

Preparation for 2023 Elections

In many ways, FY2022 was a relatively “quiet” year in terms of municipal elections and, thus, also in terms of campaign finance law issues, with the only Municipal elections being the 2021 General Election for City Controller and District Attorney. This is a stark contrast to what is expected in FY2023, which will involve an open Mayoral election, as well as elections for City Council, City Commissioner, and Sheriff, many of which are expected to be highly competitive, to involve many candidates, and to entail hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign-related contributions and expenses. We also expect to see special elections to fill vacancies created by elected officials who resigned to run for Mayor. With little exaggeration, the Board expects FY2023 to be one of the busiest election seasons in its history.

In this regard, the Board spent much of FY2022 preparing for FY2023. Much of this work involved assisting City Council in updating the City’s Campaign Finance Law, as described above. In June of 2022, the Board also began the process of amending Regulation No. 1 (Campaign Finance), planning future (more specialized and diverse) training sessions, drafting online resources and documents, and formulating other general plans to prepare for the elections in FY2023. With such preparations underway, the Board is fully confident it will be able to deal with the campaign finance-related issues expected in FY2023.

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