A Mandate for Transparency & Efficiency
Like many local governments in California, the team at the Napa County Election Division has many critical duties in support of local, state, and federal elections. They also must help ensure all required government officials disclose their financial interests.
Designated filing officers must accurately track, manage, and deliver documents related to the disclosure of government employee and elected official Statement of Economic Interest, known as Form 700 in California. The process is regulated by the State of California’s Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC).
Staff at the Election Division have their own goals to increase efficiency and make sure officials file on time. Napa County’s recently updated strategic plan has a priority goal of making government more transparent.
‘Sweat & Spreadsheets’
To comply with the FPPC filing requirements, the staff of five at Napa County Election Division were spending a significant amount of time sending email notices to 350 filers and following up on those notices to make sure Form 700s were completed.
“We were tracking down and chasing paper filers, scanning paper documents, and overall handling a lot of paper,” said John Tuteur, who serves as assessor, county clerk, recorder, and registrar of voters for Napa County.
While the team was highly successful and able to ensure nearly all filings were made on time (with a 99% on-time filing rate), their day was filled with busywork. It took up time they’d rather dedicate to other important duties.
A handful of filers mentioned their positive experience filing with the State of California using an online solution, govRecords DisclosureDocs. At around the same time, the County had updated their strategic plan. It included a priority goal to make government more transparent.
With DisclosureDocs, the Napa County team could automate much of the manual busywork for the filers and the staff. They could also improve transparency by providing online access to all the documents.
“Suddenly, it made sense to transition from our old system of sweat and spreadsheets,” said Tuteur.
With only a few short months before they needed their system online, the team would need to hustle to complete the transition.
From Manual to Automatic
The DisclosureDocs implementation team worked closely with Napa County staff to meet their tight deadline. After their kickoff meeting in January 2019, they migrated files, trained staff, and then deployed. In the end, they were able to implement DisclosureDocs by their deadline of April 2.
“The DisclosureDocs staff is incredible! They’ve been instrumental in helping us get up and running — and quickly.”
Now, staff at Napa County and the 350 filers have easy and largely automated processes for Form 700 compliance. DisclosureDocs helps them manage and track the process — and even sends automatic notices to filers to make sure they file on time.
The County also can make the Form 700 information available on their website, which contributes to their goal of improving transparency. With redacting and masking tools, DisclosureDocs also automatically redacts sensitive information before it gets posted to the website and is publicly visible.
“It would have taken us forever to do that manually,” said Tuteur.
Fewer Calls, More Focus
According to Tuteur, DisclosureDocs has made a noticeable difference, the experience has become smoother and more productive — for both filers and end-users. “Now, we don’t have to shift paper around. We don’t have to open and close filing drawers. We don’t have to stand at the scanner,” said Tuteur.
The Clerk’s Office has also already seen a substantial reduction in calls and e-mails from filers with questions. A result, Tuteur believes, of how easy DisclosureDocs is to use.
“DisclosureDocs is so intuitive. It’s been a joy for filers. We’ve had to do very little hand-holding to get filers using the system.”
With newfound efficiency and transparency, the Napa County Election Division can devote more time to their three primary functions: making sure every eligible citizen registers to vote, that every registered voter casts their ballot, and that every vote is counted accurately.
