Clicks & Phone Calls Add Up
Staff at the City Clerk’s Office in San Jose, California, are tasked with managing Form 700s (the statement of economic interest documents that many public and elected officials must complete when assuming office) as well as campaign disclosure filings (required of all candidates running for public office).
The processes require clerks and designated filing officers to accurately track, manage, and deliver thousands of documents. It’s a labor-intensive process regulated by the State of California’s Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC).
Though the team had a purpose-built solution for managing these processes, Netfile, they were still encountering challenges. So were end users.
“We were fielding calls from end users all the time. While trying to complete their forms, they would get confused and contact us with questions. We were always happy to help, of course, but it took a considerable amount of time,” recalled Toni Taber, City Clerk for the City of San Jose.
Aside from fielding phone calls, the user interface of the existing system required users take many steps to achieve common tasks. “Staff had to do a lot of clicking around to complete tasks,” said Taber. “Multiply all those extra clicks by the 2,500 filers San Jose has and that lost time adds up quickly!”
Onboarding users onto the previous system also took substantial training time. “It wasn’t intuitive,” said Taber, who estimates training a new staff member took an hour or more.
So, when the contract came up for their previous solution, the City Clerk investigated available alternatives. They found their answers in DisclosureDocs and CampaignDocs from Granicus.
Migrating to a More Intuitive Solution
After migrating to DisclosureDocs and CampaignDocs, the City of San Jose has robust time-saving solutions for both Form 700s and political campaign disclosures that are easy for everyone to use.
“I think properly designed software should be intuitive. You should be able to just walk up to it and use it. That’s how it is with DisclosureDocs,” said Taber. “It has a solid user interface. When the staff use the application they find it easy and intuitive”
With automatic notifications reminding filers to fulfill their Form 700 paperwork on time, city staff can batch priorities and focus on what matters. “It’s really saved me time,” said Taber.
DisclosureDocs, which provides robust search for citizens, has also contributed to better public transparency. “If you’re a member of the public, and you want to search if a particular developer made contributions, for example, it’s really easy to do.
Savings & Confidence Adds Up
The City of San Jose Clerk’s office is now able to breeze through what once was labor-intensive.
“Granicus saves you clicks, it’s easier to use, it’s easy to pick up, and results in less training time,” said Taber, who added that all the extra time would allow them to follow up with non-filers.
In turn, she said that focus on non-filers should help improve their on-time filing rate even more. It’s currently at 97% for employee filers — up from 87% two years prior.
Taber also attributes the new solution to a significant increase in digital filings.
“Because DisclosureDocs is so easy to use, more people are filing electronically than by paper, which is huge.”
Finally, aside from fewer paper filings, fewer phone calls from confused filers, and less time spent training staff, Taber noted added confidence their new solution delivers in terms of compliance.
“I know that if we get audited by the FPPC that we have nothing to worry about,” said Taber. That’s because the product development team at DisclosureDocs and CampaignDocs has a strong relationship with the FPPC; changes from the regulatory body are quickly accounted for in the products.
