Earlier this year the ethics commission pulled its online portal of disclosure forms over privacy concerns from public officials. The deadline to comment is Oct. 3
Earlier this month the N.C. State Ethics Commission removed its online portal where voters could pull up the economic disclosure forms that have to be filed by all constitutional officers, legislators, judicial officials, heads of state agencies and certain appointed officials. The ethics disclosure forms are general and reveal what companies government officials own more than $10,000 of stock in, whether or not they own real property and whether they have significant interest in a business.
The online portal was first made available to the public at the beginning of July. At the time the online portal was removed, the commission’s director said they were receiving complaints about personal information on the forms being made available online. Specifically, officials were concerned about their addresses, phone numbers and emails being included.The forms are still available to review in person at the commission’s offices in Raleigh.
Now the commission is seeking public comment on how much information should be included on the online version of the forms. Comments are requested by the end of the day on Friday, Oct. 3, 2014. They can be submitted by sending an email to ethics.commission@doa.nc.gov with the subject line: SEI Online Access Comments