An expenditure lobbyist is an individual or entity that spends $2,500 or more in a calendar month to solicit, request, or urge others to communicate directly with a City officer in order to influence local legislative or administrative action. City officers covered by this rule generally include elected City officials, members of City boards and commissions, and City department heads.
Examples of spending that counts toward the $2,500 registration threshold include public relations, media relations, advertising, public outreach, research, investigation, reports, analysis, and studies to the extent those activities are used to solicit, request or urge other persons to communicate directly with a City officer.
Examples of spending that does not count toward the $2,500 registration threshold include: payments made to a registered “contact” lobbyist who directly contacts City officers; payments made to an organization for membership dues; payments made by an organization to distribute communications to its members; payments made by a news media organization to develop and distribute its publications; and payments made by a client to a representative to appear on the client’s behalf in a legal proceeding before a City agency or department; salary paid by employer to employee for activities to solicit, request, or urge others to communicate directly with an officer of the City in order to influence a matter of local legislative or administrative action.
Each expenditure lobbyist must register by filing a registration form with the Ethics Commission no later than five business days after qualifying as such, and prior to making any additional payments to influence local legislative or administrative action.
Each registered expenditure lobbyist must file monthly reports with the Ethics Commission by the fifteenth day of the month following the calendar month covered by the report. For example, a report covering activity in the month of February must be filed by March 15. Deadlines falling on a weekend or holiday are extended to the next business day. Please note the monthly disclosures are different than the registration requirements.