Effective: October 17, 2019
Latest Legislation: House Bill 166 - 133rd General Assembly
(A)(1) Except as otherwise provided in division (H) of this section, all of the following shall file with the appropriate ethics commission the disclosure statement described in this division on a form prescribed by the appropriate commission: every person who is elected to or is a candidate for a state, county, or city office and every person who is appointed to fill a vacancy for an unexpired term in such an elective office; all members of the state board of education; the director, assistant directors, deputy directors, division chiefs, or persons of equivalent rank of any administrative department of the state; the president or other chief administrative officer of every state institution of higher education as defined in section 3345.011 of the Revised Code; the executive director and the members of the capitol square review and advisory board appointed or employed pursuant to section 105.41 of the Revised Code; all members of the Ohio casino control commission, the executive director of the commission, all professional employees of the commission, and all technical employees of the commission who perform an internal audit function; the individuals set forth in division (B)(2) of section 187.03 of the Revised Code; the chief executive officer and the members of the board of each state retirement system; each employee of a state retirement board who is a state retirement system investment officer licensed pursuant to section 1707.163 of the Revised Code; the members of the Ohio retirement study council appointed pursuant to division (C) of section 171.01 of the Revised Code; employees of the Ohio retirement study council, other than employees who perform purely administrative or clerical functions; the administrator of workers' compensation and each member of the bureau of workers' compensation board of directors; the bureau of workers' compensation director of investments; the chief investment officer of the bureau of workers' compensation; all members of the board of commissioners on grievances and discipline of the supreme court and the ethics commission created under section 102.05 of the Revised Code; every business manager, treasurer, or superintendent of a city, local, exempted village, joint vocational, or cooperative education school district or an educational service center; every person who is elected to or is a candidate for the office of member of a board of education of a city, local, exempted village, joint vocational, or cooperative education school district or of a governing board of an educational service center that has a total student count of twelve thousand or more as most recently determined by the department of education pursuant to section 3317.03 of the Revised Code; every person who is appointed to the board of education of a municipal school district pursuant to division (B) or (F) of section 3311.71 of the Revised Code; all members of the board of directors of a sanitary district that is established under Chapter 6115. of the Revised Code and organized wholly for the purpose of providing a water supply for domestic, municipal, and public use, and that includes two municipal corporations in two counties; every public official or employee who is paid a salary or wage in accordance with schedule C of section 124.15 or schedule E-2 of section 124.152 of the Revised Code; members of the board of trustees and the executive director of the southern Ohio agricultural and community development foundation; all members appointed to the Ohio livestock care standards board under section 904.02 of the Revised Code; all entrepreneurs in residence assigned by the LeanOhio office in the department of administrative services under section 125.65 of the Revised Code and every other public official or employee who is designated by the appropriate ethics commission pursuant to division (B) of this section.
(2) The disclosure statement shall include all of the following:
(a) The name of the person filing the statement and each member of the person's immediate family and all names under which the person or members of the person's immediate family do business;
(b)(i) Subject to divisions (A)(2)(b)(ii) and (iii) of this section and except as otherwise provided in section 102.022 of the Revised Code, identification of every source of income, other than income from a legislative agent identified in division (A)(2)(b)(ii) of this section, received during the preceding calendar year, in the person's own name or by any other person for the person's use or benefit, by the person filing the statement, and a brief description of the nature of the services for which the income was received. If the person filing the statement is a member of the general assembly, the statement shall identify the amount of every source of income received in accordance with the following ranges of amounts: zero or more, but less than one thousand dollars; one thousand dollars or more, but less than ten thousand dollars; ten thousand dollars or more, but less than twenty-five thousand dollars; twenty-five thousand dollars or more, but less than fifty thousand dollars; fifty thousand dollars or more, but less than one hundred thousand dollars; and one hundred thousand dollars or more. Division (A)(2)(b)(i) of this section shall not be construed to require a person filing the statement who derives income from a business or profession to disclose the individual items of income that constitute the gross income of that business or profession, except for those individual items of income that are attributable to the person's or, if the income is shared with the person, the partner's, solicitation of services or goods or performance, arrangement, or facilitation of services or provision of goods on behalf of the business or profession of clients, including corporate clients, who are legislative agents. A person who files the statement under this section shall disclose the identity of and the amount of income received from a person who the public official or employee knows or has reason to know is doing or seeking to do business of any kind with the public official's or employee's agency.
(ii) If the person filing the statement is a member of the general assembly, the statement shall identify every source of income and the amount of that income that was received from a legislative agent during the preceding calendar year, in the person's own name or by any other person for the person's use or benefit, by the person filing the statement, and a brief description of the nature of the services for which the income was received. Division (A)(2)(b)(ii) of this section requires the disclosure of clients of attorneys or persons licensed under section 4732.12 of the Revised Code, or patients of persons licensed under section 4731.14 of the Revised Code, if those clients or patients are legislative agents. Division (A)(2)(b)(ii) of this section requires a person filing the statement who derives income from a business or profession to disclose those individual items of income that constitute the gross income of that business or profession that are received from legislative agents.
(iii) Except as otherwise provided in division (A)(2)(b)(iii) of this section, division (A)(2)(b)(i) of this section applies to attorneys, physicians, and other persons who engage in the practice of a profession and who, pursuant to a section of the Revised Code, the common law of this state, a code of ethics applicable to the profession, or otherwise, generally are required not to reveal, disclose, or use confidences of clients, patients, or other recipients of professional services except under specified circumstances or generally are required to maintain those types of confidences as privileged communications except under specified circumstances. Division (A)(2)(b)(i) of this section does not require an attorney, physician, or other professional subject to a confidentiality requirement as described in division (A)(2)(b)(iii) of this section to disclose the name, other identity, or address of a client, patient, or other recipient of professional services if the disclosure would threaten the client, patient, or other recipient of professional services, would reveal details of the subject matter for which legal, medical, or professional advice or other services were sought, or would reveal an otherwise privileged communication involving the client, patient, or other recipient of professional services. Division (A)(2)(b)(i) of this section does not require an attorney, physician, or other professional subject to a confidentiality requirement as described in division (A)(2)(b)(iii) of this section to disclose in the brief description of the nature of services required by division (A)(2)(b)(i) of this section any information pertaining to specific professional services rendered for a client, patient, or other recipient of professional services that would reveal details of the subject matter for which legal, medical, or professional advice was sought or would reveal an otherwise privileged communication involving the client, patient, or other recipient of professional services.
(c) The name of every corporation on file with the secretary of state that is incorporated in this state or holds a certificate of compliance authorizing it to do business in this state, trust, business trust, partnership, or association that transacts business in this state in which the person filing the statement or any other person for the person's use and benefit had during the preceding calendar year an investment of over one thousand dollars at fair market value as of the thirty-first day of December of the preceding calendar year, or the date of disposition, whichever is earlier, or in which the person holds any office or has a fiduciary relationship, and a description of the nature of the investment, office, or relationship. Division (A)(2)(c) of this section does not require disclosure of the name of any bank, savings and loan association, credit union, or building and loan association with which the person filing the statement has a deposit or a withdrawable share account.
(d) All fee simple and leasehold interests to which the person filing the statement holds legal title to or a beneficial interest in real property located within the state, excluding the person's residence and property used primarily for personal recreation;
(e) The names of all persons residing or transacting business in the state to whom the person filing the statement owes, in the person's own name or in the name of any other person, more than one thousand dollars. Division (A)(2)(e) of this section shall not be construed to require the disclosure of debts owed by the person resulting from the ordinary conduct of a business or profession or debts on the person's residence or real property used primarily for personal recreation, except that the superintendent of financial institutions and any deputy superintendent of banks shall disclose the names of all state-chartered banks and all bank subsidiary corporations subject to regulation under section 1109.44 of the Revised Code to whom the superintendent or deputy superintendent owes any money.
(f) The names of all persons residing or transacting business in the state, other than a depository excluded under division (A)(2)(c) of this section, who owe more than one thousand dollars to the person filing the statement, either in the person's own name or to any person for the person's use or benefit. Division (A)(2)(f) of this section shall not be construed to require the disclosure of clients of attorneys or persons licensed under section 4732.12 of the Revised Code, or patients of persons licensed under section 4731.14 of the Revised Code, nor the disclosure of debts owed to the person resulting from the ordinary conduct of a business or profession.
(g) Except as otherwise provided in section 102.022 of the Revised Code, the source of each gift of over seventy-five dollars, or of each gift of over twenty-five dollars received by a member of the general assembly from a legislative agent, received by the person in the person's own name or by any other person for the person's use or benefit during the preceding calendar year, except gifts received by will or by virtue of section 2105.06 of the Revised Code, or received from spouses, parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren, siblings, nephews, nieces, uncles, aunts, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, fathers-in-law, mothers-in-law, or any person to whom the person filing the statement stands in loco parentis, or received by way of distribution from any inter vivos or testamentary trust established by a spouse or by an ancestor;
(h) Except as otherwise provided in section 102.022 of the Revised Code, identification of the source and amount of every payment of expenses incurred for travel to destinations inside or outside this state that is received by the person in the person's own name or by any other person for the person's use or benefit and that is incurred in connection with the person's official duties, except for expenses for travel to meetings or conventions of a national or state organization to which any state agency, including, but not limited to, any legislative agency or state institution of higher education as defined in section 3345.011 of the Revised Code, pays membership dues, or any political subdivision or any office or agency of a political subdivision pays membership dues;
(i) Except as otherwise provided in section 102.022 of the Revised Code, identification of the source of payment of expenses for meals and other food and beverages, other than for meals and other food and beverages provided at a meeting at which the person participated in a panel, seminar, or speaking engagement or at a meeting or convention of a national or state organization to which any state agency, including, but not limited to, any legislative agency or state institution of higher education as defined in section 3345.011 of the Revised Code, pays membership dues, or any political subdivision or any office or agency of a political subdivision pays membership dues, that are incurred in connection with the person's official duties and that exceed one hundred dollars aggregated per calendar year;
(j) If the disclosure statement is filed by a public official or employee described in division (B)(2) of section 101.73 of the Revised Code or division (B)(2) of section 121.63 of the Revised Code who receives a statement from a legislative agent, executive agency lobbyist, or employer that contains the information described in division (F)(2) of section 101.73 of the Revised Code or division (G)(2) of section 121.63 of the Revised Code, all of the nondisputed information contained in the statement delivered to that public official or employee by the legislative agent, executive agency lobbyist, or employer under division (F)(2) of section 101.73 or (G)(2) of section 121.63 of the Revised Code.
(3) A person may file a statement required by this section in person, by mail, or by electronic means.
(4) A person who is required to file a statement under this section shall file that statement according to the following deadlines, as applicable:
(a) Except as otherwise provided in divisions (A)(4)(b), (c), and (d) of this section, the person shall file the statement not later than the fifteenth day of May of each year.
(b) A person who is a candidate for elective office shall file the statement no later than the thirtieth day before the primary, special, or general election at which the candidacy is to be voted on, whichever election occurs soonest, except that a person who is a write-in candidate shall file the statement no later than the twentieth day before the earliest election at which the person's candidacy is to be voted on.
(c) A person who is appointed to fill a vacancy for an unexpired term in an elective office shall file the statement within fifteen days after the person qualifies for office.
(d) A person who is appointed or employed after the fifteenth day of May, other than a person described in division (A)(4)(c) of this section, shall file an annual statement within ninety days after appointment or employment.
(5) No person shall be required to file with the appropriate ethics commission more than one statement or pay more than one filing fee for any one calendar year.
(6) The appropriate ethics commission, for good cause, may extend for a reasonable time the deadline for filing a statement under this section.
(7) A statement filed under this section is subject to public inspection at locations designated by the appropriate ethics commission except as otherwise provided in this section.
(B) The Ohio ethics commission, the joint legislative ethics committee, and the board of commissioners on grievances and discipline of the supreme court, using the rule-making procedures of Chapter 119. of the Revised Code, may require any class of public officials or employees under its jurisdiction and not specifically excluded by this section whose positions involve a substantial and material exercise of administrative discretion in the formulation of public policy, expenditure of public funds, enforcement of laws and rules of the state or a county or city, or the execution of other public trusts, to file an annual statement under division (A) of this section. The appropriate ethics commission shall send the public officials or employees written notice of the requirement not less than thirty days before the applicable filing deadline unless the public official or employee is appointed after that date, in which case the notice shall be sent within thirty days after appointment, and the filing shall be made not later than ninety days after appointment.
Disclosure statements filed under this division with the Ohio ethics commission by members of boards, commissions, or bureaus of the state for which no compensation is received other than reasonable and necessary expenses shall be kept confidential. Disclosure statements filed with the Ohio ethics commission under division (A) of this section by business managers, treasurers, and superintendents of city, local, exempted village, joint vocational, or cooperative education school districts or educational service centers shall be kept confidential, except that any person conducting an audit of any such school district or educational service center pursuant to Chapter 117. of the Revised Code may examine the disclosure statement of any business manager, treasurer, or superintendent of that school district or educational service center. Disclosure statements filed with the Ohio ethics commission under division (A) of this section by the individuals set forth in division (B)(2) of section 187.03 of the Revised Code shall be kept confidential. The Ohio ethics commission shall examine each disclosure statement required to be kept confidential to determine whether a potential conflict of interest exists for the person who filed the disclosure statement. A potential conflict of interest exists if the private interests of the person, as indicated by the person's disclosure statement, might interfere with the public interests the person is required to serve in the exercise of the person's authority and duties in the person's office or position of employment. If the commission determines that a potential conflict of interest exists, it shall notify the person who filed the disclosure statement and shall make the portions of the disclosure statement that indicate a potential conflict of interest subject to public inspection in the same manner as is provided for other disclosure statements. Any portion of the disclosure statement that the commission determines does not indicate a potential conflict of interest shall be kept confidential by the commission and shall not be made subject to public inspection, except as is necessary for the enforcement of Chapters 102. and 2921. of the Revised Code and except as otherwise provided in this division.
(C) No person shall knowingly fail to file, on or before the applicable filing deadline established under this section, a statement that is required by this section.
(D) No person shall knowingly file a false statement that is required to be filed under this section.
(E)(1) Except as provided in divisions (E)(2) and (3) of this section, the statement required by division (A) or (B) of this section shall be accompanied by a filing fee of sixty dollars.
(2) The statement required by division (A) of this section shall be accompanied by the following filing fee to be paid by the person who is elected or appointed to, or is a candidate for, any of the following offices:
(3) No judge of a court of record or candidate for judge of a court of record, and no referee or magistrate serving a court of record, shall be required to pay the fee required under division (E)(1) or (2) or (F) of this section.
(4) For any public official who is appointed to a nonelective office of the state and for any employee who holds a nonelective position in a public agency of the state, the state agency that is the primary employer of the state official or employee shall pay the fee required under division (E)(1) or (F) of this section.
(F) If a statement required to be filed under this section is not filed by the date on which it is required to be filed, the appropriate ethics commission shall assess the person required to file the statement a late filing fee of ten dollars for each day the statement is not filed, except that the total amount of the late filing fee shall not exceed two hundred fifty dollars.
(G)(1) The appropriate ethics commission other than the Ohio ethics commission and the joint legislative ethics committee shall deposit all fees it receives under divisions (E) and (F) of this section into the general revenue fund of the state.
(2) The Ohio ethics commission shall deposit all receipts, including, but not limited to, fees it receives under divisions (E) and (F) of this section, investigative or other fees, costs, or other funds it receives as a result of court orders, and all moneys it receives from settlements under division (G) of section 102.06 of the Revised Code, into the Ohio ethics commission fund, which is hereby created in the state treasury. All moneys credited to the fund shall be used solely for expenses related to the operation and statutory functions of the commission.
(3) The joint legislative ethics committee shall deposit all receipts it receives from the payment of financial disclosure statement filing fees under divisions (E) and (F) of this section into the joint legislative ethics committee investigative and financial disclosure fund.
(H) Division (A) of this section does not apply to a person elected or appointed to the office of precinct, ward, or district committee member under Chapter 3517. of the Revised Code; a presidential elector; a delegate to a national convention; village or township officials and employees; any physician or psychiatrist who is paid a salary or wage in accordance with schedule C of section 124.15 or schedule E-2 of section 124.152 of the Revised Code and whose primary duties do not require the exercise of administrative discretion; or any member of a board, commission, or bureau of any county or city who receives less than one thousand dollars per year for serving in that position.
Last updated July 26, 2021 at 9:17 AM