Workflow Framework Background

Background

• The requirements for candidate and lobbyist disclosures are set by the Texas Ethics Commission (TEC) [http://www.ethics.state.tx.us/main/local.htm].
• Local candidate and lobbyist disclosures are filed not with the State, but with the Austin City Clerk.
• Clerk takes filings on paper (or PDF versions of the forms).
• The filings are posted online but are not easily searchable [http://www.austintexas.gov/department/campaign-finance-reports].
• In April, the City Council passed an ordinance [http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=169484] to create an online, searchable database of campaign and lobbyist filings.
• Initial staff estimates to implement have come back with:
  • about 800K cost
  • about a year development
  • solution based on proprietary technology
• In a meeting organized by Councilmember Morrison, City Staff was open to the idea of a "civic sourced" effort to help reduce costs and time.
• At the 8 Sept 2012 civic hackathon, a "proof of concept" for the import engine was produced.

Commands

  $ bin/import-coh-report test/data/sample_coh.json test/data/sample_contribs.csv test/data/sample_expends.csv
   I, [2013-02-23T07:24:26.841287 #7923]  INFO -- : created COH entity id 1
   I, [2013-02-23T07:24:26.875624 #7923]  INFO -- : imported 4 contribution records
   I, [2013-02-23T07:24:26.917940 #7923]  INFO -- : imported 4 expenditure records

  $ bin/generate-coh-filing output.pdf 1
   I, [2013-02-23T07:25:14.090539 #7952]  INFO -- : retrieved COH entity id 1
   I, [2013-02-23T07:25:14.333327 #7952]  INFO -- : report stored to output.pdf

Current Status

Prototype import engine (the "POC") has been implemented:

• Uses import format defined by the Texas Ethics Commission. (ref: http://www.ethics.state.tx.us/whatsnew/ImportGuide.pdf)
• Loads contributions and expenditures from spreadsheets (CSV).
• Saves to database.
• Next step is to build a workflow framework (i.e. website) around the import engine.

Technologies Used

• Language: Ruby
• Database: SQLite (although we'd like to be database agnostic)
• Persistence layer: DataMapper (http://datamapper.org/)
• Form generation: Prawn (http://prawn.majesticseacreature.com/)

Data Entities

• COH (candidate/office holder) - Implemented with full validations.
• SPAC (specific-purpose political action committee) - Implemented, no validations.
• GPAC (general-purpose political action committee) - TBD
• contribution line items - Implemented with full validations.
• expenditure line items - Implemented with full validations.

Currently focusing on COH forms (ref: http://www.ethics.state.tx.us/forms/coh.pdf)

Workflow

User functions

• Account management -- create account, login, recover password, manage profile
  • Look at COH form for profile info.
  • Note that COH is not just for elections: current office holders need to make periodic filings.
  • What's involved to support SPAC and GPAC accounts?
  • We may want to normalize some information (such as treasurer and election information) to a separate table.
• Remote management
  • Create report (including upload of contributions, expenditures).
  • Print report (generate PDF)
  • File report -- at this time, just mark in database. Need to define

Administrator functions

TBD - These relate to actions the Clerk office needs to perform.