(A) Each retirement system lobbyist and each employer shall file with the joint legislative ethics committee, within ten days following the engagement of a retirement system lobbyist, an initial registration statement showing all of the following:

(1) The name, business address, and occupation of the retirement system lobbyist;

(2) The name and business address of the employer or of the real party in interest on whose behalf the retirement system lobbyist is acting, if it is different from the employer. For the purposes of division (A) of this section, where a trade association or other charitable or fraternal organization that is exempt from federal income taxation under subsection 501(c) of the federal Internal Revenue Code is the employer, the statement need not list the names and addresses of every member of the association or organization, so long as the association or organization itself is listed.

(3) A brief description of the retirement system decision to which the engagement relates;

(4) The name of the retirement system or systems to which the engagement relates.

(B) In addition to the initial registration statement required by division (A) of this section, each retirement system lobbyist and employer shall file with the joint committee, not later than the last day of January, May, and September of each year, an updated registration statement that confirms the continuing existence of each engagement described in an initial registration statement and that lists the specific retirement system decisions that the lobbyist sought to influence under the engagement during the period covered by the updated statement, and with it any statement of expenditures required to be filed by section 101.93 of the Revised Code and any details of financial transactions required to be filed by section 101.94 of the Revised Code.

(C) If a retirement system lobbyist is engaged by more than one employer, the lobbyist shall file a separate initial and updated registration statement for each engagement. If an employer engages more than one retirement system lobbyist, the employer need file only one updated registration statement under division (B) of this section, which shall contain the information required by division (B) of this section regarding all of the retirement system lobbyists engaged by the employer.

(D)

(1) A change in any information required by division (A)(1), (2), or (B) of this section shall be reflected in the next updated registration statement filed under division (B) of this section.

(2) Within thirty days following the termination of an engagement, the retirement system lobbyist who was employed under the engagement shall send written notification of the termination to the joint committee.

(E) A registration fee of twenty-five dollars shall be charged for filing an initial registration statement. All money collected from registration fees under this division and late filing fees under division (G) of this section shall be deposited into the state treasury to the credit of the joint legislative ethics committee fund created under section 101.34 of the Revised Code.

(F) Upon registration pursuant to this section, a retirement system lobbyist shall be issued a card by the joint committee showing that the lobbyist is registered. The registration card and the retirement system lobbyist's registration shall be valid from the date of their issuance until the thirty-first day of January of the year following the year in which the initial registration was filed.

(G) The executive director of the joint committee shall be responsible for reviewing each registration statement filed with the joint committee under this section and for determining whether the statement contains all of the required information. If the joint committee determines that the registration statement does not contain all of the required information or that a retirement system lobbyist or employer has failed to file a registration statement, the joint committee shall send written notification by certified mail to the person who filed the registration statement regarding the deficiency in the statement or to the person who failed to file the registration statement regarding the failure. Any person so notified by the joint committee shall, not later than fifteen days after receiving the notice, file a registration statement or an amended registration statement that contains all of the required information. If any person who receives a notice under this division fails to file a registration statement or such an amended registration statement within this fifteen-day period, the joint committee shall assess a late filing fee equal to twelve dollars and fifty cents per day, up to a maximum fee of one hundred dollars, upon that person. The joint committee may waive the late filing fee for good cause shown.

(H) On or before the fifteenth day of March of each year, the joint committee shall, in the manner and form that it determines, publish a report containing statistical information on the registration statements filed with it under this section during the preceding year.

(I) If an employer who engages a retirement system lobbyist is the recipient of a contract, grant, lease, or other financial arrangement pursuant to which funds of the state or of a retirement system are distributed or allocated, the retirement system may consider the failure of the employer or the retirement system lobbyist to comply with this section as a breach of a material condition of the contract, grant, lease, or other financial arrangement.

(J) Retirement system officials may require certification from any person seeking the award of a contract, grant, lease, or financial arrangement that the person and the person's employer are in compliance with this section.

Amended by 129th General AssemblyFile No.148, SB 343, §1, eff. 1/7/2013.

Effective Date: 09-15-2004; 2006 HB699 03-29-2007