Council member on document request timing and staggering
A council member asks how the CFB decides which campaigns receive document requests and when. Molillo explains they staggered initial requests between July and October 2025 to balance workload, and notes campaigns are not required to submit expenditure documentation before the election.
One more audit-related question.
How do you decide when to gather certain expenditure information from particular campaigns?
We sympathize with the perspective of both.
We wholeheartedly share your concerns about the ways that AI technology could be used to spread false information to intentionally mislead or deceive voters about council members and other city candidates and officeholders.
Because having, again, coming off a campaign, consultants would be like, I have to get all this information for another candidate.
At the Campaign Finance Board, we have placed a priority on learning about artificial intelligence.
And I'm like, well, why don't I need that yet?
So, like, how do you decide which candidate, when and what information you need from a particular candidate?
We have a unique perspective on this topic rooted in our dual mandate to serve candidates and voters.
We sympathize with the perspective of both.
We wholeheartedly share your concerns about the ways that AI technology could be used to spread false information to intentionally mislead or deceive voters about council members and other city candidates and officeholders.
Yes, absolutely.
So I'll just, to start out, clarify that campaigns are able to submit expenditure documentation before the election, but we do not require expenditure documentation before the election.
At the Campaign Finance Board, we have placed a priority on learning about artificial intelligence.
We have a unique perspective on this topic rooted in our dual mandate to serve candidates and voters.
So some campaigns are continually submitting it.
We sympathize with the perspective of both.
But as I mentioned before, we often don't have the capacity to look at it until after the election.
We wholeheartedly share your concerns about the ways that AI technology could be used to spread false information to intentionally mislead or deceive voters about council members and other city candidates and officeholders.
But one thing that our audit leadership team began doing for this election cycle,
At the Campaign Finance Board, we have placed a priority on learning about artificial intelligence.
because one of the things that we implemented for 2025 was more defined and limited extensions on both audit and enforcement,
We have a unique perspective on this topic rooted in our dual mandate to serve candidates and voters.
We sympathize with the perspective of both.
We wholeheartedly share your concerns about the ways that AI technology could be used to spread false information to intentionally mislead or deceive voters about council members and other city candidates and officeholders.
so that both sides can actually plan a little bit better, and we no longer give out unlimited extensions, but we still give out generous extensions.
Because we know that sometimes campaigns need more time to get their responses together.
At the Campaign Finance Board, we have placed a priority on learning about artificial intelligence.
We have a unique perspective on this topic rooted in our dual mandate to serve candidates and voters.
So what our audit team began to do was take a look at if we kick off, for us, our clock begins with the initial document request.
We sympathize with the perspective of both.
We wholeheartedly share your concerns about the ways that AI technology could be used to spread false information to intentionally mislead or deceive voters about council members and other city candidates and officeholders.
That is when the post-election clock officially starts.
Once we get the documentation, we have a certain defined period of time to complete a draft audit report and a final audit report.
At the Campaign Finance Board, we have placed a priority on learning about artificial intelligence.
We have a unique perspective on this topic rooted in our dual mandate to serve candidates and voters.
What our team took a look at, and we can get more information after this hearing,
We sympathize with the perspective of both.
We wholeheartedly share your concerns about the ways that AI technology could be used to spread false information to intentionally mislead or deceive voters about council members and other city candidates and officeholders.
is essentially how do we plan it so that we can have a balanced workload across audits, which is why we did stagger release of some of the initial document requests.
At the Campaign Finance Board, we have placed a priority on learning about artificial intelligence.
So some candidates might have gotten it that first week I mentioned around July 25th.
We have a unique perspective on this topic rooted in our dual mandate to serve candidates and voters.
Some candidates might have been a little bit later on October 10th.
We sympathize with the perspective of both.
I don't have exact details today on how that was determined, like who goes where in what order,
We wholeheartedly share your concerns about the ways that AI technology could be used to spread false information to intentionally mislead or deceive voters about council members and other city candidates and officeholders.
but the intention there was to ensure that we can complete our audits in a timely way once we start requesting that documentation and that our staff time is sort of maximized throughout the entire process.
At the Campaign Finance Board, we have placed a priority on learning about artificial intelligence.
We have a unique perspective on this topic rooted in our dual mandate to serve candidates and voters.
We sympathize with the perspective of both.