This section says that unless it's clearly stated otherwise, the definitions in this chapter should be used to understand and interpret this title.

This law explains how cost-of-living (COL) adjustments are calculated for state-related payments or amounts. Every fiscal year, the Director of Finance determines the adjustment based on the previous year’s amount and aligns it with those applied to other state agencies, as outlined in the state budget.

This law defines "administrative action" as activities by state agencies related to rule-making and decision-making processes. It includes creating, amending, enacting, or rejecting rules and regulations, decisions related to state retirement system investments, and certain insurance and health decisions.

It specifically mentions that administrative actions include "ratemaking proceedings" where utility rates are set, and "quasi-legislative proceedings" where policies applicable to groups or industries are established.

This section defines 'Agency' as any organization that is part of the state government or any local government.

A 'behested payment' in this section refers to money given at the request of a committee, elected official, or Public Utilities Commission member under certain conditions. These include if the committee or official receives full consideration, if the payment goes to another candidate or committee not controlled by the official, or if the payment is unrelated to the official's election activities.

This section clarifies that payments are unrelated if they are primarily for personal, charitable, or governmental purposes, or made by a nonprofit or a government agency. If it's for personal needs, it might count as a gift under other rules.

A "business entity" refers to any for-profit organization or company. This can include various forms like a sole proprietorship, partnership, firm, business trust, joint venture, syndicate, corporation, or association.

A "campaign statement" is a detailed report that uses a specific form set by the Commission. It includes all the necessary information outlined in Chapter 4 of the title.

A "campaign statement" is a detailed financial report that must be filled out on a specific form or format designated by the Commission. It needs to include all the information that is required by Chapters 4 and 5 of this title.

A "candidate" is someone running for an elected position. This includes anyone listed on a ballot, those eligible for write-in votes, and anyone who accepts contributions or spends money to run for office, even if they haven't declared which office. An elected official, even if they're facing a recall, is also considered a candidate. This status lasts until it's officially ended. However, it doesn't include candidates for federal offices in their federal election pursuits.

This law defines the term "City" as referring to either a general law city or a chartered city.

This section defines the term “Clerk” as the city or county clerk, but it might refer to another agency if the city council or board of supervisors has designated that agency to perform the clerk’s duties.

The term "closing date" refers to the final day up to which information must be included in any report or statement that needs to be filed as required by this law.

This statute explains who is responsible for overseeing conflict of interest codes in various governmental bodies in California. A 'code reviewing body' is the entity assigned to review such codes. The commission handles state agencies and local governments spanning multiple counties, except for judicial agencies. The board of supervisors oversees county agencies and local ones entirely within a county. City councils review codes for city agencies, while the Attorney General focuses on the commission's conflict of interest code. The Chief Justice of California or their designee checks codes for high-level judicial bodies, while the Board of Trustees of the State Bar oversees its own code. Courts' presiding judges handle codes for judicial agencies under their supervision, and the Judicial Council reviews codes for any other state judicial agency not covered by earlier categories.

This law section defines the term "Commission" as referring specifically to the Fair Political Practices Commission.

This law defines what qualifies as a "committee" in terms of campaign finance. Any person or group is considered a committee if, in a calendar year, they receive contributions of $2,000 or more, make independent expenditures of $1,000 or more, or contribute $10,000 or more to candidates or other committees. Once someone is classified as a committee, they stay that way until official termination under another law section.

This section defines a 'Conflict of Interest Code' as a collection of rules and guidelines that an agency adopts. These are created to address and manage potential conflicts of interest in accordance with Chapter 7 of the governmental title.

This law explains what counts as a 'contribution' when it comes to political campaigns. A contribution can be money, forgiving a loan, or anything of value given to support a candidate or cause, unless it’s for something else entirely. It includes buying tickets for political events, discounts not generally offered, transferring items between committees, public money spent on certain political communications, and payments related to fundraising events at a lobbyist's home or office.

Conversely, it doesn’t count as a contribution if it's for previous enforceable promises already reported, if homeowners cover small amounts for events at their place, if people volunteer or cover their own travel, or certain types of payments known as 'behested payments'.

This law explains how to determine when financial contributions from entities are combined or 'aggregated' for reporting purposes. An 'entity' here means any group or organization that isn't a single person, and 'majority owned' means someone owns more than half of it.

If a person directs or controls contributions from an entity, those contributions are counted together with contributions from other entities or individuals that the same person also controls.

Additionally, if multiple entities' contributions are managed by the same group of people, these contributions are considered as one. Also, if a person owns more than half of several entities, all contributions from these entities are grouped together, unless they operate independently in their donation decisions.

This section defines a “controlled committee” as a group that a candidate or state measure supporter either directly or indirectly influences, or works with jointly, to spend money on their behalf. If the candidate, their agent, or any other committee they control has a strong impact on the committee's decisions, it falls under this category.

However, political party committees are specifically excluded from being categorized as controlled committees.

This section defines the term "county" to also include a combined city and county.

This section defines "cumulative amount" as the total contributions received or expenses made in a year unless specified otherwise. If you're filing a campaign statement or expenditure report in one year for an election the following year, the calculation period ends with the first semiannual statement filed after the election. For a measure qualification that lasts two years, it ends on December 31 of the second year. For modified periods, the new calculation period starts the day after the statement's closing date.

The term "designated employee" refers to certain people working in or with a government agency who hold positions exempt from the standard civil service rules. It includes roles that have the power to affect financial interests, such as those involved in decision-making, contract negotiation, or competitive bidding.

However, it doesn’t include elected state officers, unpaid advisory board members, certain public officials, or federal officers working with state or local agencies. Federal officers must have their financial disclosure reports kept on file by the agency.

This law defines an 'elected officer' as someone who either currently holds an elective office or has won an election for such an office but hasn't officially started the role yet. It also includes anyone appointed to fill an empty elective position.

An 'elected state officer' in California is anyone who either holds a state office after an election or was elected to a state office but hasn't started serving yet. This also includes someone who is appointed to fill an empty elected state position.

This law defines what is considered an "election" in California. It includes primary, general, special, or recall elections. Additionally, primary and general or special elections are considered separate events for legal purposes.

This section describes what activities are considered "election-related" for candidate-based elections. It includes actions like advocating for or against a candidate, discussing a candidate's campaign or qualifications, asking for campaign donations, and organizing communications that support or oppose a candidate.

Other activities include coordinating campaign volunteers, managing campaign budgets, filing financial disclosure statements, and any voter communications that advocate for or against a candidate.

In this context, "elective office" refers to any official position at various levels of government, such as state or city, that is decided by a vote. It also covers positions on the leadership committee of a recognized political party in a county and elected roles on the boards managing the Public Employees' Retirement System or the Teachers' Retirement Board.

This law defines what is considered an 'elective state office' in California. It includes high-level government positions such as the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General, among others. It also covers roles on important state boards like the Public Employees’ Retirement System and Teachers’ Retirement Board.

This law defines "expenditure" in the context of political activities. It includes payments, loan forgiveness, or promises to pay, made for political purposes. Expenditures don't cover a candidate's personal funds spent on filing fees or candidate statements. Payments made to influence voter actions or by political committees are considered expenditures.

An expenditure also includes payments for communications that clearly support or oppose a candidate or ballot measure. If a communication explicitly urges people to vote a certain way and references a candidate or measure, it's an expenditure. Costs directly linked to these communications, like production or distribution, are part of the expenditure. However, unpaid internet activity by individuals, or regular news coverage, aren't considered political expenditures unless they incur additional unusual costs.

The purpose is to clearly identify types of political spending and distinguish between what needs to be reported as political activity and what doesn't.

This section defines an "external manager" as someone either seeking or retained to manage a portfolio of assets for a California state public retirement system, or as an individual managing an investment fund who has sold or is selling ownership interests to such systems. The terms "investment fund" and "investment vehicle" refer to their respective definitions found in two separate sections of California law.

This law explains that when reporting the value of goods, services, facilities, or anything of value that's not money, you must use the estimated fair market value. This means you should basically report what anyone else would expect those items to be worth in the open market. If you need to list these as part of a report, include both their value and a description. "Full and adequate consideration" in this context is simply another way of referring to the fair market value.

This law defines a "filer" as anyone who submits or is obligated to submit a statement or report as specified under this title.

This law defines a "filing officer" as the person or office where you must submit any required statement or report. If these need to be sent to multiple places, the first listed person or office is the primary filing officer, and the copy given to them must be the original, signed version.

This law section defines what a 'general purpose committee' is in a political context. It includes committees meant to support or oppose multiple candidates or ballot measures. It specifies different types of general purpose committees based on their focus area: State general purpose committees operate at the state level or across multiple counties, County general purpose committees focus on a single county, and City general purpose committees focus on a single city.

This law defines a "gift" as any payment providing a personal benefit without equal or greater compensation, except for a few exceptions. These exceptions include informational materials like books and reports, gifts returned or given to a charity within 30 days, family gifts unless acting as an intermediary, campaign contributions that are reported, inheritances, and small personalized trophies or plaques valued under $250.

This law defines what 'immediate family' means, specifically referring to a person's spouse and any dependent children.

This law defines what counts as 'income' for reporting purposes, including salaries, wages, loans, gifts, and a portion of any business or trust income if someone owns a significant stake. It specifies exceptions where 'income' does not apply, like campaign contributions, government benefits, inheritances, interest from bank accounts, stock dividends, alimony, certain family loans, and retirement plan payments.

Payments from nonprofits and standard loans that are available to the public also are not considered income under this rule. Exceptions include proceeds from selling securities or commodities if no buyer details are known.

This law defines what counts as 'earned income' for some legal purposes. Basically, it includes money you get from work, like wages, salaries, and professional fees.

But it doesn't count money you earn from investments or sales, payments to certain retirement plans for state officers, or the portion of a spouse's income that's considered community property.

An "independent expenditure" refers to any spending by a person or government agency on communications that explicitly support or oppose a clearly identified candidate or measure in an election. However, this spending cannot be made with the candidate’s or committee’s involvement or direction.

This section defines what it means to influence legislative or administrative actions. It includes taking steps to promote, support, change, oppose, or delay such actions through various methods such as providing information, statistics, studies, or analyses.

This law defines what qualifies as an "interest in real property" for public officials and certain other individuals. It includes things like leases, ownership, or options to own real estate within their jurisdiction. These interests can be held directly or through family members or other business entities. The fair market value of such an interest must be at least $2,000. If an individual or their family owns 10% or more of a business or trust, their share of that entity's real estate counts as part of their interest.

This law defines what counts as an 'investment' for public officials and other filers. It includes financial interests like stocks, bonds, and other securities if they belong to the individual, their immediate family, or if the business has property or does business locally. The investment needs to be worth at least $2,000 to be counted. Exceptions include some bank deposits, insurance policies, government bonds, and pension plans. If someone owns 10% or more of a business, they're considered to have a share in its investments. 'Related business entity' details are set by commission rules.

This law defines what 'jurisdiction' means in the context of state and local government agencies. For a state agency, it refers to the entire state. For a local government agency, it refers to the specific geographical area like a region, county, city, or district where the agency operates. Additionally, real estate is considered to be within the jurisdiction of a local agency if it is located within or up to two miles outside the agency's boundaries or within two miles of land owned or used by the agency.

This law section defines a 'LAFCO proposal' as both a proposal and a proceeding under specific sections of the law related to local agency formation. It points to other sections (56069 and 56067) for more detailed definitions.

"Late contribution" refers to any donation or loan of $1,000 or more given to or received by a candidate, political committee, or political party within 90 days before an election or on the day of the election itself. For entities like the Public Employees’ Retirement System and the Teachers’ Retirement Board, the election day is when ballots are due. The rule applies to both individual candidates and political party committees involved in state elections.

A 'late independent expenditure' is when someone spends $1,000 or more, either supporting or opposing a candidate or measure, happening within 90 days before an election or on the election day itself. For certain retirement boards, the 'election day' refers to when the ballots must be returned.

Legislative action includes all the steps in the process of making or rejecting a law. This involves introducing, discussing, changing, passing, or rejecting bills, resolutions, amendments, and other legislative matters. Both the legislature and the governor's decisions to approve or veto bills are considered legislative actions.

This section defines a "legislative official" as anyone working for the Legislature who has responsibilities beyond basic office tasks like secretarial, clerical, or manual labor.

In California, a 'lobbying coalition' is a group of at least 10 people mainly formed to influence laws or administrative decisions. They pay into the group to cover costs for hiring a lobbyist or lobbying firm. These groups must submit similar statements and reports as organizations that employ lobbyists.

However, organizations like trade unions or membership groups aren't considered lobbying coalitions if they do more than just lobbying. Additionally, just paying into a lobbying coalition doesn't make someone a lobbyist firm or employer.

A 'lobbying firm' in California is any business, including individual lobbyists, that gets paid to influence government decisions. They can become a lobbying firm if they are paid to sway legislative or administrative actions for someone else, and have at least one lobbyist on staff. Alternatively, if the company is paid to regularly communicate with public officials to influence decisions, it counts too. However, certain activities covered by another section (Section 86300) don't make a business a lobbying firm.

A "lobbyist" in California is someone who either gets paid $2,000 or more per month to directly communicate with state officials, or whose main job is to influence decisions made by state officials. It also includes certain individuals known as placement agents.

However, someone is not considered a lobbyist if they are doing activities outlined in a specific section (Section 86300). Also, influencing actions before the Public Utilities Commission is a kind of administrative action, unless it's done in a public setting or officially recorded as part of the proceeding.

This section defines a 'lobbyist employer' as anyone who hires lobbyists or contracts with lobbying firms for pay, excluding travel expenses, with the goal of influencing laws or government decisions.

This section defines what is considered a "local government agency" in California. It includes entities like counties, cities, districts, and school districts, as well as any other local or regional political subdivisions. It also covers various divisions within these entities, such as departments, bureaus, or boards.

This law section defines the phrase "made at the behest of" as anything done under someone's control or direction, or in collaboration with them. It also includes actions taken at someone's request, suggestion, or with their clear, prior approval.

This law defines a 'mass mailing' as sending over 200 pieces of almost identical mail. However, it excludes mail sent as a reply to an unsolicited request or inquiry.

This law states that the term "Mayor" not only refers to the mayor of an individual city but also includes the mayor of a combined city and county entity.

The term "measure" refers to any proposal, such as a constitutional amendment or other proposition, that is put forward for a public vote. This can happen through actions taken by a legislative body, or through initiative, referendum, or recall processes, regardless of whether it ends up on the official ballot.

This law defines the term "payment" broadly. It includes not just money, but also anything valuable like gifts, property, services, or loans, whether they are tangible (physical) or intangible.

This law defines what counts as a "payment to influence legislative or administrative action." It includes any payment made to a lobbyist for their work, support, or expenses. It also covers payments that help or benefit government officials or their families, or payments related to contact with government officials. Additionally, payments that encourage others to communicate with officials are also included.

This section explains what the 'period covered' means for reports or statements that need to be filed, except for campaign statements. For most reports, it covers the time from the day after the last required report ended to the end date of the current report. If it's the first time filing that type of report, it starts when the first reportable transaction happened. Everything before this law's current version still needs to follow previous rules.

For campaign statements, the 'period covered' starts the day after the last required campaign statement ended and runs to the current statement's end date. If you haven't filed a campaign statement before, it starts on January 1st.

This law explains that the term "Person" can refer to many different types of entities. It includes not just individual people, but also businesses like companies, partnerships, corporations, and any groups or organizations working together.

This law defines a 'placement agent' as someone paid to help find investors for an external manager or investment fund dealing with California's public retirement systems. However, if someone spends a third or more of their time managing investments directly, they're not a placement agent.

If an employee, officer, or director of an external manager meets certain criteria, they're also not considered a placement agent. These criteria include the external manager being registered as an investment adviser or broker-dealer, participating in a competitive bidding process, and agreeing to follow fiduciary standards when managing retirement assets.

A "primarily formed committee" is a group set up mainly to support or oppose either a single candidate, a single measure, a group of specific candidates in the same election area, or multiple measures in the same election area.

This law explains what a "principal officer" of a political committee is. It's the person mainly responsible for making key decisions about the committee's political activities. These include approving messages, authorizing spending, and shaping campaign strategies. If more than one person shares these responsibilities, they are all considered principal officers.

This section defines "proponent of a state ballot measure" as having the same meaning as "proponent" in another part of the law, specifically Section 9001 of the Elections Code. Essentially, it redirects you to look at the definition provided in that other section for clarity.

This law defines who qualifies as a 'public official' within state or local government agencies in California. This term includes members, officers, employees, and consultants of these agencies, and also designated employees and Members of the Board of Trustees of the State Bar of California. However, it specifically excludes judges, court commissioners, members of the Judicial Council, certain members of the Commission on Judicial Performance, and federal officers or employees serving on state or local agencies in an official federal capacity.

A "slate mailer" is a type of mass mailing that endorses or opposes at least four different candidates or ballot measures.

A "slate mailer organization" is a group or person involved in creating slate mailers, which promote or oppose candidates or measures, and receives at least $500 annually for this activity. However, this term excludes candidates, political committees controlled by candidates, political parties’ official committees, legislative caucus committees, or committees primarily supporting or opposing a specific candidate or measure.

Producing slate mailers is not considered making political contributions or expenditures, meaning these organizations aren’t required to file certain campaign reports unless they engage in additional political financial activities beyond distributing slate mailers.

A "special district" is a local state agency set up to perform specific government or business functions in a defined area. This includes things like county service areas, maintenance districts, and air pollution control districts. It does not include cities, counties, or school districts.

This law defines what a 'sponsored committee' is in terms of political finance. A sponsored committee is a political group that is not controlled by a candidate but has one or more sponsors. A sponsor is someone who significantly contributes to or administers the committee.

If most of the committee's contributions come from one person or they handle its finances and operations, that person is considered a sponsor. Specifically, if a person funds 80% or more of the committee's contributions, collects donations via payroll deductions, manages the committee's day-to-day operations, or sets its financial policies, they are a sponsor.

Additionally, if the sponsor is a multipurpose organization using its main funds for political contributions, it must follow specific regulations detailed in another section (Section 84222).

In this context, the term 'spouse' also covers registered domestic partners that are recognized under state law.

This law defines what is meant by the term 'state agency' in California. It covers all state offices, departments, divisions, bureaus, boards, commissions, as well as the Legislature.

This law defines a 'state candidate' as someone who is running for a nomination or election to any office at the state level.

In this section, a "state measure" is defined as any proposal or initiative that is planned to be presented to the voters for a decision across the whole state.

This law defines a 'statewide candidate' as someone running for a statewide public office.

This law defines what is considered a 'statewide elective office' in California. It includes positions like Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and other top state officials.

A 'statewide petition' is a formal request to place a proposed law or measure on the state ballot for voter approval in an election.