I ended up in an informal conversation with Les Kondo, executive director of the State Ethics Commission, when I stopped by their office earlier this week.

Kondo said he had read my comments that morning about the problem with lobbyist disclosures, and recent comments about personal financial disclosure by public officials, and that he agrees that the system leaves much to be desired.

He acknowledged that in many cases, reports by lobbyists “are almost meaningless.”

“It should be transparent,” Kondo said, “and it’s not.”

Kondo described meeting recently with members of a prominent downtown law firm, where he found confusion about lobbyist disclosure requirements even among attorneys.

He said the commission is looking at a range of actions, including possible amendments to the law as well as reviews of their own procedures.

For example, Kondo the commission’s practice has been to mail out a letter to each registered lobbyist and lobbying organization with a blank copy of the disclosure form.

In many cases, recipients appear to sit down and fill out the form on the spot without giving it much thought and without reviewing the directions, and it’s common for required items of information get overlooked and omitted.

In the future, the commission plans to discontinue sending out lobbyist disclosure forms, and instead “drive people to our web site” where additional information and instructions are prominently displayed.

In terms of personal financial disclosures, Kondo stressed that it is the public official’s responsibility to review the instructions and file complete information.

Although at one time the commission hired an investigator to do random audits of a few financial disclosures, the practice was discontinued.

In practice, commission staff have not reviewed the substance of financial disclosures. Instead, they check to make sure they have been properly signed and dated, and then the disclosures are filed without further review.

They now plan at least two simple checks. The first section of the financial disclosure form requires reporting of all income received for services rendered. In the case of public officials and employees, this section should at least contain their state salaries. If it is blank, then it may be an indication that less than sufficient care has been taken in completing the form.

The second category of disclosure is ownership interest in any business that is worth over $5,000 or represents 10% of the company.

“The instructions are clear, but many people don’t realize this includes corporate stocks,” Kondo said.

In some cases, especially with appointees who hold other positions in the business world, a report claiming no investments in stocks will be subject to additional review in the future.

Kondo said there has been a lot of interest in ethics training offered by the commission. He is planning a major workshop for state employees and is exploring producing a podcast or a training video.

The commission is currently swamped with paperwork. Thousands of personal financial disclosures must be processed and filed each year, along with hundreds of lobbyist reports. Unlike the Campaign Spending Commission, which began implementing a computer-based reporting system nearly 15 years ago, the Ethics Commission is still pushing paper. Plans to move towards a more digitally-based system are only at the talking stage, it appears.

Kondo previously served as director of the Office of Information Practices and as a member of the Public Utilities Commission.