Are You a Legislative Agent or an
Executive Agency Lobbyist?
An Overview of Ohio's Registration and Reporting Laws

Have you been hired to influence activity in the Ohio legislature or have you been engaged to influence an executive agency decision? If so, you may be required to register and report both your employment and your activity with Ohio’s Joint Legislative Ethics Committee (JLEC). JLEC was established to monitor compliance with Ohio’s ethics laws. Under Ohio law, “legislative agents” and “executive agency lobbyists” must register with and make periodic reports to JLEC. To determine whether registration and reporting are required, you must examine the nature of your legislative and executive activity.

Are You a Legislative Agent?

A “legislative agent” and his employer are each required to file an “initial registration statement” with JLEC. Ohio law defines a “legislative agent” as any individual who is engaged during at least a portion of his or her time in actively advocating before the General Assembly. If you have been hired to influence legislative activity, you should ask yourself the following questions in order to assess whether you are required to register.

1. Have you had or do you anticipate having direct communication with any members of the General Assembly, members of the Controlling Board, the Governor, directors of state departments or their staffs? “Direct communication” can include letters, facsimiles, e-mails, telephone calls, or personal meetings.

2. Have you been engaged to actively advocate on behalf of a client or employer? In order to qualify as a legislative agent, an individual has to be engaged to actively advocate on another’s behalf. An individual is “engaged” if he or she is employed or retained for compensation to actively advocate for or on behalf of an employer. Compensation may come in many forms and is defined as a “salary, gift, payment, benefit, subscription, loan, advance, reimbursement, or deposit of money or anything of value.” Compensation may also include a contract, promise, or agreement, whether or not legally enforceable, to compensate.

   What does it mean to “actively advocate?” You are actively advocating on behalf of a client or employer if you are promoting, advocating or opposing the passage, modification, defeat, or executive approval or veto of any legislation. Because the definition of “legislation” is extremely broad, it encompasses most legislative branch decisions.

3. Have you performed sufficient activity to warrant registration as a legislative agent? In order to qualify as a legislative agent, you must spend a portion of your time actively advocating as one of your main functions. Although the definition of “a portion of your time” is ambiguous, JLEC has provided some guidance by implementing a “three-contact” rule. Under the three-contact rule, if you have made direct contact at least three times during a calendar year, in an attempt to influence legislation, you should be registered as a legislative agent.

If you have answered yes to all of the above questions, you are a legislative agent and you must register with JLEC. The legislative agent registration requirements apply not only to the individual lobbyist, but also to the lobbyist’s employer. Consequently, every legislative agent and his or her employer is required to file a joint “initial registration statement” within ten days of the engagement of the legislative agent. This statement must include the following information:

1. The name, business address, and occupation of the legislative agent;

2. The name, business address of the employer and the real party in interest on whose behalf the legislative agent is actively advocating, if it is different from the employer; and

3. A brief description of the type of legislation to which the engagement relates.

After you have filed the initial legislative agent registration, an updated registration statement and expenditure report must be submitted to JLEC three times a year. However, these supplemental statements are not “joint” statements; the legislative agent and the employer must submit these forms separately. Note that an employer does not have to include any expenditure information on the supplemental reports if the legislative agent has already reported these expenditures.

Are You An Executive Agency Lobbyist?

Ohio law distinguishes between “legislative agents” and “executive agency lobbyists” and imposes separate registration requirements on executive agency lobbyists. Therefore, even if your activity does not trigger the “legislative agent” registration and reporting requirements, you must determine whether your conduct triggers the “executive agency lobbyist” registration and reporting requirements. Like legislative agents, every executive agency lobbyist (and his or her employer) must file an initial registration statement with JLEC within ten days of the engagement of the executive agency lobbyist. Ohio law defines an “executive agency lobbyist” as any person engaged to influence executive agency decisions or to conduct executive agency lobbying activities. Ask yourself the following questions to assess whether your activity triggers this registration requirement.

1. Have you had or do you anticipate having direct communication with any executive official, any executive agency official, or any directors of state departments? Again, “direct communication” can include letters, facsimiles, e-mails, telephone calls, or personal meetings. As previously mentioned, your activity could trigger the executive agency lobbyist registration requirement even if your only direct communications are with a staff member of an angency.

2. Have you had direct communication with an executive official, an executive agency official or a director of a state department for the purpose of influencing executive agency decisions? You are an executive agency lobbyist if your activity is “executive agency lobbying activity.” Executive agency lobbying activity occurs when a person makes direct contact with an executive official, an executive agency official, or a director of a state department in order to “promote, oppose, or otherwise influence the outcome of an executive agency decision.”

3. Have you been engaged to influence executive agency decisions? You are “engaged” if you are employed or retained for compensation to conduct any executive agency lobbying on an employer’s behalf. Compensation can come in many forms, and is defined to include a “salary, gift, payment, benefit, subscription, loan, advance, reimbursement, or deposit of money or anything of value.” Compensation can also include a contract, promise or agreement, whether or not legally enforceable, to compensate.

4. Have you performed sufficient activity to warrant registration as an executive agent? In order to qualify as an executive agent, you must be engaged to influence executive agency activity as one of your main functions on a regular and substantial basis. The “three-contact” rule applies here as well. Accordingly, if you have made direct contact at least three times in a calendar year in an attempt to influence executive agency decisions, you should be registered as an executive agency lobbyist.

If you determine that your activity triggers the “executive agency lobbyist” registration requirements, you must register with JLEC. Like legislative agent registration requirements, your employer must also register with JLEC on a joint initial registration statement. Both the executive agency lobbyist and his or her employer must submit updated registration statement and expenditure reports three times a year. And again, any expenditure information reported by the executive agency lobbyist does not have to be “rereported” by his or her employer.

Does Your Legislative or Executive Activity Fall Under an Exemption?

Before filing as a legislative agent or an executive agent, consider whether your activity falls under one of four exemptions provided under Ohio law. You are not required to register as either a legislative agent or an executive agent if you advocate or attempt to influence decisions solely by one of the following methods:

1. Appearing before public hearings of the Controlling Board or committees of the General Assembly;

2. News, editorial, and advertising statements published in bona fide newspapers, journals, magazines or broadcast over radio or television;

3. The gathering and furnishing of information and news by bona fide reporters, correspondents, or news bureaus to news media;

4. Publications primarily designed for and distributed to members of bona fide associations or charitable or fraternal nonprofit corporations.

Conclusion

Ohio ethics laws apply to a broad range of legislative and executive activity. Therefore, it is extremely important to understand the nature of your activity and the registration and reporting requirements that apply to that conduct. It is also important that your employer understand the applicable registration and reporting requirements. If you are a “retirement system lobbyist,” an individual engaged to influence or obtain business from one of Ohio’s five state retirement plans, separate registration and reporting requirements, which are not addressed in this bulletin, apply.

Additional information regarding JLEC, including copies of registration and reporting forms, is available on the JLEC website.

This information was prepared to assist our clients and friends of the firm in making registration and reporting decisions. However, the requirements discussed are addressed generally and, as a result, if specific questions arise contact one of the attorneys in the Bricker & Eckler government relations group.