The Electronic Rule Filing (ERF) Website will undergo several upgrades overnight, and therefore will be unavailable from 5:15 this afternoon (Tuesday, October 8) until 8:00 Wednesday morning, October 9.

One of the upgrades will particularly benefit state colleges and universities. Beginning Wednesday morning, the system will add the following information to your PDF documents, once you file them:

(1) At the top of the first page of each rule, it will stamp the filing action and the filing date and time. Take care, therefore, to leave the 1.5-inch margin mandated by the LSC Rule Drafting Manual. If text appears above this margin, the system's stamps might obliterate it.

(2) At the end of each rule, it will append a page containing the following supplemental information:

(a) Effective date (as you entered it on the website);
(b) Replacement line (if you indicated online that there is one);
(c) A notation that the rule was certified electronically (if you used the appropriate personal identification number, or PIN, online);
(d) The "promulgated under," "statutory authority," and "rule amplifies" information (all as you entered online); and
(e) Prior effective dates (as you entered them online).

Therefore, beginning Wednesday, October 9, you should no longer include the supplemental information in the PDF version of your rule text. That is, in the rule text you upload to the website as a PDF file after today, nothing should appear beneath the last line of the rule text. The system will append the supplemental information to your rule documents once you file them. This information will appear precisely as you entered it online while preparing your rule package. Take care that this online information is accurate, because it will become part of the formal rule document.

(3) The system will stamp the first page of each filed appendix with the filing action, the filing date and time, the rule number, and the appendix status (amended, enacted, existing, or rescinded). Take care, therefore, to ensure (a) that you upload the correct appendices with the correct rules, (b) that you designate the appendix status (amended, enacted, existing, or rescinded) correctly online when you upload the appendix, and (c) that you observe the mandated 1.5-inch margin so that the stamps will not obliterate the text.

Despite these changes, you should continue labeling the top of the text of each appendix as Appendix A, Appendix B, etc. Moreover, you should continue to paginate each rule and each appendix in the upper right corner, beginning on page 2. Likewise, please continue placing the rule number in the upper left corner of each page, beginning on page 2, of each rule and each appendix. Consult the LSC Rule Drafting Manual for further directions.

Once you file rules, you may print the versions with all of the stamps and supplemental information added by system for your own records. You may do so by using the "HISTORY" button on the website.

If you have any questions about any of these changes, please contact Lisa Rodriguez at the ERF Help Desk at 614-387-2078 or erfhelpdesk@lsc.ohio.gov.

Thank you.

Jim Kelly
Ohio Legislative Service Commission

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Posted to the Rule Filers Mailing List on October 8, 2002