The Electronic Rule Filing website was updated over the past weekend to incorporate a number of enhancements, several of which are designed to reduce frequent errors that LSC and JCARR are seeing on the paper copies of rules and Rule Summary and Fiscal Analyses (RSFAs).
This memo describes three enhancements aimed at reducing those errors, and points out potential problems these changes create for rule packages assembled online before Monday, January 28, 2002. (The enhancements described in this memo primarily benefit state agencies, boards, and commissions, and are not of concern to the special circumstances of colleges and universities.)
Beginning Monday, January 28, 2002:
- Paper copies that are printed from the ERF website before the electronic filing is actually executed (that is, before the red FILE button is selected) will automatically bear a heading stating: "DRAFT -- NOT FOR FILING." Only copies printed AFTER electronic filing will omit this heading. Filers should not file, and LSC and JCARR will refuse to accept, paper documents that bear this heading.
- Data entry is streamlined so that filers may enter (a) the name of the public contact person that is to appear on the RSFA and (b) the prior effective dates of a rule, once on the Online Summary and Supplemental
Questions form, instead of every time the documents are printed.
- When a filer indicates that a rule is being submitted pursuant to the five-year review requirements of R.C. 119.032, the current five-year review date for the rule will automatically default to the date of the original filing or the no-change filing. This default date will appear on documents printed from the website after the rule package is filed, not before.
(When a filer indicates that a rule is NOT being filed pursuant to five-year review under R.C. 119.032, the filer must input the rule's current R.C. 119.032 review date as usual on the Online Summary and Supplemental Questions form. And regardless of whether a rule is being submitted pursuant to five-year review, the system will prompt the filer for the rule's NEXT review date at the time the filer pushes the red FILE button to execute the final filing or the no-change filing).
What do these changes mean for rule packages assembled before Monday, January 28, 2002?
- For any package that was originally filed before Monday, January 28, 2002, but has not yet been final-filed, the contact person and prior effective dates will be missing from any future filings (revised, refiled, and final) of that package. In order to recover this mandated information, the filer must contact the ERF Help Desk (614-387-2078) for help. The LSC Rule Drafting Manual requires that prior effective dates appear on each rule in each filing, and the contact person is mandated information for the
RSFA form.
- For any package assembled, but not yet originally filed, before Monday, January 28, 2002, the filer must, prior to filing, open the package and modify the Online Summary form to supply both the contact person's name and the prior effective dates for each rule in the package. Filers that have questions about how to open the Online Summary form or how to enter a contact person's name or prior effective dates should contact the ERF Help Desk (614-387-2078).
- Filers need not be concerned about correcting packages that were final-filed or filed for no change before Monday, January 28, 2002, unless directly contacted by LSC or JCARR.
Finally, as a general rule, I encourage filers to CAREFULLY CHECK ALL PAPER DOCUMENTS BEFORE FILING THEM, especially documents printed before Monday, January 28, 2002. Determine BEFORE filing paper copies whether the RSFA displays all information correctly, and whether the rules display the correct supplemental information, such as the effective date, the R.C. 119.032 review dates, and prior effective dates.
Thank you,
Jim Kelly, Supervisor
Register of Ohio and Administrative Rules Unit
Ohio Legislative Service Commission
Posted to the Rule Filers Mailing List on Jan 28, 2002
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