The Republican chair of the Michigan House Oversight Committee said Tuesday that he wants Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to personally explain why an expensive new system to collect elected officials’ financial disclosure statements doesn’t work.
Representatives of the Secretary of State’s office and contractors who built the system were grilled Tuesday for roughly an hour and a half by members of two House committees. They were called to testify on a malfunctioning financial disclosure system for elected officials and lobbyists that is part of implementing a voter-approved amendment to the Michigan Constitution.
The back and forth was tense at times as representatives of the secretary of state and the technology company that created the system defended their process and promised improvements by the next filing deadline in July.
Tina Anderson, Benson’s chief of staff, apologized for the crashes and glitches that stopped elected officials from making timely filings and thwarted people from searching filings.
“We know that many system users, including members of these committees, have had less-than-satisfactory interactions with this system,” she said. “On behalf of Secretary Benson, I am here to apologize for these difficult experiences. We take this very seriously.”
She acknowledged the transition to a new system has been rough going, but said it would have been impossible to keep two parallel systems operating simultaneously.
At the end of the session, House Oversight Committee Chair Jay DeBoyer (R-Clay Twp.) said he still was not satisfied with the answers.
“What’s been demonstrated in testimony here today is that there was risk, they were aware of risk,” he said. “I tried to get an answer out of who made these decisions and the answer was team, team, team, team, team. But, at the end of the day, the buck stops at the secretary of state.”
DeBoyer said he plans to send a letter asking Benson to personally appear before the committee next month. A Benson spokesperson said they will be on the lookout for the communication.
“We’ll review the letter when we receive it and make a decision then,” said Secretary of State Communications Officer Angela Benander in a text message.
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