Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Glendale) has introduced new legislation — AB 10 — which would increase financial-disclosure requirements and modernize the forms used by government officials to report their interests.

“Increased transparency is essential to protecting public resources, preventing corruption, and restoring public trust,” Gatto said. “This legislation will bring disclosure requirements into the 21st Century. These reforms will shed light on business dealings of political insiders and give Californians greater access to the information they deserve.”

Concerns recently surfaced over the “Form 700” documents, required by the Fair Political Practices Commission. Gatto’s legislation would address the concerns by modernizing the Form 700 disclosure document. It would clarify the reporting ranges for investments, property and income to be more specific, providing taxpayers a better analysis of the financial interests of an elected official. It would also require elected officials to disclose who their business partners are; require elected officials to disclose what exactly their businesses do; and require elected officials to report the number of times they excused themselves from a vote because of a conflict of interest.

The assemblyman is also reintroducing legislation to establish the “Yellow Alert” system, a tool that would empower the public to help solve more hit-and-run crimes and help law enforcement agencies apprehend suspects. The legislation — AB 8 — would allow law-enforcement agencies to use the existing Emergency Alert System (also known as the “Amber Alert” system) to broadcast information about vehicles suspected in hit-and-run incidents. Use of the system would be limited to hit-and-runs that result in death or serious bodily injury. Alerts would issue only when there is a sufficient description of the offending vehicle.

“When Denver, Colorado created a similar alert system in 2012, they saw a 76 percent arrest rate, without overwhelming their alert system,” Gatto said. “Continuing to allow hit-and-run victims to suffer without hope of solving these crimes is unacceptable, we need to step-up our efforts to catch these criminals and hold them accountable.”

For information, visit www.asm.ca.gov/gatto.