Florida Local Officials Sue Over State Ethics Law

Last year, the Florida legislature enacted a law (FL SB 774) that expands a strict disclosure requirement for public officials to the thousands of council members and mayors in the Sunshine State’s local governments. In response, more than 100 local officials have resigned in protest to the new requirement. Previously, local elected officials needed to submit a less onerous financial disclosure to the state ethics commission called “Form 1.” The new law requires these local officials to submit the more extensive “Form 6,” the requirement for statewide elected officials and state lawmakers, which requires disclosure of any assets worth $1,000 or more. The disclosure limit for Form 1 was $10,000. 

The driving force behind this change appears to be the Florida Commission on Ethics itself. During a hearing on the bill in front of the Senate Ethics Committee, the bill’s sponsor and a representative from the Commission both stated that the Commission on Ethics had requested these changes and advocated for them for several years. 

While the Committee moved the bill forward on an 8-2 vote, the potential impediments the new financial disclosure forms would place on local officials was a major topic of discussion during the hearing. Senator Powell (D) described the Form 6 that state lawmakers are required to fill out as “intense” and specifically asked the bill sponsor whether the bill would “prevent some of the people who are running for office now from running for office.” Sen. Brodeur (R), the bill’s sponsor, responded that “it could, but if you have someone that is not willing to make that available, do you really want them in public office?”

Several local government officials testified that many local elected positions are unpaid with candidates volunteering their time to serve their community, and that the added disclosure requirements might be enough to dissuade quality candidates from running for local office. Those predictions appear to be playing out with reports of over 115 local officials resigning from office in response to the financial disclosure requirements put in place this year. In the town of Reddick (population 450), the entire council and the mayor all resigned, citing the new Form 6 requirement. One council member wrote in her resignation letter, “I cannot in good conscience expose that information for a non-paid position on our Town Council.”

The full legislature ultimately passed the bill, and Gov. DeSantis (R) signed it into law, which went into effect this year. But last week, 26 cities filed lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the new law. The lawsuits argued that the law violates the officials’ right to privacy under the state constitution, arguing that Form 6 is not the least restrictive means to provide transparency for public officials. An attorney for the cities said, “Every other state has financial disclosures, but none of them are as strict as the Form 6.”

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This article appeared in our Morning MultiState newsletter on February 20, 2024. For more timely insights like this, be sure to sign up for our Morning MultiState weekly morning tipsheet. We created Morning MultiState with state government affairs professionals in mind — sign up to receive the latest from our experts in your inbox every Tuesday morning. Click here to read past issues and sign up.