Officials sitting on city, county and special district boards throughout Florida will now be required to disclose more of their finances to the public, after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation to make local officials file the same forms as state legislators and Cabinet officers.
Starting Jan. 1, local officials will be required to file a form with the state showing their entire net worth, including income sources, assets, property and business ownership and debts. Currently local officials are only required to disclose the sources of their income and business interests, but not specific dollar amounts.
The legislation (SB 774) passed the House on a 113-2 vote, with only Reps. Christine Hunschofsky, a Parkland Democrat, and Mike Gottlieb, a Davie Democrat, voting against it.
The measure passed the Senate on a 35-5 vote, with only five Democrats — Sens. Lori Berman of Lantana, Tina Polsky of Boca Raton, Bobby Powell of West Palm Beach, Geraldine Thompson of Windermere and Victor Torres of Kissimmee — voting against it.
Some opponents of the bill were concerned the increased disclosure requirements would push potential candidates away from signing up to run for local offices.
An earlier version of the House bill (HB 37) would have applied to County and City Managers as well, but some lawmakers pushed back on that provision because they are unelected.
Other parts of the bill increase the maximum fine the Florida Commission on Ethics can issue from $10,000 to $20,000 and allow that board to dismiss complaints arising from random audits of lobbying firms.
The Legislature also passed HB 199 during the Regular Session, which imposes increased ethics training requirements on elected special district officials starting in 2024, which stemmed from reports of Rod Colon, manager of the North Springs Improvement District in Broward approving $16 million contracts for a company he owned. That bill, however, hasn’t been officially sent to DeSantis’ desk.
The expanded financial disclosure bill was one of 37 DeSantis signed on Thursday. So far, DeSantis has signed 70 of the 320 bills passed by the Legislature during the Regular Session that ended last week.
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