City officials across Florida are resigning. There have been dozens lately, just as a new law tightening financial disclosures went into effect January 1st. The reasons given in their resignation letters range from health concerns to opposing the invasion of their privacy.
The new law requires city officials to fill out an annual document called a Form 6. On it, they have to report their assets, liabilities, sources of income and net worth. That’s already required of state legislators, county commissioners, school board members, sheriffs, and other constitutional officers. But it hasn’t been required of city officials – until the Legislature passed Senate Bill 774 last year.
“The fact that some of them are resigning now, and the reason is they believe the information required by the Form 6 disclosure is too invasive and puts their financial information out there for anybody to see – that is the purpose.”
Ben Wilcox is the research director for Integrity Florida, a government watchdog that has supported the measure for years. He says the purpose of Form 6 is for the public to see whether elected city officials have conflicts of interest when their votes involve large sums of money.
“If you’re seeking a public office, you owe it to the public to make this personal financial information public so the public can hold you accountable,”. That’s the first premise of the Sunshine Amendment, which contained the requirement for financial disclosure. The first line is ‘A public office is a public trust.’”
Caroline Klancke is the executive director of the Florida Ethics Institute, an independent nonprofit. The institute trains officeholders in the ethics requirements of their offices. Klancke says she’s seen the coverage of city officials resigning but doesn’t think it amounts to much.
“It is a miniscule fraction of those hundreds and hundreds of city commissioners that have elected to forgo their public service in order to avoid this requirement,” she said. “I can’t speak quantitatively – I, too, have seen the articles indicating that some have elected to do so, but they are a tiny fraction.”
There’s also a new requirement concerning where to file – electronically – which Klancke hails as a breakthrough.
“The tens of thousands of public officers and public employees who for decades have filed it with the supervisor of elections in the county in which they reside – they filed a paper form – that’s over,” she said. “After 2024, that is over.”
Also over is the requirement that people wishing to see those records must pay for them, or wait for them. Anyone who wants the forms can view them electronically in a free, searchable database.
“That is profound,” Klancke said. “It is a profound movement towards transparency in the Sunshine State, which the Florida Ethics Institute believes is a good thing.”
Not all city officials are opposed to more transparency in financial reporting. In 2019, Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey led an effort to adopt the Form 6 requirements before the state did. Before being elected mayor in 2018, he had served as a Leon County commissioner and thus had been required to submit the Form 6 during that time.
“Financial transparency is very important,” he said. “It helps build trust in government. For 12 years as a county commissioner, I had to do it. I just believe it’s the right thing to do. The public has a right to know the financial interest of their elected officials.”
Dailey’s stance on the form runs counter to that of the Florida League of Cities, which opposed the measure last year.
