A federal judge has temporarily blocked a new Florida law requiring mayors and other city officials to file a more rigorous form of financial disclosure this year than they have in the past.
According to the judge, the law violates the First Amendment rights of elected municipal officials and candidates.
Up until last year, city officials had only been responsible for filing a Form 1, a less rigorous form of disclosure. But the law in dispute brought them in line with the disclosures of legislators, Cabinet members, county commissioners, district school board members and other constitutional officers. It’s called a Form 6. And under it, those state and constitutional officers have to specify their net worth, their assets and liabilities over $1,000, and itemize every source of income above $1,000.
Passage of the law last year was followed by dozens of resignations by city officials statewide.
“Could it be they had something they didn’t want to have to disclose?" asks Ben Wilcox.
Wilcox is the research director for Integrity Florida, a government watchdog that backed the law.
"All the people who are subject to Form 6 now, you don’t see anyone objecting to it or resigning their position," he says. "It’s almost like they don’t recognize why this disclosure is necessary."
It’s necessary, Wilcox says, so that the public can be confident their public servants aren’t benefiting personally from their public service.
Caroline Klancke is the executive director of the Florida Ethics Institute, an independent nonprofit that supports the expansion of Form 6. She says many city officials have tremendous authority over large amounts of taxpayer dollars.
"And for that reason, the Commission on Ethics has long sought that city commissioners should also have the same amount of transparency as county commissioners,” Klancke says.
But many city officials say their cities are so small that they don’t get paid – and that the last thing they want is another reason for their volunteer officials to quit.
Mindy Gibson serves on the city council of Satellite Beach and spoke against the bill last year.
“Most of the people that serve in their communities are volunteers," she said. "We don’t get a salary; we don’t get paid. And we’re constantly being presented that we’re in some form of going to be creating some sort of ethical violation, and most of us are not.”
Gibson, a small business owner, said these municipal volunteers are giving up time with their families in order to serve.
“And I did speak to the woman from the ethics commission when she spoke for the House bill, and I asked her how many ethics violations would have been – would not have occurred had someone filled out a Form 6 instead of a Form 1," she said. "And I was not able to be given an answer. And to me, that speaks that the Form 6 isn’t going to stop ethics violations or create them.”
Republican State Senator Jason Brodeur of Lake Mary, the bill’s sponsor, responded that it’s impossible to prove a negative.
“Many times, for thousands of trips, people get frustrated going through airport security. You think, ‘They never catch anybody. Why would we do this?’ Well, that’s kind of the point. If we have that in place, the people who might have sought to do harm don’t do it in the first place," Brodeur said. "And so, for this bill, having the elected officials file the Form 6, you might stop people from running who otherwise thought they might have gotten a free ride of some kind.”
Wilcox of Integrity Florida says he hopes someone will appeal the judge's decision.
“I think the judge got it wrong in this case, but I’m not sure who that would be," he says. "Right now, I think city officials are not going to be held to that higher standard of full financial disclosure.”
A staffer for Brodeur says the senator will be watching, too.
