Tallahassee, FL.—During the final days of the Legislative Session Florida lawmakers passed a controversial ethics bill, CS/SB 7014, which is now headed to the Governor’s desk for signature. This legislation, if signed into law, will severely undermine the ethics investigation process on both the State and local levels of government. 

Both the House and Senate passed floor amendments to CS/SB 7014, which were adopted outside of the committee process and without any public hearing—and it is these amendments to the bill which seek to weaken the ethics investigatory process. The amendments introduce burdensome requirements on citizens seeking to file legitimate ethics complaints with state and local ethics commissions requiring that they have “personal knowledge or information other than hearsay” regarding the alleged violations. These requirements, if implemented into law, could prevent the investigation of ethics complaints predicated upon news articles and reports exposing public corruption. This is a profound change in favor of shielding ethics violators from investigatory scrutiny.

Additional amendments to the bill seek to prevent local ethics commissions (as well as any other “governing body of the political subdivision”) from ordering the investigation of possible ethics violations even in the presence of overwhelming evidence indicating that a public officer or employee has acted unethically. 

Provisions of the bill seek to adopt new exemptions to the financial disclosure laws which would shield from public scrutiny the major customers and clients of businesses owned by certain public officials—information which is critical to the revelation of voting conflicts and other conflicts of interest. In addition, the bill attempts to tie the hands of the State Commission on Ethics to act as a collegial body. 

In defending the floor amendments to the bill, Senator Burgess and Speaker Renner stated that their ostensible purpose was to prevent the weaponization of the ethics complaint process to discredit political candidates immediately preceding an election. However, the Code of Ethics has long contained protections against such misuse of the ethics complaint process in Section 112.324(2)(f), F.S., which requires the Commission to dismiss and reject any complaints or referrals filed against a candidate “within the 30 days immediately preceding the date of the election.” 

In response to the Legislative adoption of the bill, Caroline Klancke, executive director of the Florida Ethics Institute issued the following statement:

“This bill cuts to the heart of both the state Commission’s ethics complaint process and that of local commissions in an unprecedented attack on the good work that these agencies provide through ethics investigations.”

“Despite the clear desire of Floridians for stronger ethics laws, CS/SB 7014 seeks to move us in the opposite direction, making it increasingly difficult for even a modicum of transparency to be given to the public regarding possible ethics violations.” 

“The Florida Ethics Institute calls on Governor DeSantis to veto this bill and thereby affirm Florida’s commitment to ethics in government.”

“We will continue to protect and defend the ethical safeguards contained within the Code of Ethics and assailed by CS/SB 7014. And we ask that ethically minded Floridians join us in encouraging the Governor to veto this destructive bill and to band together to reiterate our collective commitment to fairness in government. We will not let the tools of accountability slip so easily from society’s grasp.”

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