Form 6 in Florida: Federal judge blocks financial disclosure law that caused 125 resignations
At the end of 2023 and during the first month of 2024, it seemed like a bizarre disease that only affected local government officials was sweeping across the state. About 125 municipal officials across the state dropped out of office.
On Monday, a federal judge blocked the reason why they left.
U.S. District Judge Melissa Damian issued a preliminary injunction against a 2023 Florida law that would have required the state's mayors and city council members to disclose their finances for the first time. The injunction was in response to a group of more than 170 city and town officials who claimed the rule — nicknamed Form 6 after one of the disclosure forms — violated the First Amendment and could discourage residents from running for local office.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the measure in May 2023 and local government officials began leaving office toward the end of the year, with a rush around Jan. 1 when the law took effect. The departure of so many outraged officials left some municipalities with decimated or even nearly-empty governments.
What is Form 6 in Florida?
SB 774, "Ethics Requirements for Public Officials" changed Ethics Commission laws in 2023 to require city and municipal elected officials to fill out something called Form 6, "Full and Public Disclosure of Financial Interests," the same disclosure form that state and county elected officials have had to fill out for years.
Previously local officials were only required to fill out Form 1, which asked for fewer financial details. The move was intended to add transparency to offices that make spending decisions, sometimes up to millions or billions in taxpayer money.
The law went into effect on Jan 1, 2024, and the deadline for filing was July 1. The Legislature rejected a proposal that would have pushed the deadline to 2025 and exempted officials in communities with 500 people or fewer.
How many local officials resigned in Florida over Form 6?
125 local officials resigned over the financial disclosure changes, including:
Most of the North Palm Beach Village Council resigned, including the mayor, and Eagle Lake barely avoided losing a quorum. All together, 27 elected officials in Palm Beach County left office.
The Naples vice mayor announced his resignation on Dec. 31.
Dunnellon’s mayor and a council member stepped down.
Four out of the five St. Pete Beach city council members resigned.
The mayors in Cedar Key and Williston announced their departures.
At least eight elected officials in Pinellas County left office or planned to, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Two Daytona Beach Shores city commissioners bailed, as did one in Fort Myers Beach. one in Jacksonville Beach, one in Bradenton Beach and two in Bartow.
Four of the five McIntosh Town Council members, two city council members in Orange City, one in Sanibel and a town commissioner in Longboat Key are gone.
The Town of Reddick lost the entire town council and the mayor.
What financial disclosures must Florida politicians include on Form 6?
Under the new law, officials were required to reveal their entire net worth, including the dollar amounts of bank accounts, 401(k) plans and other assets. This includes household goods, personal effects, property, cash, stocks, bonds, CDs, business interests, beneficial interests in trusts, any money owed to the official, and investments in assorted accounts including the Florida College Investment Plan.
They must also list any source of income that provided more than $1,000 in the previous calendar year, and liabilities in excess of $1,000 with the name and address of each creditor.
Previously, local government officials had to disclose the sources of their income and business interests, but not specific amounts or percentages.
Which officials were affected by the Form 6 law?
Before 2024, it was all elected state and county officials, including the governor and lieutenant governor, members of the governor's cabinet, members of the Florida Legislature, state attorneys, public defenders, judges, clerks of circuit courts, tax collectors, property appraisers, supervisors of elections, county commissioners, elected superintendents of schools, members of district school boards, and assorted local positions and authorities.
As of the beginning of 2024, that list expanded to include mayors, elected members of the governing body of a municipality, candidates for local elected office, and Commission on Ethics members.
What are the penalties for failing to disclose something on Form 6 in Florida?
Failure to file can result in removal or suspension from public office or employment and an automatic fine of $25 per day late to a maximum penalty of $1,500.
Failure to make required disclosures may result in a reprimand, a demotion, a reduction in salary, impeachment and/or a civil penalty to a maximum of $10,000. The civil penalty for ethical violations was also increased to a maximum of $20,000 for ethical violations.
Why did so many elected officials resign in Florida over Form 6?
Many saw it as an invasion of privacy and government intrusion they didn't expect when they ran for office. Others pointed out the unexpected additional costs for a CPA to help fill out what could be a complicated form, with the penalties they'd be facing for missing something about a position that doesn't pay that much and in some situations is unpaid.
“Some of the (disclosures) are just really too much for municipal bodies,” said North Palm Beach Village Manager Chuck Huff.
"It would also require me to have family heirlooms and antiques to be appraised and announced to the world," Orange City council member William O'Connor wrote in his resignation letter. "Making my personal assets public record puts me and my family at immediate risk from scammers and potential robbers."
The North Palm Beach Village mayor, David Norris, resigned in tears because he said as a partner in a law firm that prohibits such disclosures he couldn't stay.
Naples Vice Mayor Mike McCabe called out the dangers in the change during his resignation announcement.
"One individual who’s sitting in this audience, who’s sitting somewhere in the public who doesn’t like what you’ve said, doesn’t like what you’ve voted on, can file an ethics complaint and say you did not disclose to the fullest capabilities and to the completeness and it’s off to the races," McCabe said in his statement. "This has been weaponized. It will be weaponized."
Why did the judge issue a preliminary injunction against Form 6?
According to the Fort-Lauderdale-based Damian, who agreed that transparency in government official personal finance is important, wrote that the state did not show a compelling reason why the law needed to be changed after decades.
“After a thorough and careful consideration of the record, this court concludes that defendants have failed to establish that the state seriously undertook the consideration of less intrusive means to address the identified interests,” Damian wrote.
The judge's 33-page ruling said, "where, as here, a law compels disclosure of financial information the speakers would not otherwise have disclosed, the law burdens speech and does fall within the purview of the First Amendment."
Florida Sen. Jason Brodeur, R-Lake Mary, who sponsored the bill in the Senate, said that "taxpayers deserve transparency. If a simple disclosure that hundreds of other elected officials already do makes someone quit, then voters should be glad."
More lawsuits regarding the Form 6 requirements are still pending.
Contritbutors: Dave Berman, FLORIDA TODAY; Jim Saunders, News Service of Florida
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Florida financial disclosure law for local officials blocked by judge
