What is Form 6? Here's why so many elected city officials are abruptly resigning across Florida
You might be excused for wondering if a strange disease that only affects local government officials is suddenly sweeping across the state.
Most of the North Palm Beach Village Council have resigned, including the mayor, and Eagle Lake barely avoided losing a quorum.
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 have left office or plan to, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Two Daytona Beach Shores city commissioners bailed, as have 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.
Why are so many small-town elected officials across Florida abruptly resigning?
Among the other new laws that took effect on Jan. 1, they had to reveal their finances in detail for the first time. A change to the Ethics Commission laws requires city and municipal elected officials to fill out something called Form 6, the same disclosure form that state and county elected officials have had to fill out for years. So would new candidates for office, which could frighten some people away from representing their communities.
Here's what they're talking about.
What happens now? Will DeSantis replace dozens of local officials who resigned ahead of a new disclosure law?
What is Form 6 in Florida?
Form 6, "Full and Public Disclosure of Financial Interests," is one of the forms elected officials in Florida must fill out and occasionally renew. It is intended to add transparency to offices that make spending decisions, sometimes up to millions or billions in taxpayer money.
State and county officials have been required to fill out Form 6 annually for years but a change this year added local officials as well.
What financial disclosures must Florida politicians include on Form 6?
Officials must 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.
When did the Form 6 law change in Florida?
During the 2023 Florida Legislative Session. SB 774, "Ethics Requirements for Public Officials," sponsored by Sen. Jason Brodeur, Lake Mary, passed and Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it into law on May 11. Under the new law, as of Jan. 1:
Mayors and elected members of the governing body of a municipality and Commission on Ethics members must file a Form 6.
Candidates for an elected office that require a Form 6 must file when qualifying.
Anyone appointed to fill a vacancy in an elected office that requires a Form 6 also must file.
Allows filers of Form 6 to include federal income tax returns (with associated attachments and schedules) to report income.
The maximum civil penalty is raised from $10,000 to $20,000.
The bill also clarified some details about who is required to file Form 1, a statement of financial interests.
“It’s simply to bring parity to what local elected officials as to what state constitutional officers have to do,” said Rep. Spencer Roach, R-North Fort Myers, who sponsored the House version of the bill.
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:
Reprimand
Demotion
Reduction in salary
Impeachment
Civil penalty to a maximum of $10,000
As of Jan. 1, the civil penalty is increasing to a maximum of $20,000 for ethical violations.
Who has to fill out a Form 6 in Florida?
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, and Commission on Ethics members.
Why so many elected official resignations in Florida?
Many see it as an invasion of privacy and government intrusion they didn't expect when they ran for office. Others have 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."
Tom Knight, former Sarasota County sheriff and current District 3 candidate, wasn't impressed in a letter to the editor for the Herald-Tribune, saying holding officials to the same standard was long due. "They often vote on contracts and zoning issues representing millions, and even billions, of dollars. To those who refuse to fill out the form and plan to resign, I say it’s probably for the best."
What are local governments doing about all the officials resigning? Will Gov. DeSantis appoint replacements?
“Under Florida law, each municipality is responsible for providing a mechanism to fill municipal vacancies," according to Gov. Ron DeSantis' press secretary Jeremy Redfern in an email. "Section 166.031, Florida Statutes, specifically provides that '[e]ach municipality shall, by ordinance or charter provision, provide procedures for filling a vacancy in office caused by death, resignation, or removal from office.'
“Therefore, each local government is, by law, responsible for addressing these vacancies," he said.
Kendall Little, Laura Layden, Naples Daily News; Maya Washburn, Palm Beach Post contributed to this story.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Florida elected officials resigning before new financial disclosures
