The Florida Commission on Ethics has decided not to open negotiations to settle a lawsuit advanced by scores of elected municipal officials that challenges a new Florida state law requiring detailed disclosures of personal finances.
The panel, which supported the state Legislature’s passage of Senate Bill 774 last year, voted 6-2 on Nov. 26 to reject an effort to discuss settlement terms with the plaintiffs, who see the new law’s heightened financial reporting requirements for local elected officials as a violation of their First Amendment rights.
For decades, local elected officials had to file what’s called Form 1, titled “Statement of Financial Interests,” rather than a more detailed form that’s filled out by state lawmakers and elected statewide officials, called Form 6. SB 774 sought to hold local elected officials to the higher standard.
The plaintiffs’ lawsuit, which was filed in February, said the new law required elected municipal officials to “utter very specific statements in writing” about their net worth, annual income, value of household goods, and all assets and liabilities estimated at $1,000 or more.
“Rather than being the least restrictive, narrowly tailored means of accomplishing a compelling state interest, these new, financial disclosure requirements imposed on elected municipal officials and municipal candidates through SB 744 are the most restrictive means available – stricter and more onerous than required of federal elected officials (including the president of the United States) and of elected officials in other states throughout the country,” the lawsuit states.
In June, federal District Judge Melissa Damian issued a temporary injunction in the litigation that bars the defendants, including members of the ethics panel, from enforcing the new law.
“Based on the judge’s order, she did find we did have substantial likelihood of success in the case, which is the standard to get an injunction,” Jamie Cole, the attorney representing the more than 170 local elected officials seeking to overturn the law, told the Florida Record.
Damian has yet to make a final decision on the merits of the lawsuit or scheduled legal arguments on the matter.
Cole and the plaintiffs knew the commission was going to discuss the lawsuit since the Nov. 24 meeting was a public gathering with a set agenda, but no formal talks between the parties took place in the runup to the meeting.
“Apparently. one of the members of the Commission on Ethics, or apparently two of the members, wanted to try to resolve (the dispute and) try to find a workable middle-ground settlement, and the other members voted against it," he said. “... We're open to discuss any reasonable resolution of the issue.”
Any potential settlement would have to protect the local elected officials’ First Amendment rights as well as protect the public against abuses of the public trust, Cole said.
The commission has argued that the plaintiffs don’t merit such First Amendment protection since they are not private parties engaging in private speech. Instead, they are public officials speaking about matters of interest to local voters, according to Steven Zuilkowski, the commission’s general counsel and deputy executive director. In turn, the state is allowed to control such officials’ speech when it’s done as part of their official acts in office, Zuilkowski said in a memorandum to the commission.
Both sides in the litigation, which is being argued in the Southern District of Florida, have filed motions for summary judgment.