South Florida cities sue over law requiring officials to disclose net worth
More than a dozen South Florida cities filed lawsuits in state and federal court on Thursday challenging the state’s new financial disclosure requirements that come into play this summer.
Twenty-six municipalities and 74 local elected officials across the state signed on as plaintiffs, including the Miami-Dade cities of Aventura, Bal Harbour, Miami Springs, Pinecrest, Key Biscayne, North Bay Village, Golden Beach and Indian Creek. Other South Florida cities that signed on include Plantation, Coral Springs, Delray Beach and Deerfield Beach.
The cities are challenging a law passed by the state Legislature last year that requires city commissioners and mayors to file a more detailed financial disclosure form, called a Form 6, that includes their net worth and the value of each asset, liability and income source over $1,000.
They can also provide their most recent federal tax return to satisfy the income disclosure requirements.
The lawsuits, filed against officials on the Florida Commission on Ethics, are seeking a declaration that the Form 6 disclosure requirements violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution as well as the privacy clause in the Florida Constitution.
Form 6 disclosures are not new — the governor, state lawmakers and county commissioners already file them. City of Miami officials must also disclose their net worth.
Yet the passage of the law has spurred resignations of local elected officials across Florida in recent weeks.
The previous disclosure form, called a Form 1, did not require officials to disclose their net worth. It required the disclosure of assets and liabilities of $10,000 or more, rather than $1,000.
Jamie Cole, a partner at Weiss Serota who is spearheading the litigation, said the state’s new financial disclosure requirements violate the right of privacy in the Florida Constitution, as well as the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution — specifically, the compelled speech doctrine, which prohibits the government from compelling people to say things they don’t want to
say. Under the compelled speech doctrine, the government cannot compel a person to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, for example.
“The government can’t force you to say things against your will,” he said in an interview with the Miami Herald last month. “Here, they’re forcing the elected official.”
Cole said the requirement for net worth disclosure in particular puts elected officials at risk and “puts a target on their back.”
“Where do you draw the line?” Cole said. “This is extreme . ... This is exposing elected officials to kidnapping and extortion and identity theft.”
Mitch Bierman, who is a partner at Weiss Serota and represents several Miami-Dade cities as their town or village attorney, told the Herald in January that the Form 6 requirements could deter people from running for public office.
“This new requirement has caused a lot of elected officials to consider whether they want to serve,” Bierman said. “I think it’s a concern for everyone . ... Most Americans expect a certain level of privacy with respect to their finances.”
The deadline to file the new disclosures is July 1.