Here’s what Florida law requires mayors to disclose about their finances and side jobs
A recent controversy over expensive event tickets and side jobs held by Miami’s mayor has cast a spotlight on the rules for local elected officials. Here is what those rules are:
Employment and Personal Finances
Florida’s ethics laws require local elected public officials to disclose their primary sources of employment each year. Starting next year, this requirement will become more rigorous.
On the current form, which was due July 1, any mayor or commissioner must list primary sources of income from the previous year, but not every single job. Office holders could choose between listing every source of income that exceeded $2,500 or reporting only those jobs that provide income greater than 5% of the elected official’s total gross income.
Under new legislation adopted this year and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, mayors and commissioners will be required to file a different form, one that includes net worth, assets and liabilities exceeding $1,000, plus an itemized breakdown of all sources of income that exceed $1,000. It will require the office holder to provide the amount of income received from each source.
Officials will have the option of substituting their tax returns for the itemized breakdown.
Local municipal governments sometimes have their own disclosure requirements. In the case of Miami, the mayor and commissioners must file a form by July 1 that lists assets and liabilities in excess of $5,000 as of Dec. 31 of the previous year.
Presidential candidate disclosure
Local officials running for the highest office in the land, president, have an additional disclosure requirement: an itemized breakdown of income and investments. It must be filed with the Federal Election Commission. In the case of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who is currently seeking the Republican nomination, he’ll have to disclose these details dating back to 2021 — and his wife’s income sources from 2022.
That form was initially due July 14 — 30 days after he filed to run. The FEC granted Suarez a 45-day extension, as is common when asked. His new deadline: Aug. 28
If a candidate drops out of the race before the deadline for filing with the federal government, that candidate is no longer obliged to file, according to the FEC.
Gifts
State law prohibits lobbyists or companies doing business with or seeking permits or approvals from a local government from giving gifts worth more than $100 to that government’s elected officials.
Gifts exceeding that amount from those with no business in front of the city are legal but must be disclosed, unless from immediate family members. The deadline to report is the end of the next quarter after the gift was given.
Forms are collected by county clerks and filed with the Florida Commission on Ethics. Officials who receive no gifts need not fill out a form.
Consequences for violating the rules can range from fines to removal from office. Gift givers can face a lobbying prohibition of up to two years.
Campaign contributions
As candidates, local officials in Florida can accept individual contributions up to $1,000 per donor. Sometimes business people bundle donations using multiple corporations they control to make several contributions.
Committees — commonly known as PACs — that support one or more candidates or causes have no limits on the size of a contribution.
