No. SB 1572
Filed under Local Government.
Department of Financial Services; Establishing the Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight within the Department of Financial Services; requiring local governments to notify the agency after authorizing specified referenda; deleting a requirement that a specified hotline be operated for a certain amount of time each day; requiring specified employees to take a certain training annually; requiring that certain employees who report information to the Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight be afforded the same protection as whistle-blowers, etc.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDThe Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight, a new office inside the Department of Financial Services, must audit any local government that authorizes a new tax, a tax increase, or a higher millage rate, and may request whatever information it decides it needs.
A local government that doesn't fully cooperate can be fined up to $1,000 a day starting two weeks in, and can lose state funding after 45 days until it complies. Fines go into the state's Insurance Regulatory Trust Fund.
Agency employees, elected officials, and volunteers must complete annual ethics training within 30 days of starting. Anyone who reports financial misconduct to the new agency is protected as a whistle-blower, even without first telling their own supervisor.
Counties now must post new contract details to the state's online contract tracking system within 30 days of signing, the same duty state agencies already have. The governmental-efficiency hotline no longer must run 24 hours a day.
AIA local government must notify the new Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight within 5 days of authorizing a referendum to levy a new tax, raise an existing tax, or raise its millage rate, triggering a mandatory audit.
AIIf a local government doesn't fully answer the audit request, the Chief Financial Officer may fine it up to $1,000 a day beginning 15 days after the request, then withhold its state funds beginning 45 days after the request until it complies.
AIEach county must post a new contract's parties, procurement method, dates, pricing, deliverables, total compensation, and performance measures to the state's contract tracking system within 30 days of signing, the same duty state agencies already carry.
AIAn employee who reports financial misconduct to the Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight receives the same legal protection as any other whistle-blower, and does not have to report it to a supervisor or local official first.
AIA contract with a local government or its vendor cannot bar the vendor from working with the Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight, and cannot require a nondisclosure agreement covering that cooperation; either clause makes the contract void.
AIEvery local government must file a Local Government Efficiency Report with the Department of Financial Services by October 30 each year, in the format the department's rules set, and the department reports findings upward each January.
AIThe Chief Financial Officer no longer must staff the governmental-efficiency hotline around the clock or brand it with a required slogan, and the hotline now also takes tips about local governments, not just the state.