“This bill has huge implications for public trust. It will allow corruption to go unchallenged if it comes into law.” –Amy Keith, executive director of Common Cause Florida
This past session, the Florida Legislature passed a truly awful anti-ethics and pro-corruption bill and we’re calling on Gov. Ron DeSantis to veto it.
This proposed law (SB 7014) severely undermines the ability for citizens to file complaints against government officials and politicians who violate the public trust, and bans local ethics commissions from self-initiating their own investigations. This law, if enacted, would neuter Florida’s key watchdog agencies and open the floodgates to unchecked corruption by government officials and those doing business with them.
Tell Gov. Ron DeSantis to stand up for ethics in government by vetoing SB 7014.
If DeSantis signs off on this bill, ethics boards will no longer be able to launch their own political corruption investigations. Instead, Florida citizens would have to file complaints to start any inquiry, but only if they personally witnessed the alleged ethics violation, an absurdly high standard that ethics experts declare will undermine citizen-led accountability efforts.
Last month, several government watchdog organizations urged Gov. DeSantis to veto this bill, saying that it “allows unethical conduct to continue unchecked, thereby diminishing public trust in the Sunshine State.” If signed by DeSantis, this new law will make a mockery of ethics enforcement by preventing the public from filing ethics complaints based on reliable public information and by sabotaging the effectiveness of local ethics boards and commissions.
A recent case in Miami-Dade illustrates why this indefensible bill must not become law. Last year the Miami-Dade ethics board launched an investigation into ex-Miami City Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, leading to criminal charges of public corruption involving hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions – yet this bill would outlaw such an investigation.
Join us in urging Gov. Ron DeSantis veto SB 7014, the anti-ethics bill.
Thank you for being part of our network and for taking action on this issue so critical to democracy and good governance in Florida.