CEO 74-5 -- September 3, 1974
To: E. S. MacKenzie, Attorney for Board of Trustees, Lykes Memorial Hospital, Brooksville
Prepared by: Hal Johnson
SUMMARY:
Of
board members required by law to file financial disclosure statements, only
those whose powers are solely advisory are excluded.
Method of appointment or selection to board membership is not basis
for exclusion from financial disclosure requirements.
By virtue of legislative act, the Board of Hospital Trustees, Hernando
County, is empowered to operate, to promulgate and establish rules and regulations
for, and to set fees for Lykes Memorial Hospital.
QUESTION:
The
financial disclosure law is comprehensive in its scope.
It is designed to reach public officers at every level of state and
local government with few exceptions. Included
in the definition of a public officer are "[m]embers of boards."
Section 112.312(7)(b), F. S., as amended by s. 2, Ch. 74-177, Laws
of Florida. This law does not differentiate
between those boards serving with or without compensation; nor is there any
distinction as to whether their members are elected or appointed.
However, the law expressly excludes from the definition of boards in
general "advisory board members."
The Board of County Commissioners of Hernando County, Florida, are authorized to appoint a Board of Trustees, said Board to consist of five members who shall hold office until the first day of January, A.D., 1937, and thereafter shall be appointed by the Board of County Commissioners for a term of two years; the said Board of Trustees shall have control of and shall operate said Hospital and shall have authority to promulgate and establish rules and regulations under which the said Hospital shall be operated; the Board of Trustees shall have authority to receive patients who are able to pay for care and attention and to prescribe the amount to be paid by such persons, to investigate and require pay from any persons when such investigation shall show them to be able to pay for their care and hospitalization, and further shall have authority to sue for and collect such amounts as may be due from patients.
The
language of the above quoted law clearly indicates that the board of trustees
has policy making responsibility for the Lykes Memorial Hospital.
It is responsible for the final decisions made in connection with the
hospital. With such broad and final
power, the board is not advisory in nature.
Therefore the members do not come within the exclusion of "advisory"