CEO 80-65 -- September 19, 1980

BUILDING INSPECTORS; CONSULTANT

APPLICABILITY OF FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE LAW

To: (Name withheld at the person's request.)

Prepared by: Phil Claypool

SUMMARY:

For purposes of the annual filing of financial disclosure, s. 112.3145(1)(a)3. defines the term "local officer" to include various enumerated positions in local government. A part-time electrical inspector and a part-time plumbing inspector for a city, neither of whom serves as the chief building official or has any purchasing power, do not meet the definition of "local officer" and accordingly are not subject to filing financial disclosure. Similarly, a consultant-broker, appointed on a contractual basis to advise a municipality's pension board, fails to meet the statutory definition of "local officer" and therefore is not subject to disclosure.

QUESTIONS:

1. Is a part-time electrical or plumbing inspector for a municipality a "local officer" subject to the requirement of filing a statement of financial interests annually?

2. Is a consultant-broker, appointed on a contractual basis to advise a municipality's pension board, a "local officer" subject to the requirement of filing a statement of financial interests annually?

Question 1 is answered in the negative.

The Code of Ethics for Public Officers and Employees provides that each "local officer" is required to file a statement of financial interests annually. Section 112.3145(2)(b), F. S. The term "local officer" is defined to include:

Any person holding one or more of the following positions, by whatever title, including persons appointed to act directly in such capacity, but excluding assistants and deputies unless specifically named herein: clerk of the circuit court; clerk of the county court; county or city manager; political subdivision chief; county or city administrator; county or city attorney; chief county or city building inspector; county or city water resources coordinator; county or city pollution control director; county or city environmental control director; county or city administrator, with power to grant or deny a land development permit; chief of police; fire chief; city or town clerk; district school superintendent; community college presidents; or a purchasing agent having the authority to make any purchase exceeding $100 for any political subdivision of the state or any entity thereof. [Section 112.3145(1)(a)3., F. S.]

In your letter of inquiry you advise that the City of South Miami employs two persons in part-time capacities as an electrical inspector and as a plumbing inspector. Each of these persons was appointed administratively by approval of the city manager, you advise, and each receives hourly wages. In a telephone conversation with our staff, you advised that neither person has any authority to make purchases on behalf of the city. You further advised that the city employs another individual as the building official, who serves as the chief building inspector for the city. As the subject inspectors have no purchasing authority and as neither is the city's chief building inspector, we find that neither the electrical inspector nor the plumbing inspector is a "local officer" subject to the requirement of filing financial disclosure.

Your second question also is answered in the negative.

In your letter of inquiry you advise that the City Council of the City of South Miami has appointed a consultant-broker on a contractual basis to act as a nonvoting adviser to the city's pension board. We have examined the statutory list of positions which qualify as "local officers" and find that the responsibilities of the subject consultant-broker are not included.

Accordingly, we find that a consultant-broker appointed on a contractual basis to advise a city's pension board is not subject to the requirement of filing a statement of financial interests.