CEO 84-33 -- May 14, 1984

FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE

APPLICABILITY OF DISCLOSURE LAW TO MEMBERS OF PRIVATE INDUSTRY COUNCIL

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

SUMMARY:

Members of unincorporated private industry councils are required to file statements of financial interests pursuant to Section 112.3145, Florida Statutes, under CEO 83-47 and CEO 83-89. However, members of private, nonprofit corporations are not subject to the financial disclosure law. Where a private industry council incorporates as a private, nonprofit corporation after the conclusion of a calendar year, its members are required to file statements of financial interests for that calendar year by July 1 of the following year.

QUESTION:

Are the members of the Private Industry Council of Seminole County, Inc. "local officers" subject to the requirement of filing statements of financial interests for the year 1983 by July 1, 1984?

Your question is answered in the affirmative.

In your letter of inquiry you advise that you serve as Executive Director of the Private Industry Council of Seminole County, Inc., which incorporated on April 6, 1984 as a private, nonprofit corporation. In a telephone conversation with our staff, you advised that the Council originally was created in 1983 under the Federal Job Training Partnership Act.

We previously have advised that members of private industry councils which are not incorporated as private, nonprofit corporations, but which are agencies of local government, are required to file statements of financial interests annually on Commission on Ethics Form 1. See CEO 83-47 and CEO 83-89. However, we have found that members of private, nonprofit corporations are not subject to this disclosure law. See CEO 77-102A, CEO 82-5, and CEO 83-66.

In our view, persons in positions specified in the disclosure law become obligated to file disclosure for a given calendar year if they are in that position at the close of the calendar year. Although these persons have until July 1 to file disclosure, the obligation accrues at the end of the prior calendar year, the "disclosure period" by law. Section 112.312(8), Florida Statutes (1983).

Accordingly, as the Private Industry Council of Seminole County, Inc., was not a private, nonprofit corporation at the end of 1983, its members are required to file statements of financial interests for the year 1983 by July 1 of 1984. Assuming that the Council retains its incorporated status through 1984, however, its members will not be required to file disclosure in 1985 for the year 1984.