City of Venice councilmember sounds alarm over the new financial disclosure requirements for politicians

 
Senator Gruters,

 

I recently attended the Florida League of Cities furthering education course “IEMO II” which provides professional development for municipal elected officials. At my conference with elected municipal officials from all over the state of Florida, I spoke with a few elected officials who are resigning before the end of the calendar year. They are committed to serving their local communities, but they have huge concerns with the actions taken by the legislature this year to require all municipal officials to fill out Form 6.  I understand our elected state senators and representatives have this requirement, but in all reality you clearly operate on a much bigger scale than municipal elected officials.

 
The way this new requirement pushed by the state legislature comes across to the elected municipal officials I talked to at the conference is that the legislature continues to wage war against local governments.  I believe this recent action by the legislature was absolutely unnecessary as it will undoubtedly eliminate quality candidates, eroding the effectiveness and capabilities of local government. Not too far from Venice, St. Pete Beach lost almost all of their elected officials this week.

 

 
Thank you for listening to my concerns. The need for educated and experienced citizens to step up and run for local office is critical. Why would the state legislature want to discourage them?

 
Rachel Frank