MONROE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS FINED FOR REPORTING ERRORS ON DISCLOSURE FORMS; COUNTY TAKES STEPS TO PREVENT FUTURE REPORTING ERRORS
MONROE COUNTY, FL – State law requires all elected officials to file “Full and Public Disclosure of Financial Interest” forms (CE Form 6) each year. In February of 2017, complaints were filed against Monroe County Commissioners Danny Kolhage, Heather Carruthers, David Rice and Sylvia Murphy alleging that their financial disclosure forms from 2012 through 2015 contained errors.
On Friday, the Florida Commission on Ethics found each Commissioner in violation and fined them between $4,000 and $6,000 for their reporting errors. The errors on the forms were corrected prior to entering into the stipulations.
“In order to address this issue going forward, Monroe County retained Attorney Mark Herron in April 2017 to review the forms filed from that point forward to ensure that each form filed complies with the nuanced instructions developed by the Ethics Commission,” County Attorney Bob Shillinger said.
Herron specializes in this area of the law. He represents public officials throughout the state in completing their financial disclosure forms.
“In addition, we invited Virlindia Doss, Executive Director of the Florida Commission on Ethics, to conduct training for the Commissioners and other local elected officials,” Shillinger said. “A portion of Ms. Doss’ presentation in Marathon on May 30, 2017 focused on the nuanced instructions for completing these form.”
Here is a link to the CE Form 6:
http://www.ethics.state.fl.us/Documents/Forms/Form%206_2016i.pdf?cp=20171020
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