Financial disclosure triggers resignation of Brevard elected officials

Peter Miravalle III had just completed his first year on the Grant-Valkaria Town Council when, much to his chagrin, he had to say goodbye to elective office.

Miravalle, a retired engineering manager at L3Harris Technologies, decided to resign his unpaid position on the Town Council, effective Dec. 14, rather than submit a detailed financial disclosure report to the state, called a Form 6. Filling out that form is a new state requirement for city and town mayors and other members of municipal councils or commissions, who must file the report annually.

The form — required to be filed by July 1 for those officials in office as of Jan. 1 — will be available for all to see on a Florida Commission on Ethics website. The form details an elected official’s total net worth, sources of income, ownership in businesses, real estate holdings, stock and bond investments, and bank accounts. It also requires listing the total value of all household goods and personal effects, such as jewelry; collections of stamps, coins and guns; art objects; household equipment and furnishings; clothing; and vehicles. Filers also must disclose their liabilities, such as mortgages, car loans and student loans.

More about the disclosure law:What is Form 6? Here’s why so many elected city officials are abruptly resigning across Florida

Many other elected officials in Florida — from the governor down to county commissioners — already are required to file these financial disclosures. But some municipal officers thought the requirement was too much for their positions, which are part time and offer only small stipends or are done on a volunteer basis.

“I did not want to expose what I worked hard for all of my life,” Miravalle said, adding that, generally, “you don’t discuss politics, religion or your finances with people.”

Brevard officials who resigned over Florida’s Form 6

Miravalle isn’t alone in resigning from public office at the end of 2023 because of requirements of Form 6, which also is called the “Full and Public Disclosure of Financial Interests.” So did Grant-Valkaria Town Council Member Cathy DeMott — who had been on the seven-member council since the town was incorporated in 2006. In her letter of resignation, DeMott said the main reason for her decision to resign “is the new requirement to complete Form 6.”

The town of Melbourne Village had two resignations from its Town Commission as well — Gary Ingram and David Jones. And Indialantic Town Council Member Julie McKnight decided not to seek reelection when her second two-year term ended in 2023 because of the new disclosure requirements.

It is something that has been happening throughout the state. For example, within Marion County, the town of Reddick lost the entire Town Council and the mayor; while four of the five members of the McIntosh Town Council resigned. The St. Pete Beach City Council lost four of its five members as well.

All because of Form 6.

“As much as I want to stay as a commissioner and continue to help work for the betterment of the town of Melbourne Village, I must resign solely due to the requirements of the new Florida state law, commonly known as Form 6,” Ingram wrote in his letter of resignation. “The required public disclosure of my financial posture is much too onerous.”

McKnight — who previously had been a victim of identity fraud — said she decided against seeking reelection in 2023 after hearing about the new disclosure requirements. She felt it was too risky to have her net worth and other details of her finances posted on the Commission on Ethics website.

“I was really looking forward” to running again in 2023, McKnight said, even going as far as gathering the signatures on petitions to qualify for a spot on the ballot. “I was fully in.”

But after learning about the disclosure requirements, “for 200 bucks a month” in salary as an Indialantic Town Council member, “it was not worth the risk,” McKnight said.

Small towns in Florida — where council and commission members get paid very little or nothing — seem to be affected disproportionately by the Form 6-related resignations and officials not seeking reelection. Melbourne Village is the least-populous of Brevard’s 16 cities and towns, with less than 700 residents. Indialantic has about 3,000 residents, the third-lowest among Brevard’s municipalities. And Grant-Valkaria has about 5,000 residents, the sixth-lowest in Brevard.

Grant Valkaria Mayor Del Yonts — who has held that office since the town incorporated in 2006 — said he, too, was seriously considering resigning in late 2023 because of the new requirement.

“I went back and forth,” before deciding to stay in office, Yonts said.

He said no one on the seven-member Town Council was happy about the new disclosure mandate.

2023 municipal election results:Five Brevard County communities elect new leaders

Yonts expressed his opposition to the new requirement in a recent email to Florida Sen. Debbie Mayfield, whose district includes most of Brevard.

“I remain extremely concerned that, in the future, the only people willing to run for local offices will be doing so to alter things specific for themselves, and not doing it to represent what residents want,” Yonts wrote.

Yonts and others have suggested municipalities with small populations or small budgets, or whose elected officials are paid little or no salary, be exempted from the disclosure requirement.

Senate bill sponsor counters opponents of Form 6

But Florida Sen. Jason Brodeur, R-Lake Mary, who sponsored the bill in the Senate that added this requirement, disagrees.

He points out that city officials have a say on how taxpayer dollars are spent, just like state legislators.

“City officials — presumably with the highest spending authority and the lowest vote count thresholds — have very little transparency, so the bill lined them up with everyone else in public office,” Brodeur said. “I’m not so much concerned about their pay as I am about their spending authority. It takes 82 votes in the Florida Legislature to spend taxpayer dollars — a simple majority in both the Senate (21) and in the House (61). In a city, you can spend tens of millions of dollars with as little as three votes.”

Brodeur maintains the “taxpayers deserve transparency. If a simple disclosure that hundreds of other elected officials already do makes someone quit, then voters should be glad.”

Impact on potential candidates

Brevard Democratic Executive Committee Chair Pamela Castellana said she believes the financial disclosure requirement for municipal elected officials is “a pain in the neck, super-invasive and unnecessary.”

But she has seen no signs of the measure having a negative impact locally on the Democratic Executive Committee’s ability to recruit candidates for the 2024 municipal elections in Brevard, which are nonpartisan.

Candidates for an elected office that requires a filing of a Form 6 also must file the form at the time of qualifying as a candidate for that office. So candidates for municipal mayors and council positions also are affected.

Brevard Republican Executive Committee Chair Rick Lacey said the GOP also is not having trouble finding candidates to run.

Lacey said he supports the disclosure requirement contained in the 2023 bill.

“I always have been a firm believer in more transparency with elected officials,” Lacey said.

Filling the vacancies

In Grant-Valkaria, six people applied to fill the vacancies created by the resignations of DeMott and Miravalle. The Town Council in December chose Mike Bradvarevic to fill the three years remaining in Miravalle’s term and Brent Jackson to fill the one year remaining in DeMott’s term.

In Melbourne Village, the Town Commission next month plans to vote on filling the board’s two vacancies. But town officials say, as of Thursday, there were no active applicants for the positions. Town residents interested in one of the seats can pick up an application package at the town offices, 555 Hammock Road.

In Indialantic, after McKnight indicated she would not seek reelection, Brett Miller decided to run for her seat on the five-member Town Council, and was unopposed in the November election.

McKnight said she enjoyed her time on the Town Council, and would seek office again — but only if the Florida Legislature overturned the financial disclosure requirement for municipal officials, especially “for a little town like ours.”

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Financial disclosure triggers resignation of Brevard elected officials

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