Make Public Officials Disclose Financial Interests!
A public office is a public trust.
The office is held in trust by the person elected to hold that office.
Public officials most reveal and not conceal their financial interests!
The Florida Constitution requires disclosure of financial interests and the Florida Legislature must not abrogate that right.
But that concept is clearly being ignored today in this state.
Or, as Florida’s Finest Lawyer asserts:
“The Sunshine Amendment starts off with the words, ‘A public office is a public trust,’” said Talbot “Sandy” D’Alemberte, a former Democratic state representative who helped pass the amendment. “We may not have a blind trust which conceals, not reveals, what the financial interests are of a public official.”
Florida’s Constitution requires that the people’s business be conducted in the open and that those who conduct the people’s business fully and accurately disclose their financial interests. But a few years ago, the Florida Legislature passed a grossly ill-conceived law that seeks to permit public officials to hide their assets and accordingly their financial interests in state business from the full view of the public.
The citizens of this sate need to wake up, understand the history of public corruption that existed in this state and understand the application of those fears from your ago to the people’s business today.
The video below features an extraordinary oral history of Florida’s public records law presented by Sandy D’Alemberte, who was personally involved in bringing Florida into the Sunshine and remains personally involved in this critical foundation of Florida’s governance. Listen to him describe the Nixon break ins and the history of fraud and corruption that led good statesmen and women to serve the public interest.
