Commission waives a disclosure fine after in-person appeal, rescinds others and adopts multiple default orders

At its public session, the Florida Commission on Ethics resolved several financial-disclosure matters, including a notable in-person appeal by Veronica Owens (FD21-029).

Owens told the commission she believed she filed the 2020 Form 1 during the paper-filing era, but that she left her employer while heavily pregnant; her newborn experienced serious health problems that required spinal surgery. She said multiple mailings were sent to her former workplace and that she did not receive the Commission’s certified-mail notices until 2023, when a forwarded copy prompted an appeal. "I genuinely believed back in 2021 that I thought I filed the form... I had a baby... the baby ultimately had lots of issues, spinal surgery," Owens told the commission. Staff initially recommended affirming the automatic fine because the record showed the appellant did not file the form when first notified; after hearing her account in person and considering prior timely filings, commissioners concluded the personal health and caregiving circumstances met the rule’s definition of "unusual circumstances" and adopted an order waiving the assessed fine, explicitly stating the decision was based on the unusual circumstances presented at the hearing and not on the COVID-19 pandemic.

On FD21-125 (J. Kim), staff recommended—and the commission adopted—a waiver/rescission of the default fine because notices had been sent to an outdated workplace address after Kim left office and therefore she lacked effective notice; Kim filed promptly once she received the default order.

Separately, the commission adopted a package of default final orders for a list of filers who neither paid fines nor timely appealed; the body directed salary-withholding referrals for those still receiving public funds and transmission to collection for others. The commission also adopted an order declaring one financial-disclosure fine uncollectible after the reporting individual died.

Why it matters: Financial-disclosure enforcement affects thousands of state and local reporting individuals; the commission’s handling of Owens’ appeal underscores that individualized health and caregiving facts can, in some instances, satisfy the "unusual circumstances" standard for waiver even where the pandemic alone has not been treated as sufficient.

What happens next: The waivers and rescissions are effective as adopted and the default orders will move to salary-withholding or collections per the procedures staff outlined.