Did you know you are required to take four hours of Ethics education each year?

FAC offers the solution--ONSITE and ONLINE Ethics Workshops!

During the 2013 Legislative Session, the Florida legislature passed ethics legislation requiring that Commissioners and other Constitutional Officers take four hours of Ethics programming each calendar year.  For the last twenty years, FAC has offered a mandatory Ethics course as part of FAC’s Certified County Commissioner (CCC) Program that meets the requirements addressed in this legislation.

FAC continues to offer this course and has added several programming options to make it convenient for Commissioners, County Staff and Constitutional Officers to complete this Ethics, Public Records & Sunshine Law requirement.  You will receive certificates of Completion once you attend the entire workshop.

  • ONSITE - Three scheduled workshops throughout the year, held in conjunction with our conferences (Legislative Day, Annual Conference and Legislative Conference)
  • ONLINE - Take the course at your own pace. Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. (Commissioners who choose the online Ethics option will not receive CCC or Torchbearer certification credits for viewing.)
Both workshops are modeled after our onsite program which consists of expert speakers from the Attorney General’s Office and the Florida Commission on Ethics explaining Florida’s stringent laws. Participants will learn ethics requirements for elected officials, understand the Sunshine Law and Public Records Law, learn about reporting requirements, and become familiar with the process of an ethics complaint. The online version includes updated videos from this course and a quiz at the end of each section. Both programs provide certificates verifying completion for your records.

Some valuable insight from our speakers:

  • Board members may not engage in private discussions with each other about board business, either in person or by telephoning, emailing, texting or any other type of electronic communication (i.e Facebook, blogs).
  • Complaints may be filed by ANYONE, are confidential until a certain stage, cannot be initiated by the Commission.
  • The Public Records Act does not contain a specific time limit (such as 24 hours or 10 days). 
  • A “Gift” is defined as: Anything you get for which you do not give equal or greater consideration within 90 days.

 

Our next ONSITE Ethics workshop will be prior to Legislative Conference on November 17th from 12:30 – 6:00 pm at the Omni Amelia Island Plantation in Nassau County.  Registration is $125.00 and includes lunch.  Online registration will end November 10th, but you may register onsite at the conference.