Does Florida's Sunshine Law apply to the board of a private trust fund administering municipal employees' insurance benefits?

Plain-English summary

The Board of Trustees of the Fort Lauderdale Fire Fighters Insurance Trust Fund asked Florida AG Pam Bondi whether it had to hold its meetings in public under section 286.011, the Government in the Sunshine Law. The Attorney General concluded that yes, the trust fund's board was subject to the Sunshine Law.

The trust fund was created in 1981 by an agreement between the City of Fort Lauderdale and the firefighters' union, the product of a collective bargaining agreement. Before that, the city provided insurance benefits directly to its firefighters; under the agreement, the trust took over the role of receiving city and employee contributions and administering insurance benefits for participants and their beneficiaries. The city continued to administer insurance for its other employees in-house.

The Attorney General had ruled on essentially this same arrangement in 1998 in Opinion 98-01 and concluded then that the trust board was acting on the city's behalf, handling public funds for public employees, and accomplishing a public purpose, all of which placed it within the Sunshine Law. The 2016 opinion reaffirmed that result, with the AG noting that even though the current trust agreement narrowed the trust's actual benefits to reimbursing retired firefighters for medical and insurance costs, the trust agreement itself preserved broader authority to provide a full range of insurance benefits, and the underlying public-employee, public-funds, public-purpose structure had not changed.

What the opinion meant at the time for similar entities

At the time of the opinion, an organization that called itself "private" did not automatically escape the Sunshine Law in Florida. A private organization fell under section 286.011 if any of three things were true: it was created by a public agency, it had been delegated authority to perform a governmental function, or it played an integral part in a public entity's decision-making. The Fort Lauderdale trust met multiple prongs. The collective bargaining context (city handed off a previously in-house benefit administration role) was a particularly clear marker of delegation.

Trustees of similar municipal benefit trusts, pension boards organized through bargaining, and successor entities created to take over a previously public function would have had to assume the Sunshine Law applied to them unless they could clearly distinguish their structure from the trust fund analyzed in this opinion and the 1998 opinion it followed.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 2016. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

Common questions

Q: What did the Sunshine Law require at the time?
A: Section 286.011, Florida Statutes, required that meetings of "any board or commission of any state agency or authority or any agency or authority of any county, municipal corporation, or political subdivision" be open to the public, with reasonable notice and minutes. The opinion treated the trust board as functionally a public board for these purposes because it had taken over a public function.

Q: Why didn't the "private" label control?
A: The opinion relied on a line of FL AG opinions holding that a private organization is subject to Sunshine if it was created by a public agency, delegated a governmental function, or integral to a public entity's decision-making. The trust was created by collective bargaining between the city and the union, took over a function the city had performed in-house, and administered public dollars for public employees. That checked the boxes.

Q: Did the opinion say a public body could escape Sunshine by handing off a function to a private entity?
A: No. It said the opposite, citing the 1998 opinion's statement that "a responsibility of a governmental agency may not be transferred to a private entity with the effect of creating an exemption from the open meetings requirement." That principle has been central to Sunshine Law analysis when public bodies use contracted or delegated arrangements.

Q: Was the trust's narrowed benefit (retirees only) enough to make it private again?
A: The opinion did not think so. While the trust at the time was paying out only to retired firefighters' medical and insurance costs (the product of subsequent collective bargaining narrowing benefits), the trust agreement still authorized broader benefits. The structure, the source of funds, and the population served all still tracked the 1998 analysis.

Q: How did this compare to the Attorney General's other delegation cases?
A: The opinion cited prior FL AG opinions reaching similar results for: a corporation performing services for the Department of Children and Families that the department would otherwise perform (00-03), a nonprofit designated to fulfill a county's dissolved cultural affairs council (98-49), and a nonprofit accepting an offer to recodify a county's zoning code (83-95). The thread is the same: private form does not defeat Sunshine when public function is being carried out.

Background and statutory framework

Florida's Government in the Sunshine Law, section 286.011, Florida Statutes, has long been one of the broadest open-meetings statutes in the country. Its core text reaches "any board or commission" of any state, county, or municipal agency, and Florida courts and the AG have applied it generously to entities that look private on the surface but perform public functions in substance. The Fort Lauderdale Fire Fighters Insurance Trust Fund is a textbook example of that substance-over-form approach.

The 1998 opinion (Op. Att'y Gen. Fla. 98-01) had already concluded that the trust was Sunshine-covered. A December 1998 informal opinion to the same trust's attorney (Mr. Weiner) reaffirmed it under a restated trust agreement. The 2016 opinion was the third round on essentially the same question; it was made necessary by ongoing changes to the trust's actual benefit structure following collective bargaining.

The opinion does not analyze, and a reader should not assume it controls, materially different arrangements: a trust funded purely by employee contributions, an entity not created by collective bargaining, or an entity with no city participation in funding or governance.

Citations and references

Statutes:

• Section 286.011, Fla. Stat. (Government in the Sunshine Law)

Cited AG opinions (referenced within this opinion):

• Op. Att'y Gen. Fla. 98-01 (1998), original Sunshine Law determination for this same trust
• Op. Att'y Gen. Fla. 07-27 (2007), framework for when private organizations fall under the Sunshine Law
• Op. Att'y Gen. Fla. 00-03 (2000), corporation performing DCF services
• Op. Att'y Gen. Fla. 98-49 (1998), nonprofit fulfilling dissolved county council's role
• Op. Att'y Gen. Fla. 83-95 (1983), nonprofit recodifying county zoning code

Trust documents referenced (not generally available):

• Agreement and Declaration of Trust of the Fort Lauderdale Fire Fighters Insurance Trust Fund
• Agreement Between City of Fort Lauderdale and Local 765, effective April 6, 2010 – September 30, 2012

Source

• Landing page: https://www.myfloridalegal.com/ag-opinions/government-in-the-sunshine-law-private-organization
• Original PDF: https://www.myfloridalegal.com/print/pdf/node/1522

Original opinion text

Mr. Dustin L. Watkins

Sugarman & Susskind, P.A.

100 Miracle Mile, Suite 300

Coral Gables, Florida 33134-5429

RE: GOVERNMENT IN THE SUNSHINE LAW – MEETINGS – PRIVATE ORGANIZATION – application of Sunshine Law to board of trustees of private insurance trust fund. s. 286.011, Fla. Stat.

Dear Mr. Watkins:

On behalf of your client, the Board of Trustees of the Fort Lauderdale Fire Fighters Insurance Trust Fund, you have asked for my opinion on the following question:

Is the Board of Trustees of the Fort Lauderdale Fire Fighters Insurance Trust Fund subject to open meetings requirements of the Government in the Sunshine Law, section 286.011, Florida Statutes?

In sum:

The Board of Trustees of the Fort Lauderdale Fire Fighters Insurance Trust Fund is subject to the open meetings requirements of the Government in the Sunshine Law, section 286.011, Florida Statutes.

Your letter acknowledges that in 1997 your office asked the same question on behalf of the same client. Attorney General Opinion 98-01 concluded that "[t]he Board of Trustees of the Fort Lauderdale Fire Fighters Insurance Trust Fund is subject to the Government in the Sunshine Law, section 286.011, Florida Statutes."[1] As reported in this earlier opinion, the Fort Lauderdale Fire Fighters Insurance Trust Fund was created in August of 1981 pursuant to an Agreement and Declaration of Trust between the City of Fort Lauderdale and the Fire Fighters Union. The transfer of this responsibility to the union was the result of a collective bargaining agreement. The purpose of the trust fund was to receive contributions on behalf of the city and each employee, and to administer these funds and provide insurance benefits to the participants and their beneficiaries.

Prior to entering into this agreement, the city provided insurance benefits directly to its fire department employees. As was noted in the 1998 opinion, and you have not suggested it is currently otherwise, the city continues to administer insurance benefit plans for all other city government employees.

This office has recognized that private organizations generally are not subject to the Government in the Sunshine Law unless the private organization has been created by a public agency, has been delegated the authority to perform some governmental function, or plays an integral part in the decision-making process of a public entity.[2] Thus, the Sunshine Law does apply to private entities providing services to governmental agencies and acting on behalf of those agencies in the performance of their public duties.[3]

The Agreement and Declaration of Trust of the Fort Lauderdale Fire Fighters Insurance Trust Fund (the agreement) provides that the term "[p]lan" as used in the trust agreement shall mean "these rules and regulations as adopted and thereafter amended from time to time by the Trustees regarding death, accident, health and hospitalization, and surgery, medical benefits and other related benefits and the basis on which such benefits are made available to Participants and Beneficiaries, as determined by the Trustees."[4] The term "[e]mployer" as used therein includes the City of Fort Lauderdale, Florida and any other employer who "is bound to make payment of contributions on behalf of certain of its Employees to the Trust Fund."[5] An "[e]mployee" for purposes of the trust agreement is "[a]ny Employee represented by the Union and working for an Employer as defined herein;" officers or employees of the union; former fire department employees along with the spouses, widows, children and dependents; and other employees of the Fort Lauderdale Fire Department for whom the trustees have agreed to accept contributions.[6]

My review of the earlier opinion suggests that these terms have remained substantially the same. While collective bargaining may result in limiting the scope of the insurance being provided during a particular year, that is, as you state, that the trust fund currently is limited to reimbursing retired Fort Lauderdale fire fighters for certain medical expenses and health insurance premiums that they may incur, the trust agreement reflects the broader authority of the trust to provide insurance benefits to Fort Lauderdale's fire fighter participants and beneficiaries.

In Attorney General Opinion 98-01, this office considered the applicability of the Government in the Sunshine Law to the Fort Lauderdale Fire Fighters Insurance Trust Fund and determined that the board of directors of the trust fund was acting on behalf of the city in collecting and administering employee contributions and was accomplishing a public purpose. Information and data provided by the city were used to compile records of the funds and the moneys being administered were public funds contributed on behalf of public employees.[7] The opinion notes that a responsibility of a governmental agency may not be transferred to a private entity with the effect of creating an exemption from the open meetings requirement of section 286.011, Florida Statutes.

Again, while the situation presented by your most recent letter is not identical to that discussed in Attorney General Opinion 98-01, the similarities are significant and it would appear that the reasoning of the 1998 opinion and the Informal Opinion provided to the Board of Trustees of the Fort Lauderdale Fire Fighters Insurance Trust Fund dated December 28, 1998, on the Government in the Sunshine Law would be applicable.

Thus, it is my opinion that the Board of Trustees of the Fort Lauderdale Fire Fighters Insurance Trust Fund is subject to the open meetings requirements of the Government in the Sunshine Law, section 286.011, Florida Statutes.

Sincerely,

Pam Bondi

Attorney General

PB/tgh

[1] I note that an Informal Attorney General Opinion dated 12/28/98 on the same topic was issued to Mr. Richard M. Weiner, attorney for the Board of Trustees of the Florida Fire Fighters Insurance Trust Fund and affirming the conclusion in Op. Att'y Gen. Fla. 98-01 (1998) under the slightly different facts of the restated trust agreement entered into following issuance of Op. Att'y Gen. Fla. 98-01 (1998).

[2] See Op. Att'y Gen. Fla. 07-27 (2007).

[3] See, e.g., Ops. Att'y Gen. Fla. 00-03 (2000) (board of directors of corporation performing services for Department of Children and Families which services would normally be performed by department); 98-49 (1998) (nonprofit organization designated by county to fulfill role of county's dissolved cultural affairs council); 83-95 (1983) (private nonprofit corporation when county accepts corporation's offer to review, recodify, and prepare draft amendments to county zoning code).

[4] See Art., I, s. 1.11, Agreement and Declaration of Trust of the Fort Lauderdale Fire Fighters Insurance Trust Fund.

[5] Id. s. 1.9.

[6] Supra n.5 at s.1.8.

[7] I note that it appears that the city continues to contribute toward insurance for its firefighter employees under the bargaining agreement. See, e.g., Article 34, Agreement Between City of Fort Lauderdale and Local 765 effective April 6, 2010 - September 30, 2012.