Florida Attorney General Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of attorney general opinions issued in Florida, with full citations and the original source on every page.
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Can a Florida city that adopted its local business tax before 1995 reclassify or restructure that tax today, given the statutory windows in section 205.0535?
No. The Florida AG concluded in 2018 that section 205.0535(1) does not permit St. Petersburg (which adopted its local business tax in 1994) to reclassify businesses or establish a new rate structure…
Can a Florida town close meetings and records about security plans for school facilities under the security-system exemption to the Sunshine Law?
The AG directed the town to the security-system record exemptions but declined to decide which meetings it could close. Section 286.0113 exempts portions revealing protected records; section 281.301…
Can a Florida city use electronic signatures and dispose of paper originals when an electronic version is in storage?
Yes. Under §§ 668.004 and 668.50, a Florida municipality is authorized to use electronic signatures for its business transactions, and under § 668.50(12) and Florida Administrative Code rule…
Can a Florida housing finance authority grant surplus funds to a 501(c)(3) like Habitat for Humanity to renovate a thrift store that funds affordable housing?
Yes. Section 159.608(10)(a) authorized the Polk County Housing Finance Authority to grant surplus funds to Habitat for Humanity to renovate a Habitat ReStore, because the renovation would let…
Does a Florida value adjustment board hear appeals over whether improvements were substantially completed by January 1, and which kind of magistrate decides them?
Yes. Section 194.011(3)(d) gave the VAB jurisdiction over substantial-completion disputes because they are valuation issues. If the improvement raises just value by at least 25% it is a 'qualifying…
Can a Florida city, in a local ethics investigation, decide whether an elected official violated the state ethics code section 112.313?
No. The Florida Constitution and the state Code of Ethics give the Florida Commission on Ethics exclusive authority to determine whether an elected official violated § 112.313. A city, in a local…
What did Florida certify about its parental-rights law for a 2018 Rape Survivor Child Custody Act grant application?
The AG's office identified section 39.806(1)(m) as Florida's qualifying statute and certified that it remained in force and had not changed since its 2013 enactment. The letter supported a federal…
Can a Florida fire and EMS district raise its ad valorem millage above the special-act-authorized 1 mill cap by board resolution after a one-time referendum?
No. Under Chapter 2005-329, Laws of Florida, and § 191.009(1), the Key Largo Fire Rescue and EMS District has to obtain referendum approval every year it seeks an ad valorem tax above 1 mill. Annual…
Are 6th-grade students at Florida middle schools entitled to school-transportation when there are hazardous walking conditions?
Generally no. Florida's hazardous-walking-conditions transportation mandate applies to public-school students 'whose grade level does not exceed grade 6' only when 6th grade is part of an elementary…
Can a Florida fire district levy non-ad valorem assessments against tax-exempt (but not immune) real property within its boundaries?
Yes, generally. Although the North River Fire District's special act limits assessments to 'taxable real estate,' chapter 191, Florida Statutes, supplements that authority and lets the district levy…
Does Florida law prohibit a person with an open arrest warrant from purchasing a firearm?
No express prohibition. Florida has no statute or case law that bans firearms transfer to a person solely because an arrest warrant is outstanding. Section 790.065(2)(c)1. does require a…
Can an Escambia County commissioner have his legal fees paid from county funds when defending a defamation lawsuit over Facebook posts of pre-election emails?
On the facts presented, no Thornber factor was facially met. The challenged statements were made before the commissioner took office, did not serve a public purpose, did not implicate the county's…
Can a Florida county withdraw from its statutorily designated regional planning council if the interlocal agreement says it can?
No. Section 186.504(5) requires that 'each county shall be a member of the regional planning council created within the comprehensive planning district encompassing the county.' Section 186.512…
Can a Florida sheriff use Contraband Forfeiture Act proceeds to pay the contractual share of school resource officer salaries each year?
Yes for school resource officer program duties, even when costs recur year over year, because § 932.7055(5)(a) expressly authorizes use for school resource officer programs. No for time officers…
Can a Florida county use tourist development tax revenue to fund a transit system operated by a private company?
Not generally. Section 125.0104(5)(a)3 authorizes tourist development tax revenues for transportation services that have 'as one of [their] main purposes the attraction of tourists.' A general…
Can a Florida county property appraiser disclose an address that is exempt from public-records inspection to a city code inspector serving notice of a code violation?
Yes. A property appraiser may release an exempt-but-not-confidential address to a code inspector seeking to comply with the statutory notice duty in § 162.06. The receiving agency must maintain the…
Is a Florida mosquito control district a political subdivision, and is its drone a public aircraft eligible for FAA Certificate of Authorization?
Yes. The Lee County Mosquito Control District, an independent special district created by special act, is a political subdivision under § 1.01(8). Section 388.231(1) prohibits use of…
Is the Florida property appraiser a public entity for FAA Certificate of Authorization purposes?
Yes. The Santa Rosa County Property Appraiser is a constitutional county officer (Art. VIII, § 1(d)). Acting in his official capacity, the property appraiser is part of Santa Rosa County, a…
Can a Florida special district use district funds to pay for board members' group health insurance, in addition to their statutorily authorized compensation?
Yes, assuming the insurance program otherwise satisfies § 112.08. The AG said the Loxahatchee River District could pay board members' group health premiums in addition to charter compensation. The…
Does Florida's emergency-declaration tolling for permits (§ 252.363(1)(a)) apply to a development agreement between a city and a developer?
It depends. Section 252.363(1)(a) tolls only four kinds of instruments: local-government development orders, building permits, DEP/water-management permits, and DRI buildout dates. Whether the City…
Can a Florida town's driveway-permit ordinance be applied to a property used for bona fide farming, or do agricultural preemptions block enforcement?
It depends on scope. The Town of Grant-Valkaria's ordinance applies on its face only to driveways for single-family and duplex residential structures, so it doesn't conflict with the agricultural…
Can a Florida city use city employees and equipment during business hours to help a private citizen run a fundraiser for restoring a city-owned building?
The opinion did not give a yes/no. The AG noted that municipal funds may only be used for a municipal purpose, and whether the city commission could make the necessary public-purpose findings under…
Can a Florida soil and water conservation district sponsor a nonprofit corporation that buys and runs a private water and wastewater utility on its behalf?
The opinion concluded a Florida soil and water conservation district lacked statutory authority to sponsor a nonprofit corporation owning and operating a water/wastewater utility, because Chapter…
Can a Florida county lease or convey county-owned land to a developer for a project that includes market-rate housing as an economic-development activity?
The AG suggested § 125.045(3) lists ways a county may spend public funds toward the economic-development goals in subsection (1), rather than examples of those activities. The county governing board…
Is the Beach Mosquito Control District a Florida political subdivision, and may it use its mosquito-control drone commercially?
The AG confirmed the Beach Mosquito Control District as a Florida political subdivision for the FAA's public-aircraft rule and added that § 388.231(1) prohibits the district from using…
Is a Florida mosquito control district a 'political subdivision' for purposes of the FAA's public-aircraft rule when it applies for a UAS certificate of authorization?
The AG concluded that the Beach Mosquito Control District, a special taxing district created under Florida law, was a 'political subdivision' of Florida for purposes of 49 U.S.C. § 40102(a)(41),…
Could Daytona Beach Shores amend its charter by referendum to mandate denial of certain development orders and require a vote on comprehensive plan amendments?
No. The opinion concluded that § 163.3167(8) bars initiative or referendum on any development order or local comprehensive plan amendment, and that prohibition cannot be overridden by a charter…
Can a Florida town consider price along with qualifications when selecting which firms it will negotiate a construction-manager-at-risk contract with?
No. The opinion concluded that sections 287.055, 255.20, and 255.103 do not allow a hybrid process where the town evaluates qualifications and price together to rank firms before negotiating; price…
Does Florida's Sunshine Law require a special magistrate to let the public speak at code enforcement hearings, and must the magistrate announce the order in a public hearing?
The AG said section 286.0114's public-comment rule did not apply to quasi-judicial code hearings before a delegated special magistrate. On outcomes, she said section 162.07(4) contemplated…
Does Florida have a parental-rights termination law that lets the state qualify for the federal Rape Survivor Child Custody Act funding boost to its sexual violence prevention grants?
The opinion was a certification letter to DOJ confirming that § 39.806(1)(m), Florida Statutes, enacted in 2013 to allow termination of a rapist's parental rights to a child conceived through rape,…
When a Florida city commission also serves as the CRA board, can the mayor veto CRA actions or pick the CRA's executive director under city-charter veto and appointment powers?
The opinion concluded the mayor's veto over city legislation did not reach CRA actions because the CRA is a separate legal entity, and the CRA executive director is selected under CRA bylaws and §…
Can a Florida city council pass a non-regulatory resolution supporting or opposing pending state or federal firearm legislation without violating Florida's firearm preemption statute?
Without seeing the proposed text, the AG said resolutions that simply expressed support for or opposition to pending firearm legislation would not appear to violate § 790.33; the council would not…
Could the Florida Legislature give Palm Beach County alone the authority to make texting while driving in a school zone a primary traffic offense?
The opinion concluded that special legislation authorizing only Palm Beach County to make texting in a school zone a primary offense would conflict with Chapter 316's uniform statewide traffic…
Can Jackson County use tourist development tax money to pay sheriff and police for law enforcement at a county-built nature center?
The opinion concluded Jackson County could not use tourist development tax revenues to fund regular law enforcement at a nature center, because (5)(b) authorizes facility operations only and…
Can a Florida fire district raise the firefighter pension contribution rate for employees who have already entered the DROP program?
The AG declined to answer whether the contribution increase could apply to firefighters already in DROP. The letter says retirement plans are a proper subject for collective bargaining, the affected…
Can one attorney serve as a code enforcement special magistrate for multiple Florida jurisdictions through an interlocal agreement or sequential contracts without violating the dual office-holding rule?
The informal letter declined to answer the interlocal-agreement question. It said mutually exclusive, intermittent special-magistrate contracts would appear inconsistent with the nature of an…
Can a Florida school district open competitive bids electronically through an online procurement system without holding a physical public bid opening?
The AG did not decide whether bids could be opened electronically. Section 1010.04 allows online procurement but still requires compliance with State Board of Education rules. The AG said the State…
Can a Florida city amend its charter by ordinance to require council candidates to designate a specific seat before the election, or does that require a referendum?
The opinion confirmed AGO 2010-54: requiring council candidates to designate which seat they seek before the election is a change in the 'manner of election' under § 166.021(4) and can only be made…
Can a Florida special master carry a concealed firearm into the courtroom where they preside?
No. The narrow courtroom-firearm exception in § 790.06(12)(a)5. applies only to constitutionally vested 'judges' (county, circuit, DCA, supreme, federal district, federal appeals). A special master…
Can a Florida hospital district pay a board member's attorney fees for help responding to a public records request?
No. Florida law authorizes reimbursement of attorney's fees to a public board member only when the member is charged with a Sunshine Law violation and is later acquitted (§ 286.011(7)). Where no…
Can one person serve simultaneously on a Florida city planning and zoning board and a county historic preservation board?
The opinion concluded that simultaneous service on the Lighthouse Point Planning and Zoning Board and the Broward County Historic Preservation Board would violate Article II, § 5(a). Both boards…
Can a Florida city pay severance pay above 20 weeks to long-tenured employees, and can it run an early retirement program that exceeds the 20-week severance cap?
The opinion concluded § 215.425(4)(a) caps severance pay at 20 weeks for post-2011 contracts and bars it for misconduct. Pre-July-2011 employees under existing local ordinances are grandfathered.…
Can a Florida county expand a municipal service unit to fund landscaping, signage, and canal maintenance?
Maybe. § 125.01(1)(q) lets counties create municipal service taxing or benefit units for enumerated services and 'other essential facilities and municipal services.' Whether landscaping, signage,…
Can a Florida city use a zoning ordinance to require minimum distances between vacation rentals or to cap the number of vacation rentals per neighborhood?
The AG said spacing rules or caps could prevent eligible units from being rented as vacation rentals. They exceed the city's authority to the extent they have that effect.
Did Florida's AG ask the state Supreme Court to bless the 'Voting Restoration Amendment' ballot summary in 2016?
Yes. This 2016 filing was the AG's mandatory petition to the Florida Supreme Court, asking the Court to review whether the proposed Voting Restoration Amendment, which would automatically restore…
Are a volunteer fire department's fundraising records public under Florida's Public Records Law?
The office did not decide whether Wausau's volunteer fire department was covered. It said the town must examine the totality of factors used in Schwartzman, including firefighting responsibility,…
Can a Florida part-time law enforcement officer also work simultaneously for a second Florida law enforcement agency without violating the constitutional ban on dual officeholding?
The letter did not decide the requester's two positions because he supplied no description of their duties. If both positions carry sovereign powers such as warrantless arrest and firearm authority,…
Is Florida's Tampa Port Authority a 'public entity of the state' under FAA rules so that it can run an unmanned-aircraft systems test site?
Yes. Attorney General Pam Bondi formally certified to the FAA that the Tampa Port Authority is a 'public entity of the state' for purposes of the FAA's Unmanned Aircraft Systems Test Site selection…
Can a Florida city or county code enforcement inspector enter private residential property to inspect for code violations without consent or a warrant?
The AG's office repeated Opinion 2002-27's conclusion that a local code inspector lacks authority to enter private commercial or residential property for code enforcement without the owner,…
Does Florida's Sunshine Law apply to an unopposed candidate for a community development district before election day?
No. The AG's office confirmed that AGO 98-60 still applied: an unopposed candidate for a Florida community development district board was not a 'member-elect' subject to the Government in the…
Can a Florida police chief direct or permit firefighters to openly carry firearms during emergency responses?
The AG's office declined to address the question because a municipal police chief generally has no statutory authority over firefighter duties, and the AG only issues opinions on a public officer's…
Can a Florida city regulate loud music or amplified noise coming from boats anchored in the Intracoastal Waterway?
No. The Florida AG concluded that state law preempts local sound ordinances applied to vessels on the Florida Intracoastal Waterway. A city's only opening is the narrow engine/exhaust noise rule a…
Can a Florida city or town change the age of 'minor' or the curfew hours after adopting the state juvenile curfew statute by reference?
No. The Florida AG concluded that a city which adopts the state juvenile curfew statutes by reference is bound by their exact terms. To deviate (such as redefining 'minor'), the city must draft an…
Does a Florida water control district need a voter referendum to levy a non-ad valorem assessment for park maintenance on leased county land?
No. The Florida AG concluded that neither Chapter 189 nor Chapter 298, nor the district's enabling act, requires the Indian Trail Improvement District to hold a voter referendum before levying a…
Can a Florida city levy a special assessment against a charter school's property?
No. The Florida AG concluded that section 1002.33(18)(d), Florida Statutes, expressly exempts charter school facilities from assessments for special benefits, and that specific exemption controls…
Could Florida's Metropolitan Planning Organization Advisory Council use federal grant funds to buy meeting refreshments?
No. The Florida AG concluded that the Metropolitan Planning Organization Advisory Council had no express or necessarily implied statutory power to buy refreshments for its meetings, even using…
Can a Florida town commission count members who join by video as part of the quorum for a public meeting?
No. The opinion explained that under Florida's Sunshine Law a quorum of a local board must be physically present at the meeting site. Members joining remotely can participate once a physical quorum…
How does a Florida county calculate and distribute the fire-rescue discretionary sales surtax, and what happens to any surplus?
The opinion read section 212.055(8) to fix each fire agency's share by its average annual fire-rescue spending over the five fiscal years before the surtax took effect, with recalculation only when…
Can a Florida city enforce its alcohol ordinances on the grounds of a state community college located inside the city?
The AG's office declined to decide whether Melbourne's alcohol ordinances could be enforced on Eastern Florida State College property without a request that included the college. In informal…
Has Florida's Attorney General pressed the FAA over aircraft noise from NextGen flight paths over Florida?
Yes. In a June 2016 letter, Attorney General Pam Bondi urged the FAA to address Tampa-area noise complaints tied to the satellite-based NextGen flight path system, citing impacts on property values…
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Attorney general opinions in Florida are written by the Florida Attorney General's office in response to questions from state agencies, legislators, and prosecutors. They are not binding like court decisions, but courts and agencies treat them as persuasive guidance on how state law applies. Every opinion above has a plain-English question and short answer, plus a link to the full original text.