House Bill 3657c1

    Florida House of Representatives - 1998             CS/HB 3657

        By the Committee on Crime & Punishment and Representatives
    Sindler and Argenziano





  1                      A bill to be entitled

  2         An act relating to culpable negligence;

  3         providing definitions; specifying conditions

  4         for committing culpable negligence causing

  5         public financial injury; providing penalties;

  6         requiring certain contracts to provide notice

  7         of such conditions; providing construction;

  8         providing for prosecution by a state attorney

  9         or the Statewide Prosecutor; providing an

10         effective date.

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12  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

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14         Section 1.  Definitions.--For purposes of this act:

15         (1)  "Contract manager" means any person, natural or

16  artificial, who has been given the custody, and awarded the

17  privilege, of administering state financial assets in state

18  trust funds pursuant to a contract.  For the purposes of this

19  section a contract manager includes both the business and its

20  owners, operators, officers, directors, partners, or other

21  individuals engaged in the management activities of a

22  business.

23         (2)  "State financial assets" means monetary funds

24  intended for, existing in, or owed to any state trust fund,

25  and includes any negotiable or other monetary instrument drawn

26  on or disbursed from a trust fund.

27         (3)  "Entrusted by the state" means that the state has

28  given custody of and disbursement authority over state

29  financial assets to the contract manager by means of a

30  contract, without regard to whether there exists a fiduciary

31  relationship between the state and the contract manager.

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CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.






    Florida House of Representatives - 1998             CS/HB 3657

    189-839-98






  1         (4)  "Culpable negligence" means negligence of a gross

  2  and flagrant character which evinces a reckless disregard for

  3  the state financial assets entrusted to a contract manager and

  4  leads to a presumption of indifference to the consequences.

  5         Section 2.  Culpable negligence causing public

  6  financial injury.--

  7         (1)  Any contract manager who, having been entrusted by

  8  the state with the care and custody of state financial assets

  9  in a state trust fund, causes or through inaction allows to be

10  caused aggregate financial losses valued at $100,000 or more

11  of those state financial assets over a 12-month period through

12  culpable negligence commits the offense of culpable negligence

13  causing public financial injury, a felony of the third degree,

14  punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s.

15  775.084, Florida Statutes.

16         (2)  Any state contract which entrusts state financial

17  assets in a state trust fund to another person or corporation

18  with a contract value of $50,000 or more shall include notice

19  of the provisions of subsection (1).  Failure to provide this

20  notice shall not constitute a defense to the crime of culpable

21  negligence causing public financial injury.

22         (3)  Prosecutions for violations of this act may be

23  brought on behalf of this state by any state attorney or by

24  the Statewide Prosecutor.

25         Section 3.  This act shall take effect July 1 of the

26  year in which enacted.

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