House Bill 3657c2

    Florida House of Representatives - 1998          CS/CS/HB 3657

        By the Committees on Governmental Operations, 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 who has been

16  given the custody, and awarded the privilege, of administering

17  state financial assets in state trust funds pursuant to a

18  contract.  For the purposes of this section, a contract

19  manager includes both the business and any of its owners,

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

21  individual engaged in the day-to-day management activities of

22  the business.

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

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

25  not invested or held by or on behalf of the State Treasurer or

26  the State Board of Administration, and includes any negotiable

27  or other monetary instrument drawn on or disbursed from a

28  trust fund.

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

30  given custody of and disbursement authority over state

31  financial assets to the contract manager by means of a

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






    Florida House of Representatives - 1998          CS/CS/HB 3657

    192-977-98






  1  contract, without regard to whether there exists a fiduciary

  2  relationship between the state and the contract manager.

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

  4  and flagrant character which evinces a reckless disregard for

  5  the state financial assets entrusted to a contract manager and

  6  leads to a presumption of indifference to the consequences.

  7         Section 2.  Culpable negligence causing public

  8  financial injury.--

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

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

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

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

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

14  culpable negligence commits the offense of culpable negligence

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

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

17  775.084, Florida Statutes.

18         (2)  Any state contract with a contract value of

19  $50,000 or more which entrusts state financial assets in a

20  state trust fund to a contract manager shall include notice of

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

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

23  negligence causing public financial injury.

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

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

26  the Statewide Prosecutor.

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

28  year in which enacted.

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