Florida Senate - 2022                                     SB 598
       
       
        
       By Senator Baxley
       
       
       
       
       
       12-00604-22                                            2022598__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to public records; amending s.
    3         320.025, F.S.; expanding a public records exemption to
    4         include all records pertaining to a registration
    5         application submitted by any criminal conflict and
    6         civil regional counsel office; providing for future
    7         legislative review and repeal; providing a statement
    8         of public necessity; providing a contingent effective
    9         date.
   10          
   11  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   12  
   13         Section 1. Subsection (3) of section 320.025, Florida
   14  Statutes, is amended, and subsection (4) is added to that
   15  section, to read:
   16         320.025 Registration certificate and license plate or decal
   17  issued under fictitious name; application.—
   18         (3) This section constitutes an exception to other statutes
   19  relating to falsification of public records, false swearing, and
   20  similar matters. All records relating to the registration
   21  application of the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control
   22  Unit, a law enforcement agency, or any state public defender’s
   23  office, or any office of criminal conflict and civil regional
   24  counsel, and records necessary to carry out the intended purpose
   25  of this section, are exempt from the provisions of s. 119.07(1),
   26  and s. 24(a), Art. I of the State Constitution as long as the
   27  information is retained by the department. This section does not
   28  prohibit other personations, fabrications, or creations of false
   29  identifications by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control
   30  Unit, or law enforcement or public defender’s officers, or a
   31  regional counsel office in the official performance of covert
   32  operations.
   33         (4) This section is subject to the Open Government Sunset
   34  Review Act in accordance with s. 119.15 and shall stand repealed
   35  on October 2, 2027, unless reviewed and saved from repeal
   36  through reenactment by the Legislature.
   37         Section 2. The Legislature finds that it is a public
   38  necessity that all records relating to the application for a
   39  confidential registration certificate and registration license
   40  plate or decal submitted by an office of criminal conflict and
   41  civil regional counsel, and any other records necessary to carry
   42  out the intended purpose of s. 320.025, Florida Statutes, be
   43  made exempt from s. 119.07(1), Florida Statutes, and s. 24(a),
   44  Article I of the State Constitution. Investigations by an office
   45  of criminal conflict and civil regional counsel may be
   46  jeopardized by the registration of motor vehicles under the
   47  office’s name or under the names of the office’s investigators
   48  in that persons under investigation may acquire such
   49  registration information in order to seek retaliation against
   50  the office or its investigators. Authorizing offices of criminal
   51  conflict and civil regional counsel to obtain confidential
   52  registration certificates and registration license plates or
   53  decals in the same manner as other law enforcement agencies
   54  would better ensure the safety of the regional counsel offices’
   55  investigators in performing their official duties.
   56         Section 3. This act shall take effect on the same date that
   57  SB ____ or similar legislation takes effect, if such legislation
   58  is adopted in the same legislative session or an extension
   59  thereof and becomes a law.