Florida Senate - 2022                              CS for SB 598
       
       
        
       By the Committee on Judiciary; and Senator Baxley
       
       
       
       
       
       590-01915-22                                           2022598c1
    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 for a registration
    7         certificate and registration license plate or decal
    8         issued under a fictitious name; providing for future
    9         legislative review and repeal; providing a statement
   10         of public necessity; providing a contingent effective
   11         date.
   12          
   13  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   14  
   15         Section 1. Subsection (3) of section 320.025, Florida
   16  Statutes, is amended, and subsection (4) is added to that
   17  section, to read:
   18         320.025 Registration certificate and license plate or decal
   19  issued under fictitious name; application.—
   20         (3) This section constitutes an exception to other statutes
   21  relating to falsification of public records, false swearing, and
   22  similar matters. All records relating to the registration
   23  application of the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control
   24  Unit, a law enforcement agency, or any state public defender’s
   25  office, or any office of criminal conflict and civil regional
   26  counsel, and records necessary to carry out the intended purpose
   27  of this section, are exempt from the provisions of s. 119.07(1),
   28  and s. 24(a), Art. I of the State Constitution as long as the
   29  information is retained by the department. This section does not
   30  prohibit other personations, fabrications, or creations of false
   31  identifications by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control
   32  Unit, or law enforcement or public defender’s officers, or a
   33  regional counsel office in the official performance of covert
   34  operations.
   35         (4) This section is subject to the Open Government Sunset
   36  Review Act in accordance with s. 119.15 and shall stand repealed
   37  on October 2, 2027, unless reviewed and saved from repeal
   38  through reenactment by the Legislature.
   39         Section 2. The Legislature finds that it is a public
   40  necessity that all records relating to the application for a
   41  confidential registration certificate and registration license
   42  plate or decal submitted by an office of criminal conflict and
   43  civil regional counsel, and any other records necessary to carry
   44  out the intended purpose of s. 320.025, Florida Statutes, be
   45  made exempt from s. 119.07(1), Florida Statutes, and s. 24(a),
   46  Article I of the State Constitution. Investigations by an office
   47  of criminal conflict and civil regional counsel may be
   48  jeopardized by the registration of motor vehicles under the
   49  office’s name or under the names of the office’s investigators
   50  in that persons under investigation may acquire such
   51  registration information in order to seek retaliation against
   52  the office or its investigators. Authorizing offices of criminal
   53  conflict and civil regional counsel to obtain confidential
   54  registration certificates and registration license plates or
   55  decals in the same manner as other law enforcement agencies
   56  would better ensure the safety of the regional counsel offices’
   57  investigators in performing their official duties.
   58         Section 3. This act shall take effect on the same date that
   59  SB 596 or similar legislation takes effect, if such legislation
   60  is adopted in the same legislative session or an extension
   61  thereof and becomes a law.