BILL SUMMARY DETAILS

CS/CS/HB 573 (Beltran) and CS/SB 758 (Diaz) create a new statute establishing standards and mandatory five hours of training for the fiduciary duty of care for appointed local public officers and executive officers of local government entities. In addition, the bills impose restrictions on legal representation by government attorneys. The fiduciary duty and training requirements apply to appointed officials of various local boards and committees, including code enforcement boards, planning and zoning boards, land use boards, community redevelopment agency boards and pension boards. CS/SB 758 was amended to remove pension and retirement boards from the bill. CS/HB 573 was amended to remove certain municipal boards from the bill, such as code enforcement, planning and zoning, CRA and pension boards. The bills provide that each appointed public official and executive officer has a fiduciary duty of care to the governmental entity served and has a duty to act in accordance with laws and terms governing the office or employment, act with the care and competence normally exercised by private business professionals, act only within the scope of authority and refrain from conduct likely to damage the economic interests of the governmental entity. Further, such persons must become reasonably informed in connection with any decision-making function and keep reasonably informed concerning the performance of a governmental entity’s officers, agents and employees. The bills impose training requirements on appointed public officers and executive officers that require completion of at least five hours of board governance training per term served. The bills specify the minimum content of such training programs, including board governance best practices and fiduciary duty of care and liabilities imposed by the new law. The bills provide that all legal counsel employed by a governmental entity must represent the legal interest and position of the governing body of the governmental entity and not the interest of any individual or employee of the governmental entity. (O’Hara)

HB 877 (Bell) authorizes first responders (EMTs and paramedics) to carry a concealed firearm while performing his or her duties. The bill requires the first responder to hold a valid concealed carry license and complete an extensive training program. The bill also requires the first responder to complete a psychological evaluation prior to receiving approval to carry a firearm while on duty. The bill mandates that the employment agency must fund the trainings required under the bill but does not designate a funding source. (Taggart)

SB 732 (Bracy) increases the amount of time a law enforcement agency must retain body camera recordings from 90 days to 365 days. (Taggart)

CS/CS/HB 55 (Overdorf) and CS/SB 284 (Perry) preempt local governments from adopting zoning and development regulations that require specific building design elements for single- and two-family dwellings unless certain conditions are met. The bills define the term “building design elements” to mean exterior color, type or style of exterior cladding; style or material of roof structures or porches; exterior nonstructural architectural ornamentation; location or architectural styling of windows or doors; and number, type and layout of rooms. The bills were amended to exempt historic districts, Community Redevelopment Agencies and planned unit developments created before July 1, 2021. CS/CS/HB 55 was further amended to exempt planned unit developments or master planned communities in perpetuity, as well as local governments with design review boards or architectural review boards established before July 1, 2021. CS/CS/HB 55 passed the House (89-24). This language was amended onto CS/CS/CS/SB 1146 (Brodeur). (Taggart)

CS/CS/SB 522 (Diaz) and CS/HB 219 (Fischer) change current law relating to vacation rentals, also known as short-term rentals (STRs). The bills would:

•Clarify the definition of an advertising platform to capture online marketplaces.

•Preempt to the state the regulation of advertising platforms.

•Allow a “grandfathered” city to amend its short-term rental regulations if the amendment makes the regulation less restrictive.

•Require the Department of Business and Professional Regulation to maintain vacation rental property license information in an accessible electronic format.

•Require advertising platforms to verify a property’s license number prior to publishing its advertisement on its platform and every quarter thereafter.

•Require advertising platforms to quarterly provide the department with the physical

address of the vacation rental properties that advertise on their platforms.

•Impose a duty on advertising platforms to collect and remit taxes in relation to the

rental of a vacation rental property through its platform.

•Establish requirements that advertising platforms adopt an anti-discrimination

policy and inform their users of the public lodging discrimination prohibition found in current law.

•Clarify that the provision of the bill shall not supersede any current or future community association-governing document. 

•Require sexual predators to notify local law enforcement if they will be staying for 24 hours or more in a short-term rental.

Preemption provisions included in CS/HB 219 only:

•Preempt to the state the regulation of STRs, including licensure and inspections.

•Undo any local registration, inspection or licensing requirements specific to STRs adopted since 2014.

•Require that any ordinances (noise, parking, trash, etc.), must be applied uniformly to all residential properties, regardless of how the property is being used.

CS/CS/SB 522 was significantly amended to remove the majority of the preemptions in the bill that still remain in the House version of the bill. SB 522 also specifies that advertising platforms must comply with any applicable merchant business tax receipts on short-term rentals. (Taggart)

SB 1396 (Gruters) and HB 1167 (Snyder) expand the current law preemption of local government regulations pertaining to “dangerous” trees on residential property. The bills expand the definition of “residential property” to include manufactured or modular homes, mobile home parks, duplexes, triplexes, quadruplexes, condominium units or cooperative units. (O’Hara)

CS/CS/HB 57 (Andrade) and CS/CS/CS/SB 1194 (Hooper) contain various transportation-related provisions. Of particular importance to municipalities with seaports, provisions from CS/CS/CS SB 426 and CS/CS/CS/HB 267 were amended onto the bills. The bills now prohibit local governments from restricting or regulating maritime commerce in seaports including, but not limited to, regulating or restricting a vessel's type or size; source or type of cargo; or number, origin or nationality of passengers, as well as environmental or health records of a particular vessel. CS/CS/HB 57 was substituted for CS/CS/CS/SB 1194. CS/CS/CS/SB 1194 passed the Senate (39-0) and the House (87-26). (Taggart)

CS/CS/SB 1080 (Hutson) and CS/CS/HB 987 (Toledo), as originally filed, were the “Tobacco 21” bills that increased the legal smoking age to 21 to comply with federal law. The bills were amended to include a preemption on the regulation of the marketing, sale or delivery of tobacco or nicotine products. CS/CS/HB 987 was substituted to CS/CS/SB 1080. CS/CS/SB 1080 passed the Senate (29-9) and the House (103-13). (Taggart)

SB 1008 (Hutson) and HB 761 (Overdorf) provide that solar facilities (including solar farms and related buildings, transmission lines and substations) are a permitted (as-of-right) use in local government comprehensive agricultural land use categories and certain agricultural zoning districts within unincorporated areas. The bills require solar facilities to comply with minimal criteria such as setbacks and buffering applicable to similar uses within the agricultural district. The bills authorize counties to adopt ordinances specifying buffer and landscaping requirements for solar facilities if the requirements do not exceed requirements for other permitted uses within an agricultural district. The bills also include solar facilities with capacities of less than 150 megawatts within the current definition of “electrical power plant” in the Power Plant Siting Act and allow such solar facilities the option of whether to use the Act’s certification process for siting the facilities. (O’Hara)

SB 1960 (Bean) provides a process for siting solar facilities and restricts local governments’ authority to prohibit or impose requirements on such facilities. It defines “solar facilities” to mean a production facility that converts solar energy to electricity that is consumed primarily off-site via a transmission system. The term includes modules, mounting systems, collection systems and associated components as well as accessory buildings, grid interconnection equipment and energy storage equipment. The bill provides that solar facilities shall be a permitted use by right in all agricultural land use categories of the applicable local government comprehensive plan and all agricultural zoning districts within unincorporated areas. It provides that solar facilities must comply with the same setback, landscaping, buffering, fencing or berm requirements applicable to other uses that do not produce food or fiber in that comprehensive plan category or zoning district. The bill specifies that agricultural land leased for a solar facility shall maintain its agricultural tax exemptions. For solar facilities greater than 75 megawatts in capacity, the bill allows an applicant the option to apply for certification under the state’s Power Plant Siting Act. (O’Hara)

HB 587 (Snyder) and SB 1902 (Rodrigues) revise requirements for minimum radio signal strength for fire department communications; require the state fire marshal to adopt minimum radio coverage design criteria for public safety emergency communications systems and minimum standards for interior radio coverage and signal strength in buildings; require a local jurisdiction's public safety emergency communications system be certified as meeting or exceeding certain criteria before new and existing buildings are required to install or to be assessed for two-way radio communications enhancement systems; require local jurisdictions to produce radio coverage heatmaps and prohibit local jurisdictions from withholding certificates of occupancy under certain circumstances. (Taggart)

CS/SB 400 (Rodrigues) and CS/HB 913 (McClure) prohibit a city, after receiving a public record request, from filing an action for declaratory judgement against the individual or entity making the request. The bills would prevent cities from seeking clarification from the courts as to whether a record is exempt, or exempt and confidential. CS/HB 913 was substituted to CS/SB 400. CS/SB 400 passed the Senate (39-0) and the House (113-0). (Taggart)

HB 439 (Fine) and SB 810 (Gruters) prohibit an agency or local governmental entity from purchasing or entering into a contract for any good made in or that contains at least 25% or more parts that were produced in China. The bills also prohibit a local governmental entity from purchasing any good or service made, sold or provided by Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Apple or Alphabet, Inc. (Taggart)

CS/CS/HB 919 (Tomkow) prohibits a local government from taking any action that restricts or prohibits, or has the effect of restricting or prohibiting, the types or fuel sources of energy production that may be used, delivered, converted or supplied by various electric or gas utilities, transmission companies or dealers. The prohibition is retroactive in nature. The bill does not prohibit a governmental entity from adopting regulations or policies governing an electric or natural gas utility that it owns or operates and directly controls. (O'Hara)

CS/SB 268 (Perry) and HB 735 (Harding) expressly preempt the licensing of occupations to the state. The bills define occupation to include a paid job, work, trade, employment or profession and define licensing to include any training, education, test, certification, registration, procedure or license that are required for a person to perform an occupation. The bills provide limited exceptions for specified local licenses and any local government licensing of occupations that was expressly authorized by general law. The bills will prohibit a local government from requiring a person to obtain a license for a job scope that does not substantially correspond to the job scope of certain contractor categories set forth in Chapter 489, Florida Statutes. In addition, the bills will authorize local governments to issue journeyman licenses in specified trades. HB 735 passed the House and Senate and is awaiting action by the governor. The bill's effective date is July 1, 2021. (Cruz)

HB 115 (Fabricio) provides that an individual with a valid active local license may work in any local government jurisdiction without having to obtain additional local licensing, take additional examinations or pay additional local licensing fees. The bill explicitly states that this multi-jurisdictional approval does not impede a local government's ability to collect business taxes from businesses operating within the local government's boundaries. Local governments' disciplinary jurisdiction for licenses within their jurisdictions is also retained. The bill details the process for a local government to execute its disciplinary jurisdiction. (Cruz)

HB 187 (McCurdy) and SB 878 (Thurston) prohibit law enforcement agencies from purchasing certain surplus military equipment. The bills also prohibit law enforcement agencies from using tear gas and kinetic impact munitions on an assembly or protest unless the gathering has been declared unlawful. (Taggart)

CS/CS/CS/HB 337 (DiCeglie) and CS/CS/CS/SB 750 (Gruters) are comprehensive impact fee bills. The bills restrict what are allowable expenditures of impact fees revenue and cap by how much impact fees can be raised on a yearly basis. Impact fees are collected by local governments to fund local infrastructure to meet the demands of population growth. The bills also ease the restrictions on expenditure of impact fees revenue to allow for the purchase of fire department vehicles, emergency medical service vehicles, sheriff’s office vehicles, police department vehicles and the equipment necessary to outfit the vehicles for their official use. As amended, the bills will require, within 12 months before the adoption of an impact fee increase, a local government to: conduct a demonstrated-need study justifying the increase and expressly demonstrating the extraordinary circumstances necessitating the need to exceed the limitations, hold at least two publicly noticed workshops dedicated to the extraordinary circumstances necessitating the need to exceed the limitations and approve the impact fee ordinance by at least a two-thirds vote of the governing body. CS/CS/CS/HB 337 passed the House and Senate and is awaiting action by the governor. The bill is effective upon becoming law. (Cruz)

CS/HB 403 (Giallombardo) and CS/CS/SB 266 (Perry) preempt the regulation of home-based businesses. The bills provide that local governments may not enact or enforce any ordinance, regulation or policy or take any action to license or otherwise regulate a home-based business in a manner that is different from other businesses in a local government’s jurisdiction. The bills authorize business owners to challenge local government actions and authorize the prevailing party to recover specified attorney fees and costs. Local governments may regulate a home-based business for issues related to noise, vibration, heat, smoke, dust, glare, fumes, odors as long as these regulations are not more stringent than those applied to a home where no business takes place. CS/HB 403 passed the House (77-41), where compromise language was stripped from the bill, then passed the Senate (19-18). The bill will take effect July 1, 2021, if signed by the governor. (Cruz)

CS/CS/CS/SB 88 (Brodeur) amends the Florida Right to Farm Act, which is intended to protect reasonable agricultural activities from nuisance lawsuits. The Right to Farm Act specifies that no farm operation that has been in operation for one year or more and that was not a nuisance at the time of its establishment shall be a public or private nuisance if the farm operation conforms to generally accepted agricultural and management practices. The bill expands the definition of “farm operations” in the Act to add “agritourism activities” to the list of farm operations that receive legal protections in nuisance suits, and it adds the generation of fumes and particle emissions to the list of conditions or activities that constitute farm operations under the Act. The “established date of operation” for an agritourism activity is the date the specific agritourism activity commenced, which may be different from the established date for the underlying farm operation. In addition, the bill provides limitations on liability from nuisance, trespass or tort actions that may be filed relating to farming or agritourism activities. It specifies that a farm may not be held liable for operations alleged to cause harm outside of the farm unless the plaintiff proves by clear and convincing evidence that the claim arises out of conduct that does not comply with state and federal environmental laws, regulations or best management practices. The bill further provides that a nuisance action may not be filed unless the property affected by the activity is located within one-half mile of the activity. The bill limits compensatory damages in a private nuisance action to the reduction in fair market value of the affected property. It prohibits the recovery of punitive damages for nuisance actions under specified conditions. Finally, the bill requires payment of attorney fees and costs by plaintiffs who fail to prevail in a nuisance action. (O'Hara)