City attorney trains board on Florida Sunshine Law, public‑records and conflict rules

Assistant City Attorney Felicia Hallam gave new and returning members of the Fort Pierce Redevelopment Agency board a step‑by‑step review of Florida’s open‑meetings and public‑records laws and the state’s voting conflict rules.

Felicia Hallam told members that the Sunshine Law requires meetings and board communications to be open to the public and warned that routine electronic communications—emails, text messages or social‑media back‑and‑forth—can trigger an unlawful meeting. “Any sort of communication back and forth…about official board business or something that you foresee to come before the board would be a Sunshine Law violation unless it’s during the meeting itself,” Hallam said.

She explained public‑records obligations, saying most communications that can be made into a hard copy are subject to production and retention rules administered by the city clerk’s office. Hallam advised members to preserve board‑related files and to use staff or city addresses to centralize records for potential public‑records requests.

On voting conflicts, Hallam said members may need to disclose relationships that could create a special private gain or loss and that, where a conflict exists, common practice is to abstain and sometimes leave the room. Hallam cited statute numbers referenced in the briefing and described consequences for willful violations—civil fines and, in extreme cases, criminal penalties—pointing to a past Sebastian city council case as an example of severe enforcement.

Hallam encouraged board members to contact the city attorney’s office or the Commission on Ethics when questions arise and said staff will provide slides and forms to guide disclosures and recordkeeping. The training closed with a reminder that this advisory board is covered by the same basic open‑government laws that apply to commissioners and other public bodies.