Attorney warns commissioners: Sunshine Law violations can void actions and carry criminal penalties

Randy Mora devoted a substantial portion of the April 15 workshop to Florida’s public‑meetings law, telling Sarasota commissioners that meetings of any collegial body must be open, noticed and accessible. He warned that meetings in venues that chill access or gatherings that avoid public notice violate the statute.

Mora described the statutory requirements — reasonable notice, an accessible location, and recorded minutes available for inspection — and cautioned that workshops, special meetings and retreats are subject to the same Sunshine Law requirements unless a community’s rules of procedure explicitly limit official acts in a particular format.

He emphasized quasi‑judicial settings carry heightened due‑process expectations: when commissioners apply existing, ascertainable criteria (for example, site‑plan approvals), decisions must rest on competent, substantial evidence and permit procedural due process. Mora said policy appeals that ignore evidentiary standards risk reversal.

Pointing to a high‑profile April 2020 Florida case, Mora said three elected officials who held a purported meeting despite a canceled notice were later criminally prosecuted and recalled. He quoted language from an appellate concurrence that Mora said is instructive for elected officials: if in doubt whether a gathering is a proper, publicly noticed meeting, "LEAVE." He added that Sunshine Law violations can render actions void ab initio and may carry misdemeanor penalties when officials knowingly attend or participate in an improperly noticed meeting.

Mora urged commissioners to operate deliberately: use clear rules for noticing meetings, rely on the clerk and city attorney for procedural questions, and rely on the record when making quasi‑judicial decisions.