Current through the 2024 Legislative Session
Section 1011.10 - Penalty(1) Any member of a district school board or any district school superintendent who violates the provisions of this section commits malfeasance and misfeasance in office and shall be subject to removal from office by the Governor, and any contract or attempted contract entered into by any school officer or subordinate school officer that is not within the purview or in violation of the provisions of this section shall be void, and no such contract or attempted contract shall be enforceable in any court.(2) Each member of any district school board voting to incur an indebtedness against the district school funds in excess of the expenditure allowed by law, or in excess of any appropriation as adopted in the original official budget or amendments thereto, or to approve or pay any illegal charge against the funds, and any chair of a district school board or district school superintendent who signs a warrant for payment of any such claim or bill of indebtedness against any of the funds shall be personally liable for the amount, and shall be guilty of malfeasance in office and subject to removal by the Governor. It shall be the duty of the Auditor General, other state officials, or independent certified public accountants charged by law with the responsibility for auditing school accounts, upon discovering any such illegal expenditure or expenditures in excess of the appropriations in the budget as officially amended, to certify such fact to the Department of Financial Services, which thereupon shall verify such fact and it shall be the duty of the Department of Financial Services to advise the Department of Legal Affairs thereof, and it shall be the duty of the Department of Legal Affairs to cause to be instituted and prosecuted, either through its office or through any state attorney, proceedings at law or in equity against such member or members of a district school board or district school superintendent. If either of the officers does not institute proceedings within 90 days after the audit has been certified to them by the Department of Financial Services, any taxpayer may institute suit in his or her own name on behalf of the district.(3) If any of the conditions identified in s. 218.503(1) exist within a school district, the salary of each district school board member and district superintendent, calculated pursuant to ss. 1001.395 and 1001.47, shall be withheld until the conditions are corrected. This subsection does not apply to a district school board member or district superintendent elected or appointed within 1 year after the identification of the conditions in s. 218.503(1) if he or she did not participate in the approval or preparation of the final school district budget adopted before the identification of such conditions.s.613, ch. 2002-387; s.1969, ch. 2003-261; s.16, ch. 2018-5.Amended by 2018 Fla. Laws, ch. 5, s 16, eff. 7/1/2019.