Board of Trustees of the City of Delray Beach Police and Firefighters Retirement System v. Citigroup Global Markets: Limiting the Enforcement of the Florida Sunshine Law

Florida’s Sunshine Law requires all state, county, municipal, or political board or commission meetings to be conducted in public, and further states that no formal action will be considered binding unless conducted at a public meeting. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently held in Board of Trustees of the City of Delray Beach and Firefighters Retirement System v. Citigroup Global Enforcement that a government agency was bound by an agreement with a private entity that had not been conducted in public, despite the fact that an affected private citizen would be free to challenge such agreement. In this Article, the Authors draw attention to the fact that this decision conflicts with decisions from the Florida Supreme Court and the Fourth District Court of Appeal. The Authors explore these other courts’ decisions revoking private contracts that were created without meeting the Sunshine Law’s established disclosure procedure. Even when the private entity relies on the agreement to its detriment and there is no other basis for challenging the contract, these courts decided that the taxpayers should not be held accountable for such agreements and, therefore, that the government should be able to enforce the Sunshine Law’s requirements. It remains to be seen whether future court decisions will follow the Eleventh Circuit’s approach or adhere to the pertinent Florida Supreme Court jurisprudence.