BEING OPEN ABOUT ETHICS AS DISCLOSURE DEADLINE APPROACHES

Bill Cottrell of the Tallahassee Democrat noted Monday that more than 31,000 financial disclosure forms have been sent to various state and local government officials from the Florida Commission on Ethics, and Thursday is the deadline for the information to be returned. As of late last week, 653 people had failed to do so, and after Thursday face $25-a-day fines.

Form 1, which most of the affected state employees file, does not require disclosure of income amounts. It's just a list of real property, secondary sources of income - like major customers and clients of any outside businesses - along with types of investments and liabilities an employee holds.

Form 6, filed by elected officials and major appointees, goes into a lot more detail, with dollar amounts and net-worth requirements.

And what does the Ethics Commission do with all this information? Not much. It just keeps the forms on file so any citizen can look at it. Chances are, nobody will.

But knowing it's out there can keep people honest. As they say around the Capitol, sunshine is the best disinfectant.