Florida Attorney General Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of attorney general opinions issued in Florida, with full citations and the original source on every page.
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Can a Florida town pass an ordinance requiring stores to submit a shopping cart retention plan or install a cart-retention system?
No. Florida law (§ 506.5131) expressly preempts municipal ordinances that require retailers to submit shopping cart retention plans, allow the town to deny those plans, impose monetary penalties for n…
Can a Florida city run a temporary pilot program allowing some vacation rentals, then snap back to its pre-2011 total ban once the pilot ends?
No on the snap-back. The AG read § 509.032(7)(b) as preempting any post-2011 city regulation of vacation-rental duration or frequency; a sunset clause that would restore an earlier ban would itself be…
Can a Florida city council move its municipal election day from a March date set by an old special law to November to align with state general elections, by ordinance and without holding a referendum?
Yes. Sections 100.3605(2), 101.75(3), and 166.021(4), Florida Statutes, authorize a municipality to move its election date by ordinance, even when an older special law specified the prior date. The 20…
Can a Florida city or town change the age of 'minor' or the curfew hours after adopting the state juvenile curfew statute by reference?
No. The Florida AG concluded that a city which adopts the state juvenile curfew statutes by reference is bound by their exact terms. To deviate (such as redefining 'minor'), the city must draft an ind…
Can a Florida city enforce its alcohol ordinances on the grounds of a state community college located inside the city?
The AG's office declined to issue a formal opinion because the question pitted one government against another. In informal comments, the office observed that section 1001.64(5), Florida Statutes, gave…
Can a Florida city pass a drone ordinance banning private surveillance that invades residents' privacy?
Yes. The AG opinion concluded that section 934.50, Florida Statutes (the Freedom from Unwarranted Surveillance Act), does not expressly preempt municipal regulation of drones, so a city like Aventura …
How can a Florida city legally raise its local business tax?
A city may change its local business tax only through the routes Chapter 205 sets out: adopting a new ordinance under section 205.0315, completing a reclassification under section 205.0535, or making …
Can a Florida school district hire armed private security guards?
Likely yes, at the district's discretion. The AG advised that section 790.115 generally bans firearms on school grounds but allows them in support of an approved school-sanctioned activity, a term the…
When can a Florida city raise its local business tax (occupational license tax) rates?
Only after meeting the statutory conditions. The AG advised that the Village of Pinecrest could not raise its business tax rates by up to 5% every other year because it never satisfied section 205.053…
Can a Florida county ban mobile homes from a residential zone that allows conventional and manufactured homes?
Responding informally, the AG advised that a county may exclude mobile homes from a zoning classification for conventionally constructed homes, because mobile homes (defined in section 320.01(2)(a)) d…
Can a Florida city require a voter referendum before its redevelopment agency borrows money?
The office gave informal comments because only one council member asked. Its long-standing view is that the Community Redevelopment Act (Part III, Chapter 163) is so detailed and pervasive that it pre…
Can a Florida county forgive penalties and interest on delinquent special assessments it imposed by ordinance?
Likely, by amending the ordinance. The office gave informal comments noting that a special assessment imposed by county ordinance is an exercise of home-rule power, not taxing power. Because a body th…
Can a Florida city council fill a council vacancy by special election if the city charter says otherwise?
The AG declined to answer directly, because interpreting a city charter is a question of local law outside the AG's authority and is usually referred to the local government's own attorney. As informa…
Can a Florida county spend public money to maintain a private road that school buses use?
No, not for free. The AG reaffirmed prior opinions holding that a county cannot spend public funds to repair or maintain a private road, even when the owner lets school buses use it, because public mo…
Can a Florida town council fill its own vacancies by appointment under the town charter?
The AG declined to give a formal answer, because the question turned on interpreting the town charter rather than state law. As informal guidance, the office noted that section 166.031(6) requires eac…
Can a Florida city pass an ordinance giving local contractors a preference in public bidding?
The AG declined to issue a formal opinion, because the request came from a legislator on behalf of private constituents rather than the local government whose powers were in question. As informal guid…
Can a Florida city charter require voter approval before changing or repealing an ordinance the voters enacted?
The Attorney General's office declined to rule on the validity of an existing Treasure Island charter clause requiring voter approval to amend or repeal voter-enacted ordinances, because it presumes e…
Can a Florida school district ban smoking outdoors on its campuses with a tobacco-free policy?
No, not without legislative authorization. Florida's Clean Indoor Air Act preempts the regulation of smoking, indoor and outdoor, to the state. A school district's home-rule power does not overcome th…
Can a Florida city pass an ordinance giving bidding preference to local contractors and businesses?
Generally yes. In informal comments to a legislator, the Attorney General's office explained that Florida municipalities have broad home rule powers and that a Florida appellate court has already uphe…
Can a Florida city exempt state-licensed professionals who work for someone else from its local business tax?
No. A Florida municipality does not have to levy a local business tax, but if it does under section 205.042, it must apply the tax to all businesses, professions, and occupations and may use only the …
Can a Florida town dissolve itself through a charter amendment, or only by the statutory dissolution process?
No. The AG concluded that section 165.051, Florida Statutes, sets the exclusive ways to dissolve a Florida municipality: a special act of the Legislature or an ordinance of the governing body approved…
Can a Florida city pause or cut its local business tax outside the every-other-year review?
No. The AG concluded the City of Titusville could not revisit its business-tax reclassification ordinance before the scheduled biennial review or cut individual classifications by more than 5 percent,…
Can a Florida city amend its charter to cap its own operating expenditures by referendum?
Yes. The AG concluded that, absent a general law to the contrary, a Florida city may amend its charter, subject to Chapter 166, to impose limits on the city's own operating expenditures. The opinion d…
Can a Florida city require a council member to sit on its police and firefighter pension boards?
The Attorney General's office declined to issue a formal opinion, because Chapters 175 and 185 are administered by the Division of Retirement and that agency would not join the request. As informal gu…
Can a Florida city ban texting while driving with its own ordinance?
The office concluded that section 316.0075, Florida Statutes, expressly preempts regulation of drivers' and passengers' use of cellphones and other electronic communications devices to the state. On t…
Can a Florida city pass its own ordinance regulating consumer fireworks?
Not under the law as it stood in 2009. The AG concluded that the moratorium in Chapter 2007-67, Laws of Florida, still barred a municipality from adopting any ordinance that directly prohibits or inte…
Can Florida voters require referendum approval for big city capital projects by charter amendment?
Yes. The AG concluded that a city charter may be amended by citizen petition initiative under section 166.031 to require voter approval of any capital improvement project exceeding $500,000. That kind…
What are a Florida city's and mayor's emergency powers under state law?
The AG's office declined to interpret Ocoee's city charter (a local matter outside its authority), but gave informal background on the state framework: cities have broad home-rule powers that cannot c…
Can a Florida city pass an ordinance requiring condominium associations to provide their own security guards to fight crime?
The AG concluded the city appeared to have the authority. Florida's home-rule grant and broad municipal police powers let a city require condominium associations to furnish security guards, because th…
Can a Florida city charter bar the mayor from holding any other public office or job?
A town attorney asked whether a Kenneth City charter clause barring the mayor from holding any other public office or public employment was constitutional and valid. The AG explained that his office c…
Does abolishing appointed city officers change a Florida city's 'form of government' so a referendum is required?
The Fort Walton Beach City Attorney followed up on an earlier informal opinion, asking whether planned charter changes (abolishing two appointed officers and their departments) altered the city's answ…
Can a Florida city raise mayor and council salaries by ordinance when a pre-1973 charter set them?
The North Miami city clerk said the city had raised the mayor's and council's salaries by ordinance even though the city charter, adopted in 1969 and not amended until 2008, set those salaries, and as…
Can a Florida city abolish appointive charter offices by ordinance without a public referendum?
In an informal opinion, the AG's office advised that because Fort Walton Beach's charter predates the 1973 Municipal Home Rule Powers Act and was never readopted, section 166.021(4) lets the city abol…
Can a Florida school board keep insuring former employees who don't meet the statute's definition of a retiree?
The AG concluded that section 112.0801 did not stop the Osceola County School Board from continuing to offer health insurance to former employees who left before 2007 and began participating then, eve…
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Attorney general opinions in Florida are written by the Florida Attorney General's office in response to questions from state agencies, legislators, and prosecutors. They are not binding like court decisions, but courts and agencies treat them as persuasive guidance on how state law applies. Every opinion above has a plain-English question and short answer, plus a link to the full original text.