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The CRC completed its work and submitted its final report. This website is maintained for archival purposes.

Florida Constitution Revision Commission

PUB 700270: Article IV by Loyal Millett

ARTICLE IV: EXECUTIVE, Section 4. Cabinet.

SECTION 4.Cabinet.
  1. There shall be a cabinet composed of an attorney general, and a chief financial officer., and a commissioner of agriculture. In addition to the powers and duties specified herein, they shall exercise such powers and perform such duties as may be prescribed by law. In the event of a tie vote of the governor and cabinet, the side on which the governor voted shall be deemed to prevail.
  2. The attorney general shall be the chief state legal officer. There is created in the office of the attorney general the position of statewide prosecutor. The statewide prosecutor shall have concurrent jurisdiction with the state attorneys to prosecute violations of criminal laws occurring or having occurred, in two or more judicial circuits as part of a related transaction, or when any such offense is affecting or has affected two or more judicial circuits as provided by general law. The statewide prosecutor shall be appointed by the attorney general from not less than three persons nominated by the judicial nominating commission for the supreme court, or as otherwise provided by general law.
  3. The chief financial officer shall serve as the chief fiscal officer of the state, and shall settle and approve accounts against the state, and shall keep all state funds and securities.
  4. The commissioner of agriculture shall have supervision of matters pertaining to agriculture except as otherwise provided by law.
  5. The governor as chair, the chief financial officer, and the attorney general shall constitute the state board of administration., which shall succeed to all the power, control, and authority of the state board of administration established pursuant to Article IX, Section 16 of the Constitution of 1885, and which shall continue as a body at least for the life of Article XII, Section 9(c).
  6. The governor as chair, the chief financial officer, and the attorney general, and the commissioner of agriculture shall constitute the trustees of the internal improvement trust fund and the land acquisition trust fund as provided by law.
  7. The governor as chair, the chief financial officer, the attorney general, and the commissioner of agriculture shall constitute the agency head of the Department of Law Enforcement.

ARTICLE IV: EXECUTIVE, Section 5. Election of governor, lieutenant governor and cabinet members; qualifications; terms.

SECTION 5.Election of governor, lieutenant governor and cabinet members; qualifications; terms.
  1. At a state-wide general election in the year 2022 and every six years thereafter, each calendar year the number of which is even but not a multiple of four, the electors shall choose a governor and a lieutenant governor and members of the cabinet each for a term of four six years beginning on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in January of the succeeding year. In primary elections, candidates for the office of governor may choose to run without a lieutenant governor candidate. In the general election, all candidates for the offices of governor and lieutenant governor shall form joint candidacies in a manner prescribed by law so that each voter shall cast a single vote for a candidate for governor and a candidate for lieutenant governor running together. No candidates for governor and lieutenant-governor shall be residents of the same county or congressional district.
  2. When elected, the governor, lieutenant governor and each cabinet member must be an elector not less than thirty years of age who has resided in the state for the preceding seven years. The attorney general must have been a member of the bar of Florida for the preceding five years. No person who has, or but for resignation would have, served as governor or acting governor for more than six years in two consecutive terms shall be elected governor for the succeeding term.
  3. (1) No person, in his/her lifetime, shall serve as governor, lieutenant-governor, or as a member of the cabinet, in excess of six years. No person who has succeeded to any of the aforesaid offices shall, upon completing the remainder of the term, be eligible for election to any of the aforesaid offices. (2) Each incumbent of the aforesaid offices on the date this subsection (c) takes effect shall be eligible for election to any of the aforesaid offices, unless the same incumbents shall have already served two consecutive terms of four years, in which case, they shall not be eligible for election or succession to any of the aforesaid offices.

ARTICLE IV: EXECUTIVE, Section 6. Executive departments.

SECTION 6.Executive departments.

All functions of the executive branch of state government shall be allotted among not more than twenty-five fifteen departments, exclusive of those specifically provided for or authorized in this constitution. The administration of each department, unless otherwise provided in this constitution, shall be placed by law under the direct supervision of the governor, the lieutenant governor, the governor and cabinet, a cabinet member, or an officer or board appointed by and serving at the pleasure of the governor, except:

  1. When provided by law, confirmation by the senate or the approval of three members of the cabinet shall be required for appointment to or removal from any designated statutory office.
  2. Boards authorized to grant and revoke licenses to engage in regulated occupations shall be assigned to appropriate departments and their members appointed for fixed terms, subject to removal only for cause.

 

ARTICLE IV: EXECUTIVE, Section 8. Clemency.

SECTION 8. Clemency.
  1. Except in cases of treason and in cases where impeachment results in conviction, the governor may, by executive order filed with the custodian of state records, suspend collection of fines and forfeitures, grant reprieves not exceeding sixty days and, with the approval of two members of the cabinet, grant full or conditional pardons, restore civil rights, commute punishment, and remit fines and forfeitures for offenses.
  2. In cases of treason the governor may grant reprieves until adjournment of the regular session of the legislature convening next after the conviction, at which session the legislature may grant a pardon or further reprieve; otherwise the sentence shall be executed.
  3. There may be created by law a parole and probation commission with power to supervise persons on probation and to grant paroles or conditional releases to persons under sentences for crime. The qualifications, method of selection and terms, not to exceed six years, of members of the commission shall be prescribed by law.

ARTICLE IV: EXECUTIVE, Section 11. Department of Veterans Affairs.

SECTION 11. Department of Veterans Affairs.

The legislature, by general law, may provide for the establishment of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

ARTICLE IV: EXECUTIVE, Section 12. Department of Elderly Affairs.

SECTION 12. Department of Elderly Affairs.

The legislature may create a Department of Elderly Affairs and prescribe its duties. The provisions governing the administration of the department must comply with Section 6 of Article IV of the State Constitution.

ARTICLE IV: EXECUTIVE, New Section.

Catchline: Clemency.

 

(1) Such board as may hereafter be created or provided by legislative enactment shall constitute a board to be known as the board of pardons. Said board, or a majority thereof, shall have power to remit fines and forfeitures, and, only as provided by statute, to grant commutations and pardons after conviction of a judgment, either absolutely or upon such conditions as they may impose in all cases of offenses against the state except treason or conviction on impeachment. The legislature shall by law prescribe the sessions of said board and the manner in which application shall be made, and regulated proceedings thereon, but no fine or forfeiture shall be remitted, and no commutation or pardon granted, except by the decision of a majority of said board, after a full hearing in open session, and until previous notice of the time and place of such hearing and the release applied for shall have been given by publication in some newspaper of general circulation at least once a week for four weeks. The proceedings and decision of the board shall be reduced to writing and with their reasons for their action in each case, and the dissent of any member who may disagree, signed by him, and filed, with all papers used upon the hearing, in the office of the custodian of state records.

(2) The governor shall have power to grant respites or reprieves in all cases of convictions for offenses against the state, except treason or conviction on impeachment, but such respites or reprieves shall not extend beyond the next session of the board of pardons; and such board shall at such session continue or determine such respite or reprieve, or they may commute or pardon the offense, as herein provided. In cases of conviction for treason the governor shall have the power to suspend the execution of the sentence until the case shall be reported to the legislature at its next regular session, when the legislature shall either pardon or commute the sentence, direct its execution, or grant a further reprieve.

 

ARTICLE VI: SUFFRAGE AND ELECTIONS, Section 4. Disqualifications.

SECTION 4.Disqualifications.
  1. No person convicted of a felony, or adjudicated in this or any other state to be mentally incompetent, shall be qualified to vote or hold office until restoration of civil rights or removal of disability.
  2. No person may appear on the ballot for re-election to any of the following offices:
    1. Florida representative,
    2. Florida senator,
    3. any county elective office established by law;
    4. any judicial circuit elective office established by law;
    5. any school district elective office established by law; or
    6. any municipal elective office established by law
    7. Florida Lieutenant governor,
    8. any office of the Florida cabinet,
    9. U.S. Representative from Florida, or
    10. U.S. Senator from Florida

    if, by the end of the current term of office, the person will have served (or, but for resignation, would have served) in that office for eight consecutive years.