Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Florida Guardianship Reform Bill Passes Committee Unanimously

Today SB634, Guardianship, by State Senator Jeff Brandes (R-St. Petersburg) passed the Senate Committee on Children, Families, and Elder Affairs with unanimous support. The bill reflects a cooperative effort with the Clerks of Court to provide additional scrutiny over guardians entrusted with vulnerable citizens. 

“The vast majority of guardians in our state do wonderful work. However, we must have common sense safeguards in place,” stated Senator Brandes. “One of our most important functions in government is to protect our most vulnerable citizens and I think that this issue deserves our steadfast attention.”   

“I am honored to work with Senator Brandes in addressing this very serious issue,” stated Representative Kathleen Passidomo (R-Naples) who is sponsoring HB635 as the companion measure in the House of Representatives. “Throughout the State of Florida some of our most vulnerable citizens are being victimized by the very individuals appointed to protect their interests. This bill will allow the courts to fully audit guardianship accounts to confirm that expenditures are proper and lawful.”

“The protection of our most vulnerable is amongst the highest priorities of public servants,” said Sarasota Clerk of Court Karen Rushing, who also serves as the legislative chair of Florida’s Court Clerks and Comptrollers.  “Today, we’ve taken a big first step towards demanding more accountability and curbing abuse by those who would hold their own self-interests above the interests of those they’ve sworn to protect.”

The bill will give Clerks of Court greater authority to require audits of guardians and requires that audits are performed according to professional standards. The bill further requires criminal and credit background checks of guardians before assignment to a case. Finally, the bill allows for the removal of a guardian from a case for failure to submit to audits.

Source:  
 

13 comments:

Betty said...

Good news for Florida. Thank you ABC Action News I Team and Adam Walser!

Anonymous said...

WOW! I'm so happy! Thanks to Adam Walser and ABC Action News 1 Team. And thanks to Republican Senator Jeff Brandes! This mean so much to us who have loved ones under guardianship! We have always asked for accountability.

StandUp said...

Yea!

Finny said...

Thank you Senator Brandes, for your concern and your hard work.

You are good for Florida!

Kathleen said...

Great step forward in guardianship reform! Thank you Senator Jeff Brandes for your concern for our most vulnerable citizens in Florida.

Anonymous said...

The power of the press!

jerri said...

wonderful news senator jeff brandes you are a hero thank you from the bottom of my heart for moving on the problems so quickly i am grateful for all the support in the senate those senators ~ get it with deep appreciation to you for stepping up and giving all those poor souls who have been silenced you are giving them a voice

Rocky said...

I encourage everybody to view the beginning minutes of this video that specifically involves this bill. It touches on many other issues surrounding the overall bigger picture of guardianship abuse. I found it to be a very positive step of progress towards putting a stop to these horrible crimes against humanity. Thank you very much Senator Brandes!

Anonymous said...

Dear Senator Brandes,
Thank you for taking the initiative to promote this overdue piece of legislation. My mother and many other people like her are highly indebted to you.

Anonymous said...

Great news coverage,,As far as the Bill goes, lets wait and see, how the enforcement will be. We have lots of very good laws, but the enforcement is lacking, or non-existant, in most instances...eb

Anonymous said...

These Clerks that handle these guardianship cases need to be trained to know what to look for, because these guardians and attorneys have ways of hiding things from the courts. And in the past all the clerks were responsible for was making sure the sums of funds match up. The Accountings from the guardians need to be more detailed so they cannot hide things from the courts. Hopefully this will open the door to a more secure procedure and there should be a limit on how many "wards " a guardian should be able to have, because I know a guardian that reported to the court about having 18 wards but she had more than 100 plus.

Thelma said...

Thank you, Senator Brandes, and thank you, Adam Walser.

Anonymous said...

We need more action like this. I'm afraid that the money that can be made from guardianships is attracting more and more abusive types and they are now far outnumbering the few caring guardians.