Schools and Education Is Disclosure of a Public Official's Bank Account Info to the FBI Illegal?

At Tuesday's school board meeting, Board Chair Bob Gause accused staff attorney Mitch Teitelbaum of breaking the law in January when Teitelbaum gave Gause's bank account number to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The disclosure, which Teitelbaum says was done at the FBI's asking, occurred in a meeting with he district that was requested by Bureau special agents, and was attended by the staff attorney as well as school board attorney James Dye.

At the time, the Bureau was wanting information on school construction projects funded by 2009 district bond funds, after reading allegations of illegal diversions of the bond funds in the media.

Though the allegations of illegal activity were concluded by the district's internal auditor to not lead to anything substantial—Shinn & Co. advised on Tuesday that discrepancies in documents from the construction projects were caused by mismanagement and human error—Tuesday's accusation of Teitelbaum breaking the law by disclosing Gause's bank account number was fresh.

Teitelbaum said the information was given to him over the phone at the FBI meeting by the district's now-former payroll manager. The day after the FBI meeting, Gause was alerted to the disclosure by Teitelbaum with an apology for not asking him for it prior to disclosing the info. When questioned about it at Tuesday's meeting, Teitelbaum called the disclosure inadvertent.

But while Gause was certainly within his rights to have taken offense by Teitelbaum disclosing his information without asking first, the alleged illegality of Teitelbaum's disclosure does not appear to have strong backing from Florida statute.

Per statute 119.071, section (5)(b): "Bank account numbers ... held by an agency are exempt from s. 119.07(1) and s. 24(a), Art. I of the State Constitution."

An agency in this case means a government institution or body. 199.07 details public records law disclosure requirement, and Article I of Florida's Constitution states:

"Confidential information is not subject to inspection by the public and may only be released to those persons and entities designated in the statute. Exempt records are not subject to the mandatory disclosure requirements of the Public Records Law; an agency, however, is not prohibited from disclosing such records."

Furthermore, pages 81-82 of the Florida Sunshine Manual state: "Bank account numbers, and debit, charge, and credit card numbers held by an agency are exempt from public disclosure (requirements)."

While nuances of Teitelbaum's disclosure are unique—it's not everyday that the FBI allegedly asks a school district employee for the bank account information of an elected official—the alleged illegality of it would not seem clear-cut.