Senate Reprimands Senate President Mike Haridopolos

The Florida Senate unanimously voted to reprimand its leader, Senate President Mike Haridopolos, for failing to properly file financial disclosure documents from 2004 to 2008.

The Senate Rules Committee previously accepted the finding of the Commission on Ethics that his violation was inadvertent.

The measure sparked some debate over whether the public reprimand of Haridopolos was too harsh for an unintentional violation.

"Ido not agree with the severity of the penalty of this particular case," said Sen. Jack Latvala, R-St. Petersburg.

Sen. Paula Dockery, who filed legislation this week that would bar legislators from voting on matters that could benefit them or their families financially, said the case highlights the need to have set policies in place to govern such violations.

"We should put a policy in place for the future. We need to send a strong message to our constituents that we are abiding by the same policies as everyone else; we just have to outline what that policy is," Dockery said.