The Florida Commission on Ethics settled its case against Senate President Mike Haridopolos on Friday.
In October, the commission began investigating the Merritt Island Republican after receiving a complaint from a Vero Beach man that Haridopolos hadn't properly filled out his financial disclosure forms.
Haridopolos admits he failed to properly identify his assets, but said it was an unintentional mistake.
Senate Rules Chairman John Thrasher, R-Jacksonville, released a statement Friday acknowledging the decision.
"The Florida Ethics Commission has unanimously accepted Senate President Mike Haridopolos stipulated agreement regarding the mistakes he made on his financial disclosure forms and his acknowledgment that those errors have been corrected," said Thrasher in the statement.
Under Senate rules, the agreement now goes to the Rules Committee. Thrasher says he will ask Rules Staff Director John Phelps to review the history of how similar matters have been handled and make a recommendation to the full committee.
Depending on his assessment and recommendation, the full committee could decide to require Haridopolos pay a fine, but David Bishop, a spokesperson from the Senate office, says this kind of thing is so rare they're really not sure what all of the other options are at this time.
Whatever the committee decides will go on to a vote by the full body of the Florida Senate.
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Lane Wright can be reached at lane@sunshinestatenews.com or at (561) 247-1063.
