Lack of Disclosure

I hope you all had a great weekend! Last week was chaos around here. My phone was ringing off the hook most of the week with various people asking questions, wanting to chat about what happened, etc. Then all the messages... The comments on the page.. It was crazy.

Today, I expect more of the same. While we are on the topic of ethics and all of that, I figured it is time to come clean on some things I have been holding back. Today we are going to talk about financial disclosure issues. I have been sitting on this for over a year because it just seemed like a political attack against this individual.

However, after Tuesday's meeting and what transpired... we are letting it fly. The community wants accountability for their elected leaders, more so now than ever before. So while we are on that topic and it is fresh in everyone's minds, we are going to point out more things, such as these disclosures.

Let's dive in.

First, all elected officials are required to file financial disclosures. There are two type. Form 1 and Form 6. Form 1 is a surface level form. That is for things like City Council, Mayor, etc. They list their assets but do not have to give specific numbers.

Then there is Form 6. This is what most other elected officials have to file, including Commissioners. This form is pretty invasive. It asks for assets, liabilities, the worth of household goods and an overall net-worth. The idea here is that they are to disclose pretty much all their financial interests. This allows the public to see what holdings they have and if there are any conflicts.

Let's say a commissioner owns stock in a company. That company has a contract with the county in some form. It is good for the public to know that right? That is the purpose of the disclosures.

The form is pretty straight forward. Here is a sample form.

There are also instructions on how this form is to be filled out in case anyone has any questions about what is considered an asset or a liability, a household good, net-worth, etc.

Before we get into the issues with a commissioner's disclosures, let's take a look at all of their recent filings. These are due no later than late August and not all of them have filed for 2025 yet. So using the most recent one.

Rebecca Bays - 2024

Janet Barek - 2025

Holly Davis - 2024

Diana Finegan - 2025

Jeff Kinnard - 2024

So what did I find? Well a few things.

First. There is this clause on the Form 6.

If someone has an IRA or a mutual fund type account that has different stock holdings for example, those stocks in the fund are to be listed... not just "IRA/Mutual Fund". The product inside the account, not just the account itself.

Well... Here are 2 commissioners that may not have filled that out correctly.

Finegan

Bays

I assume like most other IRAs, they hold some type of stock, bond, mutual fund, etc. It is not just "cash" sitting in an account, although I suppose that could be possible.

In the case of Bays, I highlighted the Edward Jones accounts. No clue what type of accounts those are, but again, if more than just cash, they would then need the specifics disclosed... but if only cash, then those are fine.

Now, let's look at one done correctly.

Davis

She did not just say "mutual fund". She stated a specific product, LifeCycle 2035. That is how it is supposed to be done. Bravo commissioner.

At least they disclosed them, I suppose.

However, let's look at Jeff Kinnard's most recent one.

No bank accounts? No investments? No retirement accounts? Nothing? He only owns a home, a vacant lot and his chiropractic office building?

Hmm. Red flag.

So I got to digging.

Here are all disclosures he has made over the years. I will be referencing several of them as we go along, but just so no one thinks I am making things up, here are the entire disclosures.

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

2024

Here are the directions in filling out the value of household goods, assets and liabilities.

Basically... anything over $1,000 gets reported UNLESS it is in the spouse's name entirely. If it is a joint account, it gets reported, per Commission of Ethics Opinion 76-129 If there is right of survivorship, account in a spouse's name, but the officials name listed as beneficiary upon death, then it gets reported.

Going back to his 2016 filing, only the following years included ANY investments, accounts, etc of any kind:

2016 - Personal Checking - $35,000

2019 - Stock (VFORX) - $10,000
- Vanguard Money Market - $1,000
- Drummond Bank - $9,467
- Brannen Bank - $17,313

2020 - Vanguard Funds - $39,000

2021 - Vanguard IRA - $39,000
- Vanguard Simple - $15,000

2023 - Stocks - $12,142

That's it..

Yet his net-worth is as follows:

2016 - $751,282
2017 - $1,492,803
2018 - $1,321,459
2019 - $1,262,654
2020 - $1,377,886
2021 - $2,171,906
2022 - $1,740,832
2023 - $1,583,455
2024 - $1,836,742

Despite those net-worths... no checking accounts? No savings? No retirement? No investments? Nothing over $1,000 in a joint account, his own account, etc? He gets paid by the county via direct deposit... where is that account?

So where is it all?

Let's look at 2024.

His net-worth is listed as $1,836,742 on his disclosure.

In order to calculate that, we add all the assets/household goods and divide the liabilities. The form shows $3,273,000 in assets, $305,500 in household goods and $1,649,757 in liabilities.

Subtracting $1,649,757 from $3,578,000 equals $1,928,243.

So somewhere, there is a $91,501 liability if the net-worth is truly $1,836,742 as reported. That could be credit cards as those are not required to be reported... or other accounts less than $1,000 which would also not be required to be reported.

But again, where are the investments? Everything is 100% in his wife's name? I seriously doubt that. He has had them listed in 2016, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2023... but nothing those other years?

And what about FRS? That cannot be in his wife's name.

Here is the total amount in FRS contributions from January 2, 2024 through October 15, 2025 when I did the records request.

$82,244.97 over those 21.5 months, roughly $3,825 per month. Extrapolating that from his election in 2016 (starting December) through this April (113 months), that is roughly $432,264 in FRS contributions that the county has paid. It will actually be less than this number as contributions are based on salary and salary was lower in 2016 than today due to population... point being... A LOT of money in FRS. Over $300k.

What about his direct deposit account? The form says use the total from the end of the year. He was paid $2,219.56 on December 27, 2024.

Why is that account not listed on this form? Perhaps he transferred all the money into his wife's account before the end of the year (or spent it all)... but seems odd that someone making this much money has ZERO accounts with their name on it with over $1,000 in them.

Then we have his condo. He owned a condo jointly with his wife in Pinellas county that was listed on his disclosures. Here is the 2020 filing.

According to court documents, they took a loan (along with a couple other parties) in 2008 to purchase this property for $175k. Kinnard had a 1/3 interest in this property at this time.

In late 2017, they (Kinnard and one other party) appear to have bought out the other 1/3 partner, for $130k, giving each of them 1/2 ownership.

In October 2021, Kinnard sold his half of the condo for $425k.

The Bank of America mortgage from 2008 was then paid off.

I have no idea the interest rate, but the original payoff amount was due in 2038. Mortgage rates in 2008 were between 5.5 and 6.6% for the most part, so we will assume 6.6% for this.

Based on the amortization schedule and minimum payments, the loan would have had around $134k remaining when they sold it. Assuming Kinnard paid off the entire thing after this sale (not likely but we will go with it), he would have walked away with $291k.

Where did that cash go?

He took a loan to build his house in Crystal River in 2020, so perhaps it went to that, or some other expenditure and not sitting in an account somewhere, thus not an asset to report any longer.

But then he took a $193k equity line in December, 2 months later? And then another $60k one in 2023.

One would think you would use the cash rather than taking a loan and paying interest on it, but I do not have $290k sitting around needing to find a home, so perhaps the accountants told him this was better.

Point is... with all these moving pieces, no bank accounts/investments with his name on them with over $1,000?

Regardless.

Where are these assets, particularly FRS since that cannot be in anyone else's name, listed on the disclosures? Clearly not there on any of them.

The issue here is that all of this is required by Florida Statutes (112.3144).

What is the punishment for not accurately reporting the disclosures? Potential fines and removal from office.

At a minimum, he is missing his FRS disclosures from 2017 through 2024. That appears to be a violation of Florida Statutes. It also seems odd that someone who made $336,560 in income in 2024, according to his disclosures, has ZERO bank accounts or investments in his name with over $1,000 in them.

Interesting.