CopyAgo (Fla. Att'y Gen. 1991).
Published | Florida Attorney General Reports
...Brown County Attorney Osceola County QUESTION: May the county pass an ordinance requiring hotels to register their employees and obtain criminal history records of employees and requiring hotel employees to carry an identification card during work hours? SUMMARY: Section 125.581 , F.S., prohibits the county from adopting an ordinance requiring hotels to register their employees with the sheriff's office and screen their backgrounds, and requiring hotel employees to carry an identification card during work hours....
...Hotel owners would pay for the registration and criminal records check, but would be reimbursed by the employee after the employee starts work. Upon registration, hotel employees would be issued identification cards which they would be required to carry during working hours. Section 125.581 , F.S., provides: (1) Except as authorized by law, no county or municipality shall enact or enforce any ordinance, resolution, rule, regulation, policy, or other action which requires the registration or background screening of any in...
...ofession, or occupation by requiring screening for proof of certain skills, knowledge, or moral character as prerequisite of engaging in a certain type of employment. The types of businesses which are subject to such regulation are not enumerated in s. 125.581 , F.S., yet the Legislature in the preamble to its enacting legislation recognized that here were legitimate reasons for local governments to require background screening and registration of employees of certain businesses, "such as the adult entertainment business ....
...(e.s.) Hotels, therefore, are specifically named in the preamble as one of the types of employment for which registration and screening are prohibited. 2 I would also note that during the 1991 Legislative Session, two bills were introduced to amend s. 125.581 , F.S., to allow ordinances which require the carrying of an identification card or regulate businesses by requiring registration or background screening. 3 Neither bill passed. Prior to the enactment of s. 125.581 , F.S., the Town of Palm Beach had an ordinance requiring employees in certain occupations, including hotels, to register with the chief of police, be fingerprinted, photographed and obtain identification cards....
...l interest. The Wallace court noted that there was a less drastic alternative available by replacing the mandatory public registration system with a voluntary, private registration system. In response to the Wallace decision, the Legislature enacted s. 125.581 , F.S. 5 Accordingly, it is my opinion that s. 125.581 , F.S., would prohibit the proposed ordinance requiring hotel employees to be registered with the sheriff's office, to undergo a background screening, and to carry identification card during work hours....
