City, county and local government.

The certification by The Florida Bar of lawyers who possess and maintain special expertise in the specialized area of City, County and Local Government Law is an important contribution toward the Bar's responsibility to ensure that the constitutional rights of the citizens of Florida are protected and given practical effect. Certification helps to ensure that those lawyers who counsel local governments as well as those who represent the public before such governmental entities are equipped to meet their vital role in upholding constitutional rights and the rule of law.

The extent and complexity of local government law has grown as explosively as Florida's population.

The provisions of the 1968 Florida Constitution set the stage for massive growth of local government legislation and case law over the last 30 years, particularly with respect to counties. Article VIII, [section] l(g) offered counties, by local referendum, the same breadth of authority to legislate that had previously been reserved to chartered municipalities. Charter counties were no longer required to seek authorization by special acts of the legislature to undertake land use and other regulatory programs. Instead, chartered counties automatically possessed "all powers of local self-government not inconsistent with general law" including the power to "enact county ordinances not inconsistent with general law." A charter county, therefore, could legislate on any subject, and in any manner, not prohibited by a general law or the state and federal constitutions.

Subsequently, the legislature, seeking to further reduce the burden of adopting special acts for noncharter counties, granted by general law virtually the same home rule authority to nonchartered counties as was granted by Article VIII, [section] l(g) to charter counties.

In addition to Article VIII of the 1968 Florida Constitution, few would dispute that land use planning and regulation have been a major contributor to the massive growth in the complexity and sheer bulk of local government law. The Florida Land and Water Management Act of 1972 established a completely new structure for the regulation of developments of regional impact (DRIs) large land developments defined as having "a substantial effect upon the health, safety or welfare of citizens of more than one county." Local government lawyers and private land use law practitioners were faced with dealing with regional and state agencies, the governor and cabinet (and their aides), and perhaps most significantly, with the quasi-judicial requirements of the Florida Administrative Procedure Act, F.S. Ch. 120, adopted by 1974 Fla. Laws Ch. 310. Local government proceedings generally had been exempt from the application of Ch. 120 until the 1972 act.

As with the Land and Water Management Act of 1972, the Local Government Comprehensive Planning Act of 1975 and its follow-on Local Government Comprehensive Planning and Land Development Regulation Act of 1985 established a state administrative review process subject to F.S. Ch. 120 to address all issues concerning statutory compliance with the adoption of a comprehensive plan or amendments to a plan, standing requirements for third party challenges, and different standards of review depending on whether the state land planning agency issues an intent to find the plan or the amendment "in compliance." A Ch. 120 administrative hearing process is provided for persons to challenge land development regulations as being inconsistent with the comprehensive plan. Certain "adversely affected parties" are authorized to seek injunctive or other judicial relief regarding rezonings and other "development orders" alleged to be inconsistent with a Comprehensive Plan.

The Comprehensive Planning Act provided a major impetus for the Florida Supreme Court's landmark decision in County Commissioners of Brevard County v. Snyder, 627 So. 2d 469 (Fla. 1993), that rezoning of particular parcels of land is a quasi-judicial rather than a legislative function of local government.

Lawyers for local governing bodies and private lawyers representing petitioners or neighbors in opposition to a rezoning continue to struggle with issues regarding ex parte communications with decision-makers and proper procedures for protecting the due process rights of petitioners and third party intervenors which are other issues fueling the growth of case law in this specialty.

The concurrency requirements of the Comprehensive Planning Act also have driven local governments to engage in creative and legally complex efforts to develop impact fees to help pay for the cost of growth and to depend on special assessments to fund stormwater utilities and solid waste collection and disposal services and facilities.

In short, the last 30 years has witnessed tremendous growth in the body of statutory, administrative and judicial case law with which a competent practitioner should be familiar to practice local government law.

Members of the Local Government Law Section of The Florida Bar were surveyed, and by a two-to-one margin the respondents favored the creation of a certification program in local government law. Beginning in 1992, under the able leadership of Marion Radson, Hamilton "Chip" Rice, Jr., Julianne "Juli" Yard, and James W. Linn, work was carried out on the creation of certification standards. The specialization area was approved in June 1994 by the Board of Governors and subsequently by the Florida Supreme Court as Rule 6-18, Rules Regulating The Florida Bar.

The first City, County and Local Government Law Certification Committee was appointed in 1995, and in 1996, the initial group of 46 lawyers were certified. As of 2002, the committee has certified 141 lawyers.

What distinguishes government in the United States from totalitarian regimes is the extent to which this government, from constitutional officers to regulatory bureaucrats, is required to obey the law in governing its citizens. If local government operates in an unlawful or corrupt manner, it poisons the roots of our democracy and undermines not only our local, but our state and national political institutions.

Lawyers who represent local governments have a special responsibility to ensure that government officials and employees act within constitutional boundaries and the rule of law. (1) While lawyers alone cannot uphold the integrity of our institutions of local government, to the extent that local governments also are counseled by lawyers, and interact with lawyers, who are both proficient in the procedural and substantive requirements of local government law and who are dedicated to the ethics and honor of their profession, the constitutional rule of law will be strengthened.

It is significant that the predominant reasson given by lawyers for seeking certification in City, County and Local Government Law is "enhanced professionalism and peer credibility." Only lawyers who can demonstrate both proficiency in local government law and the respect of their peers as honorable and ethical professionals are eligible for certification.

The peer review process is given great weight by the Certification Committee, The Florida Bar, and most importantly by the conscientious lawyers and judges who provide candid and strictly confidential evaluations regarding an applicant's reputation for special competence and substantial involvement, as well as the applicant's character, ethics, and professionalism.

Furthermore, the certification examination, since its inception, has probed the practitioners' perception of, and response to, conflicts of interest, ex parte communications, ethics, Sunshine Law and public records law, and due process issues.

Certified lawyers commit to a minimum of 60 hours of continuing legal education during the period of their certification and must be recertified every five years.

The past 30 years has seen explosive growth in the complexity of local government law as cities, counties, and other special purpose governmental entities have struggled with the challenges of the 1968 Florida Constitution and major initiatives by the Florida Legislature, particularly in the areas of land use planning and regulation.

The Florida Bar's establishment of the certification program in city, county and local government law encourages the lawyers who counsel local governments, as well as those who represent citizens before such governments, to aspire to and achieve standards of technical proficiency, ethics, and professionalism that are essential to the protection of the constitutional rights of Floridians and maintaining the rule of law by the government closest to the people.

(1) Rule 4-1.13(b) of the Rules of Professional Conduct of The Florida Bar.

Richard L. Smith serves as chair of the City, County and Local Government Law Certification Committee and has been board certified since 1997.