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Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: Everything Old Is New Again
December 14, 2014
The familiar hum of pre-session activities is returning to the Capitol.
Committee memberships have been handed out to lawmakers. Legislation is being filed so it can start working its way through the process — or at least provide a friendly headline in the local paper. On Monday, state economists will gather to decide how much money Gov. Rick Scott will have to work with as he puts together his spending plan for the budget year that begins July 1.
As for Scott’s administration, it will also have a familiar ring to it. Several of the governor’s old hands will be staying on, with one interim secretary moving into a full-time job. And even one of the new agency heads is a veteran of state government.
WELCOME TO TALLAHASSEE, LAND OF GUN BILLS AND UTILITY FIGHTS
Like newly minted college students learning the ropes of their campus, freshman House members came to the Capitol this week to find out how to work the levers of power in the Legislature — or at least how to file reimbursement reports that wouldn’t get them in trouble.
Lawmakers who attended the meetings — a couple of whom really needed no introduction to the legislative process — learned about the written rules in Tallahassee and some of the gentlemen’s agreements that make the building run smoothly, or at least as smoothly as it ever does.
Returning legislators, though, were already plunging into the work of writing and introducing bills. This being Florida, almost everyone had to know that a gun bill was coming — in this case, one that would allow firearms on university campuses.
Rep. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, said he already planned to sponsor the measure (HB 4005) before a shooting incident last month at Florida State University but that the attack, which left three people injured and the gunman dead, helps to make his point. The bill would apply to people who are licensed to carry concealed weapons.
“I think it (the attack) brings it closer to home for people who think these events don’t occur in Florida, or that law enforcement can prevent them from happening,” Steube told The News Service of Florida,
A Senate counterpart was filed by Sen. Greg Evers, R-Baker.
But House Minority Leader Mark Pafford, D-West Palm Beach, said the answer to gun violence isn’t more guns. He also said he’d be more inclined to support the cost of additional security rather than allowing more guns at state universities and colleges.
“We look at these things differently, based on where we come from throughout the state,” Pafford said. “Discharging a weapon where I live, the probability of hurting somebody is a lot higher because we are not living one person on 20 acres.”
Firepower wasn’t the only thing drawing legislation this week. Tampa Bay lawmakers wasted no time in filing bills aimed at one of the favored villains of legislators by the bay: utilities. Rep. Amanda Murphy, D-New Port Richey, filed legislation (HB 67) that would repeal a 2006 law that has allowed utilities to collect hundreds of millions of dollars for nuclear-power projects. The measure is cosponsored by Rep. Chris Latvala, R-Clearwater.
The nuclear-cost issue has long been controversial, particularly among Duke Energy Florida customers in the Tampa Bay area. Duke collected money for a plan to build two nuclear reactors in Levy County but has scuttled the project.
“Floridians are tired of being taxed for projects that will never come to fruition,” Murphy said in a prepared statement.
Rep. Dwight Dudley, D-St. Petersburg, put forward a proposal (HB 81) that would require that changes in utility billing cycles be approved by the Florida Public Service Commission at least one month before the changes take effect. The commission would have to review the “public impact” and could not approve more than a seven-day extension of a billing cycle, according to the proposal.
An idea for local pension reform (SB 172) that died last year — but could have better odds this session — is back on the table. And Rep. David Richardson, D-Miami Beach, filed a measure (HB 89) that would provide a tax exemption for sales of original works of art that are signed and sold by the artists — as long as they cost at least $1,000.
CHAMPIONING ‘OUR VISION’ AND BRINGING ‘FRESH PERSPECTIVE’
Scott’s new team won’t be entirely old, but there are certainly a number of familiar faces sticking around as the governor continues to unveil his top lieutenants for a second term.
Scott said he would retain Jesse Panuccio as executive director of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. Panuccio found out about his future at the agency more quickly than some jobless Floridians found out about their unemployment claims late last year and early this year.
“I am confident Jesse will continue to champion our vision of making sure every family who wants a job has one,” Scott said in a prepared statement.
A year ago, the state agency was widely criticized for troubles with Florida’s new $63 million “Connect” unemployment-compensation website. But in April, Senate President Andy Gardiner, who was then the chairman of the Senate Transportation, Tourism, and Economic Development Appropriations Subcommittee, said that when the problems with the new system were exposed, Panuccio “took ownership of it and fixed it.”
Scott also said he would reappoint Barbara Palmer as director of the Agency for Persons with Disabilities and Liz Dudek as secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration
The governor also elevated Mike Carroll from interim secretary of the troubled Florida Department of Children and Families to the permanent role there.
In a prepared statement, Scott said Carroll provided “strong leadership” while in the interim role.
“He brings a common sense approach to the services the agency provides, and he has a passion for serving Florida’s most vulnerable children,” Scott said.
Another agency that’s been roiled by bad press is getting a new leader. Julie Jones, a public-safety veteran who retired earlier this year, will head the beleaguered Department of Corrections, an agency under state and federal scrutiny for inmate abuse, corruption and retaliation against whistleblowers.
Jones, the first woman to lead the corrections agency overseeing more than 100,000 inmates, retired this spring after a five-year stint as head of the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. She’ll take over for Mike Crews, who retired last month.
“My fresh perspective will enable me to look for different ways to do things,” Jones said. “I don’t have to be an expert in order to implement change management. I’m good at the people part, and I’m good at the budget part.”
Crews spent months trying to resuscitate the department’s image by purging rogue officers and imposing a “zero tolerance” policy for corruption and abuse before he stepped down in November. Crews’ reforms began this summer after reports of inmate abuse by prison guards that sometimes led to horrific deaths.
Meanwhile this week, two other agencies also got new leaders.
Jonathan Steverson, who for the past two years has overseen one of the state’s five water-management districts, will head the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. And Scott appointed Sam Verghese to take over for Charles Corley at the Department of Elder Affairs.
Verghese had served as Scott’s external affairs director since May.
Steverson, who served as former Gov. Charlie Crist’s environmental policy coordinator, was named Thursday to replace former Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Herschel Vinyard, who left the post Nov. 26.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Gov. Rick Scott named seven agency heads as he continued to put in place a team for his second term.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Congratulations on guiding the Senate through the thicket. Looks as if, so far, the Democrats have not realized the gains they think they were going to get.”—Tom Hofeller, a redistricting consultant at the Republican National Committee, in an email to Florida political consultant Rich Heffley. The Florida Supreme Court released the two-year-old message this week. Opponents say it helps prove the Legislature ignored the constitutional ban on political gerrymandering during the 2012 redistricting process.
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
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