Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: Changing The Narrative

January 17, 2015

The week started out about as well as Gov. Rick Scott could have expected.

On Monday, Scott made good on his campaign pledge to increase public education spending to the highest per-student level in state history. There were still caveats — local taxpayers would actually kick in most of the funding, and the figure wasn’t adjusted for inflation — but the headlines were mostly what the governor wanted.

http://www.northescambia.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/floridaweeklly.jpgBut the next day, the narrative took a turn. The Cabinet backed Scott’s new choice to run the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, but not before questions emerged about whether the former head of the agency left willingly, or was pushed. And by the end of the week, the governor’s office was responding to reports that the state’s longtime insurance commissioner could also be forced out.

Meanwhile, Florida State University worked to confront its own bad press, stoked by allegations against former star quarterback Jameis Winston, who is now headed to the NFL. Perhaps, if the university solves the damage-control puzzle, FSU could give Scott a few pointers.

BYE BYE BAILEY

There wasn’t much discussion this week about the Cabinet confirming Jonathan Steverson to head the Department of Environmental Protection. There might not have been in a normal week — his appointment by Scott had already been announced, and there was no controversy about Steverson or Herschel Vinyard, who left DEP in December.

But this wasn’t a normal week. Steverson was confirmed on the same day as new FDLE Commissioner Rick Swearingen, whose predecessor, Gerald Bailey, accused Scott of lying about whether he left the job willingly. Terry Rhodes was also confirmed as executive director of the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, but she’d been on the job for several months.

Immediately after the Cabinet meeting, Scott continued to tell reporters that Bailey had “resigned.”

“Commissioner Bailey did a great job. Commissioner Swearingen, he’s going to do a very good job,” Scott said before essentially repeating the same statement two more times.

The former FDLE commissioner saw things differently. Informed of Scott’s comments, Bailey told the Tampa Bay Times that “I did not voluntarily do anything.”

That pushed Scott’s office to respond. Jackie Schutz, a spokeswoman for the governor, issued a statement late Tuesday saying Scott “thinks it’s important to frequently get new people into government positions of leadership.”

If the governor was looking for change, he got his wish.

The next day, news broke that Gray Swoope, Scott’s hand-picked business recruiter, would leave his post at the end of February. That decision was described by the governor’s office as a “departure.”

Swoope, who is Florida’s secretary of commerce as well as president and chief executive officer of Enterprise Florida, advised Scott on Dec. 2 that he intended to resign on a “mutually agreeable date” before his current contract expires on June 30.

Swoope didn’t offer a reason in the Dec 2 letter to Scott other than “it is time for me to move on” professionally.

In a statement Wednesday, Swoope noted he plans to remain in Florida and that “no matter what my future endeavors are, I will always work hard for the state.”

Thursday brought rumblings that Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty, who’s held his job since 2003, may be on the way out. The Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald reported that McCarty is under pressure to resign as head of the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation.

The governor’s office said it did not have an announcement regarding McCarty but sounded like one was in the works. Schutz said in an email to The News Service of Florida that “just like in business — it is good to get fresh ideas and new leadership, especially as we move into a second term. Executive office positions are not lifetime appointments and for the same reason there are term limits in elected office — it is important to search for the best and newest ideas whenever possible.”

McCarty’s removal would require the approval of Scott and Chief Financial Officer Atwater, or a decision by three members of the Cabinet. The next Cabinet meeting is Feb. 5. Spokesmen for Atwater, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam all said there have been no discussions regarding McCarty or a change at OIR.

$CHOOL $PENDING

Before the state agency heads’ revolving door dominated the headlines, Scott made good on one of his major campaign promises, announcing Monday that he will ask lawmakers to provide the highest per-student funding for education in state history.

Scott said his “Keep Florida Working” budget would include $7,176 per student, about $50 above the previous high in the 2007-08 budget year. That spending plan was approved before the financial crisis that caused the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

“These record investments will continue to equip our students for the jobs of tomorrow and help us on our path to be the number one destination for jobs,” Scott said in a prepared statement.

The proposal won Scott a rare compliment from the state’s largest teachers union.

“FEA applauds the governor for keeping his campaign promise and increasing the state’s budget allotment for public school students,” Florida Education Association President Andy Ford said.

Overall, funding for public schools would rise by $842.5 million, to almost $19.8 billion. The state’s share would increase to a shade over $11 billion, meaning about $400 million of the new funding would come from the state. Local taxpayers would pick up the rest.

Democrats have signaled that they’re not impressed by Scott’s pitch.

“We need to do a whole lot more than that, because coming to Florida to live is more than about lower taxes and warm weather,” Senate Minority Leader Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, said last week. “It’s about the quality of life that you will have and the type jobs that we will offer these people.”

There was other fallout from the 2014 campaign season as well. An appeals court on Wednesday heard oral arguments in a challenge to the 2013 law allowing Florida elected officials to use blind trusts to shield their financial assets.

The 1st District Court of Appeal took up a case filed by Jim Apthorp, a former chief of staff to the late Democratic Gov. Reubin Askew, contending that blind trusts violate the “full and public” disclosure requirements of the open-government Sunshine Amendment.

“The Sunshine Amendment starts off with the words, ‘A public office is a public trust,’ ” said attorney Talbot “Sandy” D’Alemberte, a former Democratic lawmaker who helped pass the amendment and represents Apthorp. “So a public officer is going to be a public trustee, a trustee in the public interest.”

Apthorp originally filed the challenge in May in the Florida Supreme Court, asking the justices to ban Secretary of State Ken Detzner from accepting the qualifying papers of any candidate using a blind trust.

A blind trust gives someone else the ability to manage investments without a politician’s knowledge, which supporters of the law say prevents conflicts of interest between officials’ public duties and their financial interests. Blind trusts don’t require the same level of detail about officials’ holdings as are required by typical financial-disclosure forms.

“Our position is that (the law) is consistent with the overall purpose of the Sunshine Amendment, which was to enhance trust in government, enhance trust in public officials,” said state Solicitor General Allen Winsor, who represented Detzner.

Had the Supreme Court accepted the case in May, it could have had political implications for Republican governor Scott, the only Florida elected official using a blind trust during the 2014 election season.

But justices referred the case to Leon County circuit court, where a judge ruled in July that the 2013 law was constitutional. Apthorp appealed the ruling.

BLOW, BLOW (MORE FAVORABLE) SEMINOLE WIND?

There is no way to shield Florida State University’s athletics program from disclosure, so the school is instead planning a massive public-relations effort to counter negative press that has painted the school throughout the past year as favoring athletics over academics.

Meanwhile, members of the university’s Board of Trustees heard Monday that the school will “vigorously” fight a lawsuit filed last week by a former student who says FSU failed to properly investigate her allegation of being sexually assaulted by star football player Jameis Winston.

To counteract the negative attention heaped on the school, the trustees agreed during a conference call to establish a list of positive bullet points that a new “speakers bureau” can use in addressing the media, schools and civic organizations across the state.

The list of speakers will include members of the trustees, and Chairman Allan Bense said the focus of the speakers will not be on athletics.

“When I’m done with a speech I would say, until a couple of weeks ago — or actually it’s until tonight — that, by the way, we’re the defending national football champions,” Bense said several hours before Ohio State beat Oregon to win this year’s title. “We talk about everything else but athletics.”

Bense added that the impetus for “telling the world how great FSU is” was an unflattering editorial in the Los Angeles Times printed days before the school’s football team played in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day.

During the past year the school has been hammered by a number of national media outlets about whether law enforcement properly handled numerous incidents involving Seminole football players and whether the university is focused on athletics over academics.

Most of the attention has focused on off-the-field incidents involving Winston, the school’s Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback who announced last week he will skip his two remaining years of eligibility to enter the 2015 National Football League Draft.

Winston’s draft announcement came as the school was hit with a lawsuit that claims FSU violated a former student’s federal Title IX rights by refusing to properly investigate her rape accusation against Winston. The quarterback has argued the December 2012 encounter was consensual.

STORY OF THE WEEK: Gov. Rick Scott spent much of the week trying to explain the departure of FDLE Commissioner Gerald Bailey, who insisted he did not voluntarily resign as head of the law enforcement agency.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “The only way anybody’s ever going to get the right to marry is for somebody to kick their ass. And we’re the people who like to do that.”—Bill Sheppard, an attorney, on the decision by him and his wife, Betsy White, to take a case challenging the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. A federal judge struck down the ban last year, and it ended Jan. 5.

by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News