Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: Postscripts

April 2, 2016

.No matter what the political fight, there’s almost always a postscript, some lingering bit of fallout that has to be dealt with in the aftermath of victory, defeat or even agreement.

http://www.northescambia.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/floridaweeklly.jpgAnd it was a week of postscripts in Tallahassee. Not any that might require a special session — regardless of a cruel April Fool’s Day tweet from House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island — but some that were notable nonetheless.

The Florida Supreme Court issued yet another decision on the redistricting mess, almost six years after lawmakers began the once-a-decade process of redrawing lines for legislative and congressional districts. Also, a federal judge issued a final decision meant to put to an end, once and for all, to the battle over same-sex marriage.

Gov. Rick Scott signed yet more bills sent to him by the Legislature after the regular session that wrapped up in March. And he and the Cabinet bade farewell to one of the last of the group of outsiders who tried to help Scott navigate the treacherous waters of the Capitol after getting elected in 2010.

WINNING MARGINS

For years, the state’s Republican power structure has been bedeviled by the one institution that has seemed beyond its grasp: the Florida Supreme Court. While a majority of the seven justices on the panel were appointed by GOP governors, the more-liberal wing of the court often enjoys a 5-2 advantage on split decisions.

But twice in the last week, the court saw a division that hasn’t been the usual order of things. Chief Justice Jorge Labarga and Justice R. Fred Lewis, both of whom often vote with the liberals, instead joined conservative justices Charles Canady and Ricky Polston in rulings on a proposed constitutional amendment dealing with solar power and the latest installment of the five-year legal tussle over redistricting.

The solar case didn’t focus on the merits of the proposed amendment, sponsored by a group called “Consumers for Smart Solar.” Instead, the court found that the measure meets wording requirements to go on the November ballot, such as being limited to a single subject and being unambiguous.

“When read within the full context of the ballot title and summary, none of the terms contained within the ballot title and summary are misleading and none of the terms constitute political or emotional rhetoric,” the majority opinion said.

The Consumers for Smart Solar measure, which is supported by major utilities, would generally maintain the status quo in allowing Floridians with solar equipment on their property to sell energy to power companies.

Justice Barbara Pariente wrote a sharp dissent Thursday that echoed views of opponents of the initiative.

“Let the pro-solar energy consumers beware,” Pariente wrote in an opinion backed by justices Peggy Quince and James E.C. Perry. “Masquerading as a pro-solar energy initiative, this proposed constitutional amendment, supported by some of Florida’s major investor-owned electric utility companies, actually seeks to constitutionalize the status quo.”

The same 4-3 split emerged on an issue where Pariente has usually held sway: the redistricting process. In this case, groups that successfully sued to overturn a congressional map approved by the Legislature — which critics said violated the anti-gerrymandering “Fair Districts” standards approved by voters in 2010 — wanted the state to pay their legal fees for the appeals process.

It was the first opportunity at the Supreme Court for the groups to try out their proposal for a “private attorney general doctrine,” which would allow private parties to collect legal fees in public-interest lawsuits when the government chooses not to pursue litigation.

It fell flat, with Labarga, Lewis, Canady and Polston rejecting the request without comment. That also drew a rebuke from Pariente, who said the Legislature could hardly be counted on to approve a law allowing for those who challenged redistricting proposals to collect attorney fees. Courts would generally rely on such a law to weigh requests for attorneys’ fees.

“The legislative parties spent millions of dollars at taxpayers’ expense to defend their redistricting plans by hiring private attorneys as well as expert witnesses from across the country,” Pariente wrote. “There can be no doubt that the legislative parties, which vigorously opposed the Fair Districts Amendment at the outset … would have never enacted a prevailing party attorneys’ fee statute to support the enforcement of the Fair Districts Amendment, making adoption of the private attorney general doctrine in this instance all the more critical.”

Meanwhile, a federal judge put a coda on the legal fight over same-sex marriage in Florida. Marriage ceremonies have already been underway for more than a year, but U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle issued a harshly worded final judgment Thursday rejecting state officials’ arguments that such a ruling was unnecessary after last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex nuptials.

After the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Obergefell v. Hodges case, “one might have expected immediate, unequivocal acceptance,” Hinkle wrote in a 10-page order. Florida lawmakers drew Hinkle’s wrath, at least in part, for refusing during the recent legislative session to address a dispute over birth certificates for children born into same-sex marriages, or to repeal a state law banning gay marriage.

“Here the Florida Legislature has refused to budge; the challenged statutes remain on the books. That result is fully consistent with the defendants’ approach to this case all along. There has been nothing voluntary about the defendants’ change of tack,” Hinkle wrote.

NEED AN AUTO-PEN?

If Scott didn’t already have an ergonomically correct pen before this week, he might be doing some shopping for one now. With the Legislature sending bills to the governor at a relatively brisk pace, Scott spent much of the week churning through proposals that needed his final approval to become law.

The governor signed nearly 30 bills this week, including batches of 14 each on Wednesday and Friday. On Tuesday, he also OK’d a proposal to resolve years of legal disputes between the state and counties about juvenile-detention costs.

The most emotionally resonant measure might have been one (SB 708) setting aside money for the reburial of remains removed from the 1,400-acre site of the former Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys and establishing plans for a memorial at the reform school, which operated from 1900 to 2011 in the Jackson County community of Marianna.

In recent years, tales of abuse at the school have emerged from former students.

“This law finally ends a tragic chapter in Florida’s history,” Senate Minority Leader Arthenia Joyner, a Tampa Democrat who sponsored the bill, said in a prepared statement. “It buries the dead with dignity and establishes a permanent reminder so that the atrocities the children endured at Dozier are neither forgotten nor repeated.”

A 168-page report by University of South Florida researchers was presented to Scott and the Cabinet in January on excavations at the site. The report didn’t verify any students were killed by Dozier staff, but outlined 51 sets of remains unearthed from an area known as the Boot Hill Burial Ground.

The law provides up to $7,500 per family for funeral, reburial and grave-marker costs and calls for the creation of a task force that would make recommendations about an appropriate memorial for the site and how to rebury remains that are unidentified or unclaimed.

Scott also approved a measure (SB 514) that would increase the pay for county supervisors of elections — dramatically in some cases — as well as a bill (SB 912) cracking down on “skimmers” to steal credit-card or debit-card information at gas pumps and a prohibition (SB 938) on selling a number of over-the-counter cough medicines to youths under age 18.

YOU SAY GOODBYE, I DON’T SAY HELLO

Two key figures in Scott’s administration said farewell this week, even as the governor and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater struggled to fill another agency-head position that’s opening up.

The first move was an announcement that Enterprise Florida President and CEO Bill Johnson will leave his job. The announcement came about two weeks after the Legislature declined to go along with Scott’s request to provide the public-private agency with $250 million for corporate recruitment.

The governor’s office announced that Johnson will be “transitioning out” of the Enterprise Florida top job, which he started in March 2015 at an annual salary of $265,000. No reason for the “transitioning out” was provided.

And while the exit of the executive director of the Florida Department of Veteran Affairs might not usually be all that notable, the job is currently held by Mike Prendergast, who was briefly Scott’s first chief of staff and one of the governor’s few early loyalists left in state government.

Prendergast told Scott and the Cabinet that he’s gearing up to run for Citrus County sheriff.

“We do expect you to win if you’re going to do this,” Scott told Prendergast.

The search for Prendergast’s replacement might go more smoothly than the hunt for a new insurance commissioner, which continues after Scott and Atwater couldn’t agree on a candidate.

Atwater recommended that the Florida Cabinet choose state Rep. Bill Hager, R-Delray Beach, for the position and pay him $190,000 a year. Hager is a former Iowa insurance commissioner. But Scott, who had proposed Palm Harbor resident Jeffrey Bragg as a finalist for the position, refused to second Atwater’s motion.

Filling the insurance commissioner job, which attracted 55 applicants, requires the governor and chief financial officer to jointly recommend an applicant for the entire Cabinet to approve.

The Cabinet did unanimously back Scott’s recommendation to hire Leon Biegalski at $150,000 a year to replace departing Department of Revenue Executive Director Marshall Stranburg.

STORY OF THE WEEK: U.S. District Court Judge Robert Hinkle issues a final order declaring that Florida’s voter-approved prohibition against gay marriage is unconstitutional.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “It’s a dark chapter in Florida’s history. We sent young men there to be reformed. It was a reform school. We didn’t send young men there to die.”—Rep. Alan Williams, D-Tallahassee, on Scott’s signing of a bill dealing with the former Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys.

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News