Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: A Pause For Giving Thanks

December 18, 2016

The most significant development of the week in Florida politics and government likely was the appointment of a new Florida Supreme Court justice, but the most noise was made by a rapper’s new release — which landed with a thud among the critics.

http://www.northescambia.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/floridaweeklly.jpgWhile Gov. Rick Scott was firming up his choice for the next justice to join the high court, lawmakers were busy demanding and then denouncing a $1 million contract with rapper Pitbull, whose song “Sexy Beaches” was used as part of an ad campaign to promote the state’s sands. “Drive You Crazy” is one of the Pitbull’s other songs, and that was exactly what the tourism deal did to some lawmakers.

SHAKING IT UP

As Scott made his first appointment to the Florida Supreme Court, there was no real doubt he would pick a conservative jurist. The conservative Federalist Society has become something like the governor’s farm team for court jobs, and the three Supreme Court finalists sent to Scott all leaned to the right.

But what was more surprising was when the governor drew a line of sorts concerning three spots on the Supreme Court that are set to come open at the end of his term: Scott said those appointments will belong to him, rather than his successor.

First, the appointment Friday: The governor chose C. Alan Lawson, chief judge of the Daytona Beach-based 5th District Court of Appeal, to replace Justice James E.C. Perry, who is leaving the state’s highest court because he has reached the mandatory retirement age. Lawson, 55, will join the seven-member court on Dec. 31.

In line with a conservative judicial philosophy, Scott said the primary question he asks potential judges is whether they understand the separation-of-powers doctrine for the three branches of government.

“My goal is, they interpret the law, they don’t create law,” said Scott, who is a lawyer.

The unstated goal was to tip the court a little bit away from the more liberal majority, which has included Perry, Chief Justice Jorge Labarga and justices R. Fred Lewis, Barbara Pariente and Peggy Quince. Lawson will more likely team up with justices Charles Canady and Ricky Polston, the two most conservative jurists on the court.

Lawson, who is a 1987 graduate of the Florida State University Law School, said there are limits on a court’s interpretation of the law.

“The way I approach statutory construction issues and constitutional issues matches closely with Justice Canady,” Lawson said.

But in a development that could serve as a prelude to a fight near the end of his term, Scott made it clear Friday that he believes he has the right to appoint the next three Supreme Court justices, with the vacancies expected to occur on the day Scott leaves office in January 2019. Those vacancies would involve the retirements of Pariente, Lewis and Quince.

“I will appoint three more justices on the morning I finish my term,” Scott said.

That drew a quick response from Florida House Minority Leader Janet Cruz, D-Tampa.

“The Supreme Court is no place for political gamesmanship,” Cruz said. “If Gov. Scott follows through on this assertion, he risks setting off a contentious legal battle with his successor that would mar the transition process and throw our state’s highest court into uncertainty.”

SHUTTING IT DOWN

Had someone sat down in 2010 to craft a list of likely controversies that would face a state agency under Scott, “a contract with a Cuban-American rapper over a music video produced to promote Florida’s beaches” probably would have landed near the bottom.

Welcome to 2016.

With Scott already facing a battle in the penny-pinching House to get funding for business incentives and programs like Visit Florida, a controversy about the release of a $1 million contract with the rapper Pitbull didn’t help.

The controversy grew after House attorneys filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking a ruling on a claim by PDR Production that the contract from the 2015-2016 fiscal year included trade secrets that kept terms of the deal with Visit Florida out of the public. The lawsuit, filed in Leon County circuit court, also sought immunity from civil action for House members and staff if they potentially disclosed terms of the contract.

On Thursday, Pitbull  — a.k.a. Armando Christian Perez — released the contract. Via Twitter. Again, 2016.

“FULL DISCLOSURE — FLORIDA,” Perez tweeted. The caps were his.

“It is unfortunate that it took litigation to lift the veil of secrecy on this particular contract,” House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’ Lakes, said in a prepared statement. “This was a long, unnecessary journey through claims of trade secrets, threats of prosecution, and corporate welfare paid for by taxpayers.”

Scott on Tuesday questioned the lack of transparency about the rapper’s contract, calling it “ridiculous.” But he retained support for Visit Florida’s efforts to attract increased numbers of tourists to the state each year.

The “Sexy Beaches” video, which has drawn 10.67 million views, accounted for $250,000 of the deal. Corcoran on WFTL radio in West Palm Beach said he’s heard from people expressing disappointment in the video “or even in harsher terms, it’s an objectification of women.”

Asked if Pitbull’s sexually suggestive song linked with the Visit Florida hashtag “LoveFL” reflected Florida values, Senate Transportation, Tourism and Economic Development Appropriations Chairman Jeff Brandes responded, “I don’t know that that reflected Miami values.”

It was not clear whether Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, has ever been to South Beach.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, disdained the contract but backed Visit Florida.

“It’s really easy to look at things other people do and say, ‘Oh, you made a mistake,’ ” Latvala said Thursday. “These are the people on the front lines that have to make decisions, and I think it’s important to look at the overall performance.”

Still, one of the people on the front lines stepped aside under pressure from Scott. Visit Florida President and CEO Will Seccombe said Friday he would resign, after Scott requested he do so.

In a letter to Visit Florida Chairman William Talbert, Scott backed the need for the tourism-marketing agency while outlining reforms he’d like to see. The letter also included the call for Seccombe’s departure.

“I believe it would be best for the future efforts of Visit Florida for Will to step down and allow new leadership to come in at this critical time,” Scott wrote.

The request came after the positions of two agency officials, Chief Financial and Operating Officer Vangie McCorvey and Chief Marketing Officer Paul Phipps, were eliminated without any public explanation earlier in the day.

Even as he requested changes at Visit Florida on Friday, Scott praised Pitbull.

“His willingness to help promote tourism in Florida is a great example for other entertainers to follow,” Scott wrote in the letter to Talbert.

GETTING IT STARTED

While the Supreme Court and Pitbull stories consumed much of the chatter, senators spent the week laying the groundwork for the legislative session that begins in March. Kicking things off, Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, tried to dispel the notion that the upper chamber would be the graveyard for conservative legislation that emerges from the House.

“The next two sessions will not be the conservative House versus the moderate Senate,” Negron said. “Instead, I expect the House and Senate will present competing conservative visions on the many issues that our constituents care about.”

Among the potentially contentious issues: what to do about the workers’ compensation insurance system after a pair of Supreme Court decisions sparked rate hikes for businesses.

The Senate Banking and Insurance Committee began plunging into the issue Tuesday, a little more than two months after state regulators approved a 14.5 percent increase in workers’ compensation insurance rates.

“There’s obviously a lot of interest on this issue, not just in this room but across the state — many different interests and opinions on what it is that the state can be doing to try and bring some sort of balance to the workers’ compensation market and insurance rates,” Senate Banking and Insurance Chairwoman Anitere Flores, R-Miami, said as the committee took up the issue.

The Supreme Court this year ruled that strict limits on attorneys’ fees were unconstitutional and also tossed out a restriction on benefits in the case of a St. Petersburg firefighter injured on the job. Along with helping lead to the 14.5 percent rate increase, those decisions have refueled debate about key issues in a major 2003 law.

Lawmakers also began to consider how to implement a constitutional amendment legalizing full-strength medical marijuana and what to do about a tight state budget next year. Latvala said the Legislature would likely have to allow property owners’ taxes to go up in order to fund an increase in spending on public schools.

“I think it’s clear to me that if we don’t capture the new property values, there will be very slim if any increases for K-12,” he said. “So if we want to provide any local school district increases, I think we’re going to have to allow them to take the additional property value.”

But that could set up a clash with the House, where Corcoran has seemed to dismiss the possibility of allowing what he has labeled a tax increase.

STORY OF THE WEEK: A contract between Visit Florida and Pitbull set off a wide-ranging controversy that helped lead to the resignation of the agency’s president and CEO and raised new questions about state funding for tourism promotion.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Lastly, I appreciate Pitbull and his devotion to our great state.”—Gov. Rick Scott, in a letter detailing proposed reforms to Visit Florida.

by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News