GAMING THE SYSTEM

Would the employer of a server at a restaurant , the clerk at a department store, an electrician, plumber, corrections officer, truck driver, health care worker…..or even the CEO of a bank, college or hospital be allowed to spend a large amount of time each day seeking another job while “one the clock”?

I don’t think so.

Believe it or not, this situation is allowed by the employers (citizens) of Florida Governor Charlie Crist, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink and Attorney General Bill McCollum. They have all started actively campaigning for a new elected position.

Crist wants to be a U.S. Senator, Sink wants to be the Governor, as does McCollum.

Each one of these “public servants” is being paid approximately $130,000 per year while they actively campaign for the next 16 months for another position.

Florida is the fourth largest state in the country with a population of almost 20 million people. How can the Governor, Chief Financial Officer and the Attorney General find the time to adequately perform the duties of the offices they currently hold while more and more of their time is going to be spent on the campaign trail?

They cannot!

The lack of time spent on the job creates an obvious conflict between their campaign activities and their sworn duties to the people of Florida. We all know that their current job responsibilities will suffer….and I believe already are. The citizens of Florida are, in essence, paying these three individuals a full time salary while they run statewide campaigns.

Crist, Sink and McCollum all say they will not neglect their duties while running for other jobs.
Saying and doing are two very different things. They know it is impossible.

I am not criticizing these three individuals as much as I am the system that allows this to happen. The Florida legislature could easily change the law, thus prohibiting our top elected officials from holding onto their current held positions while seeking the next.

The chance of this happening is very slim, considering that many of these politicians use the existing law when they decide to seek another office. Hence, they are not motivated to change a law that benefits them.

There is an alternate way to rectify this bad law. Any office holder who wants to campaign for his or her next office could simply do what is right and resign from their current position.

Mr. Crist should resign as governor since his real focus is now on the U.S. Senate.

Atty. General McCollum should resign since he is now campaigning for governor as should CFO Sink.
My criticizism of this flawed law is non-partisan. I care not if it involves a Republican or Democrat. Both parties have “gamed the system” to their advantage.

Crist and McCollum are Republicans. Sink is a democrat.

Your Government . . . My View

Legal Corruption in Florida Politics

It has been said many times and in many situations, if you want to understand why government does things certain ways…..just follow the dollar.
Campaign financing in the state of Florida has become legally corrupt, compliments of the Florida Legislature.
Florida law prohibits legislators from accepting meals and gifts from a lobbyist. The law also limits campaign contributions to $500.00.
But, here comes the legal corruption. There is no limit on the amount of cash legislators can collect, from various special interests, in various fundraising committees the lawmakers create to advance broadly defined public purposes. Helping one another get re-elected is their most important purpose.
Lawmakers defend the growing practice of using these type committees. They can use the money for personal expenses such as travel and meals, etc.
The St. Petersburg Times recently reported that, "A special report by the Times/Herald bureau revealed that dozens of legislators from both political parties collected $6 million from special interests during the last campaign cycle for their own slush funds. They spent a significant portion of it on themselves for travel and meals, and they moved big sums between various political committees to back their friends and attack their enemies. There are no limits on the contributions to these committees of continuing existence and no oversight. They pose an enormous threat of corruption and influence peddling and they ought to be shut down."
Folks, this is legal corruption that allows well heeled special interest groups to, in fact, buy the legislation they desire. Most of the time this is to the detriment of regular citizens.
Let’s look at just a few examples:
Hospital Corporation of America donated $269,000.00 in the past two years to these slush fund committees. Why so much money from HCA? They are seeking to change the way more than $1 billion in hospital money is awarded each year.
U.S. Sugar Corp. donated $365,000.00 to lawmakers and other political groups this election cycle. Do they want something or do they just like the legislators? U.S. Sugar is trying to sell a large amount of land to the state for about $1.3 billion. They have hired 41 lobbyist to help in this effort.
AT&T contributed $151,000.00. They are seeking favorable phone legislation this year.
These are just three examples of companies who want something from the legislature. Their investments pay off when our legislators enact laws that favor them.
In many cases, it is impossible to track who really donated money to a committee or a legislator. No law prohibits the practice, and legislators themselves write the campaign finance laws.
As long as state politicians accept unlimited contributions from these committee slush funds, the $500.00 contribution limit to individual political campaigns is meaningless. It’s ironic that a lobbyist is prevented from directly buying a legislator a meal, but that same lobbyist can write the legislators slush fund a check for $10,000.00.
These slush fund committees have very little to do with free speech and everything to do with buying influence.
It would be simple to clean up this legal corruption. The Florida Legislature can pass a law that says the $500.00 limit on contributions to individual campaigns also applies to these slush funds.
Money talks and it talks much too loud in Tallahassee. Influence buying is too rampant.
The HCA’s, U.S. Sugar’s, AT&T’s, etc., buy what they want, while most citizens have no real voice with their elected representatives.
Incumbents stay in office by raising large sums money from these special interests.
A line from a Bob Dylan song says…"Steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you a king."
Note: The opinions stated in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Hatcher Publications.

Growth Management In Florida - Good or Bad?

By Ernie Padgett

Some very interesting and negative things are happening in the Florida Legislature this month relative to the best way to manage future growth in our state.
There is a bill being considered in Tallahassee that would do away with the state’s growth management agency, the Florida Department of Community Affairs (DCA).
Allow me to put a personal perspective on this very important issue.
In November of 1980, I was sworn in as a county commissioner in Jackson County. The DCA had already been established at that time. The agency had "review and comment authority" relative to county and city comprehensive plans for growth.
In 1985, the state adopted the Florida Growth Management Act. The Act gave the DCA "review and approval authority" over city and county comprehensive plans.
Local governments could still write and adopt their own plans, but the state had to give final approval before the local plan was effective. This was very unnerving to many local governments.
Needless to say, this 1985 Act met with considerable resistance from many cities and counties throughout Florida.
My position at the time was the same as many local elected officials. I strongly opposed the state having approval authority over our growth management plans.
Many (not all) of the planning staff at the DCA were very antagonistic and rigid when they were dealing with us "lowly" local officials. Of course, this played right into our hands in giving us another reason to challenge the terrible DCA.
After the Growth Management Act of 1985 was enacted and into the early 1990’s some of the DCA staff certainly left something to be desired. Sometimes their staff would rattle the sabers about the possibility of withholding state revenue sharing from a city or county if we didn’t do exactly what they wished.
I served as county administrator in Santa Rosa County from 1990 - 1995. Now that was an interesting era in dealing with the DCA. In 1991 or ‘92 some local residents paid for large billboards that simply said, "DCA……Department From Hell".
In the 1990’s, things started changing for the better. Local governments and the DCA slowly but surely began to develop better relations. Those of us in local government started to mature more and realize that the DCA was there to assist and not be an adversary. The DCA staff evolved also and started to realize they could not continue to be seen as the enemy.
DCA has been managed by some excellent department heads (Secretaries) such as Dr. John De Grove, Bill Sadowski, Linda Shelley, and Jim Murley.
Interestingly, the current head of DCA, Tom Pelham, served as its head in the late 1980’s. Tom was hard to like at that time. Looking back, he had a hard tour of duty during those early days. Today, I think Tom Pelham is doing an excellent job leading the agency.
Starting in 1987 and until I retired almost two years ago, I served as county administrator in three Florida counties. In twenty one years, I experienced a tremendous amount of interfacing between local and state government relative to growth planning.
I finished my career in Manatee County, population 320,000. We were one of the fastest growing counties in the state during the twelve years I was there.
Florida’s growth management worked. The DCA staff was responsive and assisted my planning staff every step of the way.
Overall, state and local planning officials have grown together through the years and things are working well.
Granted, there is definitely some streamlining that needs to occur and development permits need to by expedited.
It is nothing more than the Florida Legislature catering to a few special interest groups when some legislators are supporting the dismantling of the Florida Department of Community Affairs.
They are supporting this bad legislation under the guise of helping the state economy.
The Senate and House along with the Governor should exercise good leadership and put and end to this even being considered.
Enactment of this bad legislation most likely will result in developers being let off the hook when it comes to them being responsible to pay for the infrastructure that is required for their development.
Who would pay the infrastructure bill for their developments? You would!
Ernie Padgett
ELPLCP@aol.com (941) 224-6527