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Remember a few months ago when Florida and Alabama beat Georgia in that court battle in the water wars over the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint rivers system?
Well, a U.S. District Appeals Judge upheld the ruling on Friday and denied Georgia's appeal for a rehearing of the case.
The First District Court of Appeals has denied Allstate's appeal, like they had suggested they might a few weeks ago. Read it here. That means Commissioner Kevin McCarty can move to stop Allstate from writing new auto business until the insurer complies with regulators' subpoenas.
Ken Magyar, an 88-year-old cyclist from Orlando, added little levity to a Florida Cabinet meeting on Tuesday when he announced to Gov. Charlie Crist: "I've never met a real, live governor before."
"Well, today is your day. I'm alive," Crist said to Magyar who was among those receiving a special resolution in honor Bike Florida, a nonprofit that encourages cycling across the state.
And then the white-haired cyclist complimented Crist's hair: "I wish I had hair like yours." And Crist answered, "you do."
As we trade the 2008 legislative session for the pending start of the 2008 hurricane season, let's take stock: • The average cost of homeowner's insurance in Florida is now more than $2,000 a year, about twice what it was three years ago.
• State-backed Citizens Property Insurance, the insurer of last resort, remains the state's largest property insurer with about 1.2-million policyholders, about the same as it had in 2006. It also finds itself in a weakened financial state.
• Allstate, State Farm, USAA, Nationwide and others have either stopped writing new policies in the state or have cut back what they will write. And most of the smaller, newer companies that took their place limit the number of older, coastal homes they insure. About two-thirds of the homes in Florida fall into that category.
• For another year, a record $28-billion will be sitting in Florida's hurricane catastrophe fund, which offers cheap backup coverage to insurers. If insurance companies need to tap into a major chunk of that fund, or if Citizens runs a deficit, all Florida policyholders are in deep trouble.
Umbrellas shielding their faces from the midday sun, education leaders today urged legislators to rethink their refusal to tap into rainy-day reserves for schools.
Lawmakers say the money should be used for emergencies only. The Florida Education Association says the financial losses facing schools is an emergency of Category-5 hurricane proportions.
"We are in the midst of a severe downpour," said FEA President Andy Ford. "If this isn't a time to dip into your reserves, when is it?"
Surprise! Citizens Property Insurance Corp. board chair Bruce Douglas likes a part of a state Senate insurance package that stops Citizens from writing wind-only policies in the future.
When it comes writing to new policies, Citizens would only be allowed to insure against the whole shebang, including the more lucrative fire and theft as well as wind. The insurance industry hates this proposal, because it means even more direct competition from the state insurer.
Continue reading "Citizens chief likes part of Senate insurance bill" »
The Florida Senate plans to amend their Florida Forever bill today to keep the Florida Communities Trust grant program with the Department of Community Affairs. Their bill currently moves the program.
Former Tampa Mayor Bill Poe Sr. and 19 others, including his wife and five children, have been sued by Florida regulators for engaging in what the state alleges was an elaborate scheme to divert more than $140-million from three property insurance companies even as the companies hurtled toward bankruptcy. Read about it here.
At Tuesday's Cabinet meeting, Gov. Charlie Crist urged a three-member team of state auditors to be more aggressive in finding out who was responsible for the investment choices that resulted in last fall's meltdown of a local government investment pool.
"I really want you to dig in and instruct the law firm to be an independent counsel," Crist told Kim Ferrell, the audit team member from Attorney General Bill McCollum's office. "It's very important to me." Ferrell, in updating the Cabinet, reported that the audit team has hired the law firm of Berger Singerman as its outside counsel. The firm's name partner, Mitchell Berger, is a leading Democratic politico.
Audit team member Doug Darling from CFO Alex Sink's office said Berger Singerman was chosen from a competitive process. Crist said he did not consider it ironic that a firm led by a major Democrat is in charge of finding the truth in the investment-pool meltdown. "It doesn't make them bad, does it?" Crist said.
In the wake of a $10-billion run last fall on Florida's local government investment fund, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink unveiled 10 proposals on Thursday to strengthen safeguards over the investments.
Topping the list? To decide if there are grounds for a lawsuit against investment firms that sold to the state mortgage-backed securities that were soon downgraded.
Not only do Senate leaders propose stripping the Board of Governors of most of its powers in overseeing state universities, but SB 2308 by Sen. Lisa Carlton would do away with the State Board of Education and have the Cabinet -- including a newly elected education commissioner -- effectively serve as the board.
We know what the BOG did to tick off lawmakers, but what did the State Board of Education do?
WEEKI WACHEE - Clad in red and blue bikini tops and tails, silvery bubbles rose from their air hoses in the aqua blue water as the Weeki Wachee Springs mermaids watched Monday afternoon as their historic attraction became a state park.
Attorney Gen. Bill McCollum went down to Weeki Wachee on Monday for the annoucement.
Read more here.
Key managers at a government-run fund knew they had a
crisis brewing with questionable securities at least two months before
they alerted stakeholders or their own bosses, new records suggest.
The State Board of Administration released a time line on Tuesday of the meltdown of its local government investment fund. The document reveals that a small SBA team held internal meetings and participated in conference calls with other investors of the same troubled securities starting in August.
Read more here.
SBA trustees could have had access to the internal SBA audit that first flagged troubles in the fixed income group months sooner than they actually did. Most SBA trustees, that's Gov. Charlie Crist, CFO Alex Sink and Attorney General Bill McCollum, have complained they learned of a March 2007 SBA internal audit red-flagging the fixed income group's risky behavior only a few weeks ago.
But all trustees have one appointee to the SBA audit committee, which considered the controversial audit at their August meeting as the subprime mortgage crisis unfolded. The audit's processing delays were so glaring in August, that the CFO’s appointee to that committee, Doug Darling, asked auditor Flerida Rivera-Alsing whether SBA management was dragging its feet. He took her to task for not being tougher on management in getting responses. He told her that her role wasn’t to “negotiate with management” or “make management feel good or look good.”
Darling also made the following foretelling statements, according to an audio transcript of the hearing:
“If management is not being responsive, I’ll tell you right now, my trustee wants to know that,” he said. “I can pretty well guarantee you that if we continue to get non-responsive replies there’s going to be new management," he added a bit later.
CFO Alex Sink sent a letter this afternoon asking Senate President Ken Pruitt and House Speaker Marco Rubio to assign the Legislative auditor general to look into SBA's audit practices.
Florida State Board of Administration trustees will ultimately decide what to pay a new executive director, but interim director Bob Milligan had said back in December that anything less than $300,000 salary would not attract quality candidates. The trustees will discuss a job posting on Tuesday that lists the salary between $250,000 and $350,000.
By comparison, former director Coleman Stipanovich was a steal at $182,000.
Also, just finding good applicants is looking pretty pricey. Cabinet materials suggest that a thorough advertising posting national newspapers and financial press could cost as much as $49,000 ($37,000 would go for Wall Street Journal advertising). A special recruitment firm could cost as much as $111,000.
UPDATE!! The Trustees approved the salary and decided to hire a head-hunter with a 2-1 vote. Gov. Charlie Crist voted against the measure, calling it too expensive.
Another local government investment fund has collapsed, but in this case no cities lost money because of a bailout from the Florida League of Cities. The fund involved about $187-million in funds owned by more than a dozen small Florida cities, including New Port Richey, that were invested in the Columbia Strategic Cash Portfolio, commonly known as Strat-Cash. Read Florida Trend's exclusive story here.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers got their first chance Monday to grill state employees about the troubled State Board of Administration fund that was invested in bad securities. They left without any answers.
Attorney General Bill McCollum isn't buying Gov. Charlie Crist's belief that global warming is a threat to Florida and the world. Shortly before Christmas, McCollum sent a memo to Crist and the other Cabinet members, advising them that "the science is not all in" on the subject and urging them to view the enclosed DVD, a British television documentary called The Great Global Warming Swindle. (It costs $19.99, and this is not exactly "It's a Wonderful Life.") Check out the web site here.
The makers of the program include Martin Durkin, who's no stranger to controversy across the pond. The Guardian newspaper in London reported in 1997 that Durkin considered himself a Marxist. At the time, he helped produce an anti-environmental broadcast on Britain's Channel 4 called Against Nature. Crist, by the way, says he'll keep seeking alternative energy sources to combat global warming in 2008, with or without McCollum's support. McCollum was campaigning Thursday with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Bloomberg takes a hard look at the SBA mess: "...What Stipanovich, 58, hadn't told his boss, Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, was that Lehman Brothers was the same firm that had sold the state fund $842 million of mortgage- backed debt in July and August. Those securities defaulted within four months, and totaled more failing debt than any other bank sold the state, Florida records show. ``At the time, I never knew it was Lehman Brothers that actually sold us these investments,'' Sink says.
"Sink also was unaware that former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who incorporated Jeb Bush & Associates in February 2007, a month after completing his second term, had been hired as a consultant to Lehman Brothers in June. Bush is the brother of President George W. Bush. ... Florida CFO Sink is riled up about more than Stipanovich. She says JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Lehman Brothers were offloading tainted debt on Florida and other states at a time when those assets were plummeting in value. "
In ordinary times, no one pays much attention to the State Board of Administration's audit committee. But in the aftermath of a $14-billion raid on a local government investment pool, the three-member committee on Wednesday embarked on its own investigation of what went wrong.
"Who knew what when?" Asked Melinda Miguel, Gov. Charlie Crist's inspector general and chair of the audit committee.
The panel is being prodded into action by Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, who has cited inadequate transparency and a sudden loss in investor confidence after a chunk of the fund's portfolio was downgraded to distressed-asset status in July.
The audit committee members are (from left in photo) Kimberly Ferrell, chief auditor in the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit under Attorney General Bill McCollum; Miguel, the panel's chairwoman; and Doug Darling, director of Sink's accounting and auditing division.
Darling urged the SBA's audit staff to look for emails that would determine whether securities brokers were "advising or pressuring or suggesting" that the state make risky investments.
-- Steve Bousquet
Gov. Charlie Crist passed up a chance Monday to endorse Coleman Stipanovich, the state's investment-fund overseer at the center of a controversy over a recent run on a local government investment pool that has forced the state to suspend fund withdrawals.
Asked how high is his confidence in Stipanovich's ability, Crist said: "How high? It's hard to say. I think he works hard. He works hard." Asked if Stipanovich's job were in jeopardy, Crist said: "I wouldn't say that."
Continue reading "Crist weighs in on Stipanovich, fund mess" »
The state is spending $125,000 on BlackRock, the publicly traded investment firm chosen to analyze the problems with the SBA fund. The state also considered JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Barclays.
BlackRock started its job on Friday and worked through the weekend with SBA. They'll present their findings on a conference call this afternoon and at Cabinet on Tuesday.
BlackRock also got a big chunk of some $4.5 million in fees to manage the state's prepaid college tuition fund earlier this year.
A panicky raid by local governments on a state-run investment pool and move by state officials to temporarily suspend withdrawals raises a question: Do the three trustees of Florida's retirement system still have confidence in Coleman Stipanovich, executive director of the state Board of Administration?
The key to his future employment could be Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, who was pointedly critical of Stipanovich last week at an emergency meeting where the suspension of withdrawals was imposed. (Gov. Charlie Crist closely followed Sink's lead; the third trustee is Attorney General Bill McCollum, who participated by speakerphone and whose body language can't be assessed).
"I can't comment on that right now. I am very, very focused on the investors," Sink said when asked if she has lost faith in Stipanovich's stewardship of state investments. "We, as a board, will have to evaluate performance in due time."
Continue reading "Are Coleman Stipanovich's days numbered?" »
The state Board of Administration, which oversees Florida's investments, chose BlackRock to help it figure out what to do about the run on its troubled state-run investment pool. BlackRock is hardly new to managing Floridians' money -- the firm receives major fees to both advise and invest Florida's prepaid college tuition fund.
The state on Friday hired the publicly-traded investment firm to come up with an independent financial review of the Local Government Investment Pool and will work through the weekend with SBA staff members, according the governor's office. The news release didn't say how much BlackRock will get paid for its services.
As cities, counties and school boards withdraw billions of dollars from a shaky state investment fund, Gov. Charlie Crist and two other top state officials voted Thursday to suspend all future withdrawals from the fund, pending a review by an independent advisor.
The action, in an atmosphere of crisis, came at a special meeting of the State Board of Administration, which consists of Crist, CFO Alex Sink and Attorney General Bill McCollum -- the three officials with the responsibility of overseeing the state's investments.
"Let's stop the bleeding," Crist said, echoing Sink's proposal to suspend all withdrawals from the fund.
The mass exodus of withdrawals -- at least $3.5-billion on Thursday alone before the vote, and $10-billion over the past two weeks -- has come from a fund known as the local government investment pool, managed by the state. The 25-year-old fund has a solid track record of producing healthy rates of return.
Continue reading "State suspends investment fund withdrawals" »
Florida insurance regulators held a cookout Thursday inside the Senate Office Building in Tallahassee, and the Allstate insurance group was on the grill. Read more here.
Attorney General Bill McCollum takes a dim view of any casino deal that would allow the Seminole Tribe to operate table games, such as blackjack and baccarat. As he awaited the details of a negotiated compact between Gov. Charlie Crist's office and the Seminole Tribe, McCollum told reporters the law is clear that the Indians have a right to Vegas-style slots -- but those other games, now illegal, are bad news.
"If you went to full Las Vegas-style gaming where you have roulettes and blackjack and all of that, I think it could have a very negative impact on tourism, and the type of family tourist environment we have in our state," said McCollum, a former chairman of the U.S. House subcommittee on crime. "I think it will create more criminal behavior. It always does."
Continue reading "McCollum: Casino table games draw crime" »
PRIDE Enterprises, the St. Pete-based nonprofit that provides jobs and employment skills to Florida prison inmates, is being targeted for elimination by corrections chief Jim McDonough, who says PRIDE is obsolete and that the state can do a better job.
But McDonough has his work cut out for him. In the Legislature, Republicans and Democrats alike say PRIDE, despite brushes with scandal a few years ago, is doing a good job and should be left alone. More here.
We chatted with Alex Sink about the recent series of Wall Street Journal editorials hammering Charlie Crist over Florida's attempted property insurance fixes. "Those were planted by the insurance industry,'' the Democratic Chief Financial Officer scoffed, after taping an interview for "Political Connections" on Bay News 9. "(Crist) hasn't given the industry the access that they're used to."
The industry even tried to get former Gov. Jeb Bush to intervene with Crist, Sink said, but "to his credit" Jeb declined to do so.
CFO Alex Sink announced proposed legislation that would reduce risk in the catastrophe fund and put the catastrophe fund more under the control of the Cabinet. She plans to suggest that these initiatives should be taken on during a special session or some time before the regular session.
Nearly six months after Gov. Charlie Crist and the Cabinet made it easier for some felons to regain their civil rights, the system is choked by a backlog of more than one hundred thousand cases awaiting review. Tensions between two state agencies that screen ex-offenders, the Department of Corrections and the Florida Parole Commission, are exacerbating the delay because of disagreements over which inmates qualify for review. More here.
So far, 362 and counting. That's how many people, including current and former employees of the FHP, have signed an online petition demanding that Col. Chris Knight be reinstated as chief of the Florida Highway Patrol. Knight was forced to resign Sept. 17 after an investigation concluded he falsified an official document. He was forced out by Electra Bustle, executive director of the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, with the support of Gov. Charlie Crist, after a six-month probe that produced no other charges but amplified complaints by black employees that they had been treated unfairly.
"I have 30 years as a trooper and this is wrong," Joe Tucker writes. Signer No. 18 on the petition, Ken Howes, a former FHP spokesman, writes: "Colonel Knight was the victim of a political assassination ... My fear is that this is just the beginning of the end of the Florida Highway Patrol. What a terrible shame."
Attorney General Bill McCollum gave a brief statement to the Florida Cabinet about the Tasering of a University of Florida student Monday:
"Every single day police and and sheriff's deputies in our state put their life on the line for us and we should be aware that by far and aware most of these officers are extraordinarily careful in what they do ... On the other hand, the day before yesterday, when this instance occurred, I think most of us think that presumably this was excessive force and it needs to be investigated. Free speech is important in our country."
"I'm not happy with the situation, but I do think the Cabinet should recognize the fact that both the report and the activities going on with the investigation have to be put in context, because there are many, many fine police officers out there ever day. And Tasers are not lethal."
Call it bad timing.
The credit crunch that's causing the financial markets to swoon is making it difficult for the State Board of Administration to place up to $7-billion worth of bonds called "floating rate notes" that would shore up cash in the state's catastrophe fund.
SBA released this statement but would not comment further:
"Due to current volatile conditions in global financial markets, the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund has decided to postpone its current taxable bond financing. The State will continue to evaluate market conditions and access the market as conditions normalize."
Continue reading "Thick of Hurricane Season With No Extra Cash" »
Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, the only Democrat on the Cabinet, loudly opposed a decision Tuesday to approve a five-year lease that will permit construction of a 104-slip private marina in Volusia County.
Sink's complaint: The terms of the lease are too favorable to a private developer. By her calculation, the developer of the Island Town Yacht Club in New Smyrma Beach will make a tidy profit of at least $14-million while paying less than $1-million to the state (no one challenged Sink's math).
"We're releasing the people's land," Sink protested, hoping to enlist some support from the people's governor (she didn't). Sink was on the losing end of a 3-1 vote, with Gov. Charlie Crist and the other two Republicans on the Cabinet supporting the transaction.
Crist defended the venture, and said the developer is "taking a risk to provide jobs to Florida's economy."
If you put a bunch of wilted, 3-week-old lettuce in one pile ...And Florida's governor, state chief financial officer and Legislature in another pile ...
The two piles would be just about equal in the leadership they are providing on this big change in car insurance that is happening on Oct. 1. The governor, Charlie Crist, is darned worried about it. But he respects the Legislature, you know, and doesn't want to seem too bossy. Good grief! Where is Jeb Bush when you need him?
More of Howard Troxler's column here. And check back here at noon for a live Troxblog chat.
CFO Alex Sink was expected to talk to Tiger Bay in Tallahassee on Wednesday about her new idea about the best way to manage the state's catastrophe fund. Maybe the Florida Cabinet, not the Legislature, should manage it.
Since the Legislature only meets in the Spring, that gives insurers, like Florida Farm Bureau, the excuse to say they didn't know that the Legislature was going to do anything with reinsurance before they went out and bought their reinsurance. If the Cabinet managed the catastrophe fund, they could tinker with the catastrophe fund, if need be, during the fall season, before reinsurance contracts go out.
"There's a big January open window period in the global reinsurance market, although some companies buy in June," Sink said.
"It's not a budget issue. So it makes sense to me to have the Financial Services Commission, in the fall, establish the rate and contract issues," Sinks said.
Sink added that she just came up with the idea and has yet to float it by the Legislature of even the rest of the Cabinet.
PORT CHARLOTTE - Stan Whitney writes letters to politicians when he's mad and always answers the phone. That's why his property insurance is about $500 cheaper than anyone else's on the block.
In November, Whitney wrote then Gov.-elect Charlie Crist to complain that his insurance premium doubled in a year. Soon, the 79-year-old became the poster boy for insurance reform. His Tallahassee nickname, "Stan the Man," buzzed around the Capitol. He dined at the governor's mansion and hobnobbed with legislators. Crist called him a "wonderful man."
More here.
Since insurance policy lately is getting debated through letters and editorials, Buzz offers the latest.
State Rep. Dennis Ross today fired off a round, read the letter.doc. Ross wrote that his letter is in response to Commissioner Kevin McCarty's editorial, which will be posted in comments, for those who missed it.
"Let's make sure, or find out, if these companies are adhering to the letter law. It's the law!" Crist roared, punctuating each word with a fist to the desk. "And there are consequences to not adhering to the law."
Crist heightened his anti-insurance rhetoric, wondering out loud whether companies are colluding to keep rates high despite new laws designed to lower them. More here. Alex Sink, meanwhile, suggests it may be time to undo the insurance law changes Florida enacted, apparently to little effect, in January.
The State Board of Administration on Tuesday told its staff to start looking issuing a special kind of bond that would ensure there's enough cash to shore up the CAT fund, in case of a hurricane.
If the Cabinet does nothing, the CAT fund would have access to about $5.2 billion by the end of this year. Thanks to the Jan. special session, it has an obligation to fund up to $28 billion if a bad storm season erupts.
So the SBA will look into issuing a special kind of bond called a "floating rate note" to give the state more access to quick cash to pay claims in a hurricane.
Last year, the CAT fund did something similar and issued $2.8 billion worth of floating rate notes. This year, the CAT fund may issue between $3 and $5 billion more, although that money would likely not be available until about September, said John Forney, a consultant on the CAT fund who works for Raymond James.
The effort could be a way to prevent insurers from buying a special kind of reinsurance intended to provide quick cash in the event the CAT fund has trouble paying out to insurers on time.
Gov. Crist on Friday called for the State Board of Administration to meet next Tuesday morning to consider asking that agency's staff to start looking into ways to make sure that there's enough cash to pay hurricane claims out of the catastrophe fund.
The Times reported that insurers are buying a special kind of new reinsurance that promises to start paying out claims immediately after a hurricane hits, in case the catastrophe fund can't.
SBA consists of only the Governor, the CFO and the Attorney General. (Ag. Commissioner Charlie Bronson isn't on SBA.)
The state's insurer of last resort is on a blistering pace to add more than 100, 000 new policies in June alone. The company originally designed as a backup for people who couldn't get insurance anywhere else is well on its way to shouldering at least half of the state's total property insurance risk. In other words, more than half of the estimated $1-trillion total value of all insured homes in Florida could be insured by Citizens by year's end. No other state in the country comes even close to that kind of coverage for a public insurer.
More here.
As expected, the Cabinet voted 3-1 Thursday to dismantle Florida's Jim Crow-era system of requiring lengthy waits and hearings for most felons seeking to regain their civil rights after leaving prison.
Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson and CFO Alex Sink joined Gov. Charlie Crist in supporting the changes, which were a campaign promise by the Republican governor.
Crist said the change was about "simple justice," "fairness," and "redemption," and quoted Abe Lincoln (" ... with malice toward none, with charity toward all.")
Attorney General Bill McCollum mounted passionate opposition, calling it "a sad day for Florida," "a big mistake," and later describing Crist's actions as "liberal." McCollum said that the changes Crist favored would have allowed John Couey, the killer of Jessica Lunsford, to regain his civil rights.
The four officials, meeting as the Board of Executive Clemency, voted to create a new system under which about 80 percent of convicted felons will now regain their civil rights without a hearing. Those rights include voting, serving on a jury, running for office and holding various state-issued licenses. They do not include being able to carry a gun.
Excluded from the automatic category are criminals who have committed murder, manslaughter, DUI manslaughter, sexual battery, lewd and lascivious crimes, child abuse, treason and terrorism.
Completion of a sentence includes full payment of restitution to crime victims.
Even before Gov. Charlie Crist and the three Cabinet members met Thursday to consider loosening the rules for felons seeking to get their civil rights restored, the governor's office had issued a news release declaring victory.
'The rule was approved by a 3-1 majority," the news release said. Attorney General Bill McCollum was expected to be the lone opponent.
-- Steve Bousquet
Attorney General McCollum says that on Thursday, when the Clemency Board meets to consider Gov. Crist's proposal for restoring felons' voting rights, he plans to offer an amendment.
McCollum wants felons to wait at least five years before they get their rights automatically restored, because, "waiting is going to help determine whether or not they're repeat offenders."
He said that once they get their rights restored, they can also serve on a jury and get occupational licenses, which really worries him. He called repeat offenders a potentially "dangerous group of people," and "I don't think I want to give them that occupational license."
Attorney General Bill McCollum watched the Gators win the NCAA championship live in Atlanta but he didn't make a 9 a.m. Cabinet meeting that started less than 10 hours later. McCollum said he knew he probably wouldn't make it back in time for Cabinet, but that he was "also aware that the Cabinet agenda was not very serious" compared with past meetings. (It was among of the quickest Cabinet meetings this year.)
McCollum, a doube gator who got his bachelor's and law degree at UF, made the 11 a.m. forum on global warming, and he asked lots of questions.
Gov. Charlie Crist was also at the game and at Cabinet.
UPDATE!
Buzz was incorrect: Crist did not take the state plane. He flew on a private plane with Bill Belichick, coach of the New England Patriots.
Republican state Rep. Marty Bowen of Haines City has filed papers to raise money for a 2010 campaign for state agriculture commissioner. Bowen, 52, a citrus grower and native of Winter Haven, has been in the House since 2000 and is currently the majority leader.
She's the first to declare a candidacy for any statewide office in 2010, but it won't be surprising to see a crowded field for this low-profile but attractive Cabinet post. Incumbent commissioner Charlie Bronson, who was re-elected last November, is term limited and can't run for the post again.
As any veteran Florida Cabinet attendee knows, the first 30 minutes of so of Cabinet meetings often evolve into a hug-fest with lots of pictures with the Cabinet posing with whoever is getting recognized. Today, for example, it was the 2007 Sunshine State Scholars.
Knowing that, it was pretty funny when a lobbyist for the title insurance industry, after finishing a rant as to why government should leave the title insurance industry alone, finished up by saying: "What? No picture?"
Gov. Crist frowned at title lobbyist Lee Huszagh, and responded: "I don't think so."
Another strange moment occurred when Gov. Crist left the podium, while Attorney General McCollum was speaking, and walked into the committee room over to a painting, hanging on the wall askew. He straightened the painting and walked back to his seat.
Gov. Charlie Crist invokes Robert F. Kennedy and channels Al Gore on global warming. He embraces paper trails for voting machines. Florida's most powerful Republican pays homage to the teachers union and speaks so passionately about civil rights that one legislator dubbed him "Florida's first black governor."
What's a Democrat to do? "Gov. Crist is a political nightmare for the Democrats," said state Senate Democratic Leader Steve Geller. "How do we run against somebody who whenever we come up with a good idea, he goes, 'Hey that's a good idea, let's do that.' " More here.
Music promoter Lou Pearlman needed help to keep his huge financial Ponzi scheme going. Tampa lawyer Jim Lowy said he got it from then-Florida Attorney General - and now Governor - Charlie Crist as well as major financial institutions.
Crist delayed or interfered with investigations against Pearlman and his companies, Lowy said in a lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Tampa. The complaint alleged that $10,500 contributed by Pearlman and his companies to Crist's campaign for governor may have been diverted from scammed investors. And while Crist was attorney general, he enjoyed the use of Pearlman's skyboxes and private jet, according to the complaint, reimbursing the impresario for trips at far less than the actual cost. More here.
TALLAHASSEE - How much money do Florida lobbyists collect from businesses seeking political influence in the state capital? Thanks to new disclosure requirements, that question can be answered for the first time: Last year, lobbyists collected at least $200-million. More here.
Think the legislature made it easy for the public to review lobbying expenditures? Think again. See here for more.
Lobbyists may be barred from buying lawmakers a cup of coffee, but a gaping loophole lets them fund state party junkets. See here.
Crist and Sink said a newly-created seven-member Council on Efficient Government will initially conduct a top-to-bottom review of three big privatization deals involving Convergys Corp.'s People First, Accenture Corp.s MyFloridaMarketPlace and Project Aspire.
The review will include questions of waste, inefficiency and breaches of security of state employee personnel data. The two officials did not rule out the possibility of shifting some services back to government, in what would amount to an unraveling of a big part of Bush's changes.
--Steve Bousquet
Last week, Gov. Charlie Crist really wanted the Florida Cabinet to pass his emergency rule to prevent insurers from dropping policies before the new insurance legislation went into effect. He talked a lot about backbones.
"I'm so proud that the Legislature had the the backbone to do what was right," said Gov. Crist last Tuesday. "What we're talking about with this emergency rule is this Cabinet having the backbone to do what's right."
Later, Commissioner Charles Bronson, clearly taken aback about the backbone comment, started his own response with: "Backbone aside, and I don't think there's anything wrong with my back, I tell you I like to make the right decisions for the right reasons. . ."
The latest joke among Cabinet staffers is to pass around copies of pictures of human spines, like out of an anatomy book. Buzz didn't get a copy but hears the pictures look something like this.
Roll Call's Lou Jacobson wrote up his recent lunchtime chat with assorted Fl reporters, political consultants and political scientists about the political climate in Florida. We/he touched on everything from Jeb to Charlie to competitive congressional seats. Look in comments to see the column.
TALLAHASSEE - Alex Sink's Capitol office looks out on a busy side exit frequented by House members who stop to smoke, chat or walk to a set of elevators. It's an opportune location for the state's chief financial officer during this week's special session on insurance, because she can see them coming and going, but they can't see her."
She favors the more conservative House plan. Full story here.
"It has been touted as an antidote to the rising costs of Florida's property insurance. Through a program called My Safe Florida Home, the state wants to help homeowners strengthen their dwellings against hurricanes. Though expensive, it would be worth it if it substantially reduces insurance premiums....But eight months after the state approved $250-million for the program and the federal government added $100-million, talk of insurance discounts has all but evaporated." More here.
And see here to learn more about the non-profit outfit with the hefty state contract and close ties to the insurance industry.
The Herald today notes that Sen. Bill Nelson, facing certain victory against Katherine Harris, finished the campaign with $1.3-million still sitting in his campaign account. That's money that could have been funnelled into the Florida Democratic party, but could it have made the difference for Jim Davis or Skip Campbell?
If Alex Sink keeps on her overcoat to ward of this morning's chill in Tallahassee, she won't be hard to see up on the rostrum today as she's awaiting being sworn into office.
Sink, the CFO-elect, and the only Democrat and woman in the incoming state Cabinet, showed up at this morning's inaugural breakfast in a cherry red long overcoat, easy to spot in a crowd of 1,000 mostly dark-suited folks.
Also sitting nearby on the floor of Gaither Gymnasium at FAMU: Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson, Attorney General-elect Bill McCollum, the Florida Supreme Court justices, former U.S. Sen. Connie Mack, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, former Govs. Bob Martinez and Claude Kirk, Senate President Ken Pruitt, Tallahassee Mayor John Marks and a slew of other legislators.
But St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker, his wife Joyce and their two children didn't hang on the floor with other dignitaries. As they munched on their share of the complimentary breakfast of muffins, orange juice, apples, bananas and coffee, they sat in the bleachers.
