The Fine Print

Democrat and CFO candidate says it's time to stop trusting lobbyists

The Democrat running for chief financial officer says it is time for Florida lawmakers to stop trusting lobbyists.

Loranne Ausley is blasting the Florida Legislature -- as well as GOP opponent and Senate President Jeff Atwater -- for failing to follow a law that requires the state to verify how much lobbyists are getting paid to influence legislators, the governor and others in Tallahassee.

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported last December that the Legislature was not following a 2005 law meant to give citizens a better idea of how much money was flowing into the Capitol. Lobbyists have been required for four years to file reports listing how much they get paid -- but the state has relied on an "honor system" regarding these reports, despite the fact that state law calls for random audits.

"I think it's outrageous the Legislature and Jeff Atwater have refused to follow the law," Ausley said. "We need to clean up the pay-to-play culture in Tallahassee. We need to hold lobbyists and politicians accountable."

Brian Hughes, a campaign spokesman for Atwater, said instead of constantly criticizing the Legislature, Ausley should tell voters what she plans to do if she is elected.

The audit requirement was included in the 2005 law that also banned gifts to lawmakers from lobbyists. The GOP-controlled Legislature, however, has disagreed on how to carry out the audit requirement and raised concerns about the cost. Plus, hardly any accounting firms have been willing to take on the audit work.

Former Senate President Tom Lee, who pushed for the law, says there's "bipartisan" blame to go around.

Read the entire Herald-Tribune article here.

 

The not-so-clear cut Republican Party of Florida audit.

The Republican Party of Florida earlier this month released a much anticipated audit that was supposed to finally reveal the depths of the financial scandal that has occurred under the watch of former chairman Jim Greer.

The independent audit also suggested that Gov. Charlie Crist may have benefited as well from improper spending during the reign of his hand-picked party chief who finally forced to resign back in January.

But it now appears that the situation may be a bit more complicated than initially reported.

It turns out, for example, that even party officials now concede that they aren't sure if any of the money spent on a trip to Walt Disney World was spent directly on Crist.

"We're not asserting that it was for him," said Dan Conston, a spokesman for the party. "We're asserting he was there."

Meanwhile, it turns out that the party reimbursed Jim Greer for expenses associated with a New York City trip that the party now says was improper.

So is the audit wrong? Depends on who you ask and what you believe.

Read the entire Herald-Tribune article here.

Time running out for Crist to help Mr. Mojo Risin

Gov. Charlie Crist and the rest of the State Board of Executive Clemency will meet again on Thursday morning for the next to the last time before Crist leaves office.

There are 79 cases on the agenda, including one commutation of a sentence request, 31 requests for pardons and 40 requests for restoration of civil rights.

And no, the case of James Douglas Morrison, a.k.a Jim Morrison is not on the agenda. This means there will be only one last time in December for Crist to make a decision on whether or not the deceased lead singer of The Doors deserves a posthumous pardon.

Morrison was arrested and eventually convicted for his 1969 performance at the Dinner Key Auditorium in Coconut Grove where he was accused of exposing himself during a concert.

The singer was acquitted on a charge for lewd and lascivious behavior, but was convicted of indecent exposure and profanity. The Miami incident is given a lot of publicity in a new documentary on The Doors that was released this past April on PBS. Morrison appealed his conviction but he died in 1971 while the case was still pending.

Crist has been considering whether to pardon Morrison since 2007 where he said that he was willing to review the case of the Florida State University alumnus at the urging of Morrison fans. And since that time Crist has said repeatedly that he is willing to consider it but he has yet to say definitively yes or no.

Here's video of Crist from this past summer where he said he still had an "open mind" about the case.

 

 

 

 

 

Rubio: I am not under investigation nor will I ever be

The furor over the still unreleased Republican Party of Florida audit this past weekend prompted the campaign of U.S. Senate candidate Charlie Crist to take several shots at rival Marco Rubio. After a closed door session on Saturday, the party said it may sue to recover hundreds of thousands of dollars that Crist and former chairman Jim Greer spent on non-party related travel expenses.

Danny Kanner, a spokesman for Crist, said the party should worry about whether or not Rubio is under investigation for the way he used his Republican Party of Florida issued credit card instead of inferring that Crist may need to pay back thousands of money to the party. The Crist campaign says the move by the party is a political payback aimed at Crist, who bolted the party to run as an independent.

Rubio, however, flatly insisted on Friday that he is not under investigation by either the FBI and IRS - and he boldly predicted that he never will be.

"It's just not true,'' said Rubio following his well-received speech at the 2010 Victory Dinner at Walt Disney World. "I have never been contacted by anyone. I'm not going to because it's not true."

Rubio continued to insist that he used his RPOF credit card for “political purposes” and that the “few instances” that it wasn’t that it was “paid back at the time.”

It's clear, however, that there is some type of investigation into party finances that has been underway for some time now. And Al Hoffman, a former U.S. ambassador and top fundraiser for the party, said at the Saturday RPOF meeting that he has been questioned by both the FBI and IRS about party spending matters.

It's just another reminder that despite RPOF chairman John Thrasher's bold statement before donors and party faithful on Friday night that the "dark period" of the party is over there is still plenty of fallout that could come from Jim Greer-credit cards-Ray Sansom series of scandals.

Now it's unclear how much of this will unfold before Election Day. The trial of Sansom - the former House speaker charged with using his power as budget chairman to steer money to a political donor and developer - has now been scheduled for early next year.

Greer's trial on charges that he steered party money to a shell company that he set up with former executive director Delmar Johnson was initially scheduled for October. But Damon Chase, an attorney for Greer, said the case will not move forward until the defense team has had a chance to put under oath Thrasher, incoming Senate President Mike Haridopolos, and incoming House Speaker Dean Cannon. They all signed a proposed severance package back in January that says that what Greer did as chairman was "proper, lawful and appropriate."

"I can't wait for the depositions where you sit them down and ask them questions," Chase said this past week. "We're going to walk into court, and go, boom, boom, boom, with the testimony."

Haridopolos, Cannon and Thrasher said they aren't bothered by the prospect of giving a deposition.

"I look forward to justice being done in that case and look forward to cooperating anyway I can,'' Cannon said.

Florida's bid to crack down on prescription drugs could get delayed

Florida’s effort to launch a prescription drug database meant to help crack down on “pills mills” and “doctor shopping” may get pushed back until next year.

A bid dispute by rival companies seeking to run the database has put the project on hold for now. And one of the companies in the dispute contends that the winning bidder is unlikely to get the database up and running by the deadline of December 1.

Susan Smith, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Health, said on Thursday that the department could not discuss the bid protest but she acknowledged the program is on hold until the dispute is resolved. She said that the plan was to activate the database “as soon as possible after the conclusion of the bid protest.”

The Republican-led Legislature back in 2009 passed a measure that mandated the creation of the drug database as a way to let doctors and pharmacists track a patient’s prescription history. The measure was passed in response to reports that South Florida had become a haven for pill mills.

Read the full story here at the Florida Tribune.

Could some of the sting be lost in one of Rick Scott's talking points?

GOP contender and Naples businessman Rick Scott has used Florida's budget woes as a consistent talking point on the campaign trail.

He has repeatedly said that Florida has a $6 billion budget "deficit" and has touted his jobs and economic plan as way to deal with it. That plan calls for deep budget cuts including laying off state employees, increasing pension contributions by state workers, teachers and police officers and reducing the salaries of corrections officers. Scott's jobs plan even warns that Florida is going the way of "California" and "Greece." Scott has also been critical of the decision by GOP legislators to accept federal stimulus dollars the last two years.

But Florida’s projected budget gap for the coming year has shrunk by nearly $3 billion, a new forecast released on Friday shows. (One can argue later the use of the word "gap" versus "deficit," since Florida has to have a balanced budget unlike the federal government.)

This new forecast means that state legislators will have a much smaller potential shortfall to deal with next spring when they work on a new budget for 2011. Depending on what items lawmakers decide to fund, the shortfall could be anywhere from $2.5 billion to as small as $828 million. The previous predicted budget gap was nearly $5.5 billion.

Read more here.

 

No answers yet in mysterious fire at home of former Crist aide

It's been nearly four months since a fire destroyed much of the Tallahassee home of Erin Isaac.

Yet arson investigators for the state have not yet concluded who was behind the blaze. All they continue to say is that it is an "open investigation" but they will not say if all leads in the case have been exhausted.

Here's the full story at Florida Tribune.