Legislation

Legislature 2010: Turning the Process on Its Head

By Frank Messersmith
FSA Governmental Consultant

Editor's note: The outcome of many bills is still being decided, as Gov. Charlie Crist continues to exercise his veto powers. But FSA Governmental Consultant Frank Messersmith agreed to give us an assessment of the legislative session, until the dust settled. A more detailed report will appear on this page following the annual summer conference. Stay tuned.

For the second year in a row, when the 2010 session of the Florida Legislature adjourned in April, the legislature produced low numbers for new laws passed. Depending on your perspective, that could be good or bad.

There were a total of 2,477 bills filed by Senate and House members, and at quitting time the last day of April, only 301 bills passed both chambers and were sent to the Governor.

Gov. Charlie Crist, who turned the political world upside down by abandoning the Republican Party and declaring his intent to run as an independent for the open Florida U. S. Senate seat, then created a legislative panic by vetoing 18 of the 301 bills outright, and also by including line item vetoes in the Appropriations Bill, HB 5001, and the Implementing Bill, HB 5003.

The stage was set for the political change and later vetoes when the Governor killed an education accountability bill sent to him by the Republican controlled Legislature that was strongly opposed by the Democrat legislators, the teachers union and the education establishment.

The Governor now continues to threaten to call the legislature back into special session to take up several issues, particularly a prohibition of oil drilling in the Gulf, and proposals to address what he calls the rampant corruption by public officials in South Florida. Gov. Crist has suspended 40 public officials this year for corruption charges.

Still sorting
The impact of these issues, combined with the fact that the entire top political offices of state government, half the Senate and all of the House members are up for election or reelection this November, made the 2010 legislative session difficult and complicated. There was also the continuing practice from the previous session of creating legislation by "waiving the rules" instead of utilizing the traditional committee vetting processes.
Despite the fact that only a small number of bills survived the process, the flow of issues was often overwhelming. It was not uncommon to have four or five issues all being heard at the same time frame on the same day - both morning and afternoon.

Additionally, as a result of the low availability of bills surviving to the end, it seemed more major issues than usual began surfacing as amendments to bills on the agenda in Committee and on the Floor.
The Florida Sheriffs Association began the session with a limited agenda and particular focus on passage of legislation to address the collective bargaining impasse resolution issue created by the Public Employees Relations Commission (PERC) opinion involving the Pasco and Clay County Sheriffs' Offices.

Thanks to Senate President Jeff Atwater (R-Palm Beach) and bill sponsor, Sen. Mike Fasano (R-Pasco) President Pro Tem, our major issue, Impasse Resolution, moved quickly through the Senate Committee process, and within two weeks of the beginning of session, passed the Senate despite opposition led by Democrat Leader Sen. Al Lawson (D-Leon).

Once it arrived on the House calendar, however, it simply sat while the Rep. Robert Schenck (R-Spring Hill), the chair of the first House committee of reference - the Governmental Affairs Policy Committee - refused to calendar the bill for a hearing. Repeated meetings with the House Speaker Larry Cretul (R-Ocala) also failed to generate support for the legislation from the Speaker's Office, or incoming Speaker elect Rep. Dean Cannon (R-Winter Park).
Ultimately, the bill was scheduled as the last bill to be heard in the last meeting of Rep. Schenck's committee in the last week for scheduled House committee meetings.

In that meeting, the Police Benevolent Association (PBA) reversed its position of being neutral on the bill and offered an amendment through Rep. Paige Kreegel (R- Punta Gorda) that gutted the impasse issue by bifurcating the impasse issues and sending fiscal issues to the County Commission for resolution and leaving other operational issues to the Sheriff.

The FSA opposed the amendment, but only two legislators, Rep. Jim Frishe (R-Belleair Bluffs) and Rep. Debbie Mayfield (R-Vero Beach) supported the Sheriffs.
Representative Kelly Skidmore (D-Palm Beach) and Rep. Rick Kriseman (D-Pinellas) also tried to assist us in the meeting and raised questions and comments in our favor. They ultimately voted for the PBA amendment, however.

Rep. Charles McBurney (R-Jacksonville) attempted to file an amendment on behalf of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) that would have resulted in binding arbitration, but he ultimately withdrew it after discussions with our bill sponsor Rep. Alan Hays and FSA. He did, however, support the PBA amendment against the Sheriffs.
Also voting for the union amendment were: Rep. Oscar Braynon (D-Miami-Dade), Rep. Ana Cruz (D-Tampa), Rep. Doug Holder (R-Sarasota), Rep. Scott Randolph (D-Orlando), Rep. Rob Schenck (R-Hernando), and, of course, Rep. Kreegel who sponsored the amendment.

After adding the union amendment, the Committee passed the bill out to the next Committee - Military & Local Affairs Policy Committee, chaired by Rep. Dorothy Hukill (R-Port Orange).

At that point, the Impasse bill was still referenced to one other Committee and two Councils, the odds were clearly against passing the bill to the House Floor.

However, our sponsor of the legislation, Rep. Alan Hays (R-Umatilla), and a candidate for Senate District 20 this November, pressed hard and was able to get the bill withdrawn from the Military & Local Affairs Committee and referred to the Full Appropriations Council on Education & Economic Development. Although House committees were no longer meeting, Councils were meeting for at least another week, so we were still not dead.

We were unsuccessful in getting the Appropriations Chair, Rep. David Rivera (R-Miami-Dade) to agenda the bill for his last committee meeting, however, within hours, Rep. Rivera had withdrawn our bill from his Council and sent it on to its last stop, the Economic Development & Community Affairs Policy Council chaired by Rep. Dave Murzin (R-Pensacola).

Rep. Murzin informed his Sheriff, David Morgan, that he had not heard anything from Sheriffs about the issue, this despite the fact that we had talked directly with Rep. Murzin on a number of occasions regarding the impasse issue over the last two years. Rep. Murzin refused to waive the bill, and ultimately, the bill technically died in his Council.

To get around the Murzin block, the FSA sought the support of the Speaker's Office to "call-up" the Senate bill that was still sitting on the calendar and substitute it for the House bill, similar to the way the House Republican leadership did with a number of bills. They would not, however, support hearing the impasse bill.

Consequently the impasse resolution died when the Legislature adjourned sine die.

In other activities, even though the FSA began the session with a limited agenda, by sessions end the FSA had been significantly involved in over 25 major issues of concern to the Sheriffs. A highlights report on all those issues will be provided for the FSA summer conference.