TALLAHASSEE — After rounds of failed legislation, lawmakers are poised this year to pass what they are calling Florida’s most significant ethics overhaul in decades.
Strengthening state ethics laws is a top priority for legislative leaders, and Senate President Don Gaetz of Niceville has this year’s 52-page legislation on a path to be voted out of his chamber by early March.
For him and House Speaker Will Weatherford of Wesley Chapel, it’s a legacy issue.
“We said if we could leave any indelible mark on this place, it would be to try to raise the standard of ethics,” Gaetz said late last week.
Although the current bill has received bipartisan praise and one unanimous committee vote already, not everything has gone as planned.
It is opposed by at least one powerful special-interest group, and promised reforms to fundraising committees fueled by unlimited campaign cash and abused by some candidates could prove hollow.
“Money is going to find a way to move around,” said Tim Baker, a Republican strategist and attorney. “If they want to use it to party, they are going to party.”
The reform push has also, apparently, brought former speaker Dean Cannon into the conversation. After serving two years as speaker, the Winter Park Republican was term-limited and started a lobbying firm.
That situation is the focus of a provision that would not allow lawmakers to lobby state agencies for two years after leaving office. Retired lawmakers currently are prohibited from lobbying the Legislature for two years.
“When you’re a presiding officer and you preside over budgets for state agencies, then start going lobbying those state agencies, what’s the difference in that and coming back and lobbying your colleagues in the Senate?” said Senate Ethics and Elections Committee Chairman Jack Latvala, R-St. Petersburg.
When asked specifically if the provision was aimed at Cannon, Latvala repeatedly said “if the shoe fits, wear it,” but did not mention Cannon by name.
Many of the same lawmakers on the ethics committees have not been kind to recent reform packages.
Lawmakers swatted aside several proposals filed by former Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, that would have limited lawmakers’ ability to sway legislation they would benefit from.
This year’s bill does include a provision not allowing lawmakers to vote on a bill that would result in them seeing a “special private gain or loss.”
The push for strengthened ethics laws in Florida is not unwarranted. A 2012 report by Integrity Florida found that the state has had 781 public corruption-related convictions since 2001, tops in the nation.
“We have a good bill this year,” said John Thrasher, the St. Augustine Republican who is a member of the Senate committee. “We have some work ahead of us, but it’s a great start.”
Though the legislation passed out of its first committee stop on a bipartisan, 13-0 vote, it did gain an opponent.
An amendment was tacked on that makes it illegal for any public official to get a second publicly funded job while serving in a public role. The bill originally applied only to state lawmakers.
“You are expanding it from 160 to thousands of officials,” said Ryan Padgett, a lobbyist with the Florida League of Cities. ”That’s a huge expansion of the original bill.”
Padgett said it would be “very difficult” for his group, which represents 411 cities, to support the bill if the provision remains.
He used the example of a 15-year Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office veteran who quits after being elected to the school board. If that person wanted to return to the police job while serving as a member of the school board, “the way the bill is written, he can’t do that,” Padgett said.
“It makes people choose public service or a career,” he added.
From the outset of ethics reform talks, both Gaetz and Weatherford had said they wanted to eliminate fundraising committees controlled by lawmakers or candidates. The so-called committees of continuous existence can collect unlimited amounts of campaign cash.
They are supposed to be used for political purposes, like giving a campaign contribution, but have been abused in recent years by candidates who use them to fund things like personal meals or travel.
Gaetz and Weatherford now say they doubt the committees will be eliminated, and are instead focused on reform.
Though it’s now Gaetz’s sentiment — he said Friday “If we can’t end them … then at least let’s amend them” — he doesn’t know why the state won’t be able to eliminate them.
“I don’t know why it can’t happen either,” he said. “I hope it can.”
The provision in the Senate bill keeps the committees, but cracks down on the use of those committees for things that are not related to fundraising or political activities.
But — Tallahassee eateries rejoice — the provision does allow for things like meal purchases from the committees if they are deemed “legitimate expenses.”
Some political consultants see the tweak as largely hollow because there are other avenues to spend campaign cash on anything. For instance, if someone writes a $10,000 check to a political party, it becomes impossible to tell exactly how that money was spent.
Baker also said that groups can write checks to trade associations like the Chamber of Commerce or Associated Industries of Florida. In that case, it becomes a “black hole for contributions,” he said.
There has been no talk of reforming things like party money.
“I don’t know if that’s something on the table,” said state Rep. Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton.
Latvala said that “something significant” would be in a second elections bill, but stopped short of saying they would be eliminated.
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