Christine Jordan Sexton
Health care experience may not be a prerequisite to get onto the newly created Commission on Healthcare and Hospital Funding, but contributing to political committee and candidates doesn’t hurt.
Carlos Beruff, a Parrish home builder, is executive director of the commission. A review of campaign finance records shows that Beruff has given $107,369.69 to Republican candidates and causes over the years.
Nearly $80,000 of it went to Gov. Rick Scott or his Let’s Get to Work committee. That includes $3,000 to Scott in January 2014, plus $75,000 to Let’s Get to Work in 2010, 2012, and 2013. He gave another $15,000 to the Republican Party of Florida in May 2014.
Beruff also gave $10,000 to Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam‘s political committee, Sunshine State Leadership Project.
The governor reappointed Beruff to State College of Florida in 2012, and to the South Florida Water Management District board of governors and the Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority.
Beruff also was on Scott’s “regulatory reform transition team” after the governor’s November 2010 election. He’s not the only commission appointee who has given campaign contributions, a review of campaign finance reports show.
Scott created the commission via executive order this past week and charged it with examining the revenue of hospitals and insurance companies, as well as the salaries of executive officers, senior management as well as legal and lobbying expenses, among other expenditures. Scott created the panel after the 2015 legislative session melted down over health care financing and the use of Medicaid funding.
Scott announced the nine appointments Monday morning. Three senators expressed interest in being on the board but none were appointed. The one physician on the commission — Jason Rosenburg gave $2,500 to Let’s Get to Work in December 2013 — and contributed another $1,450.40 in “in kind” contributions.
He also contributed directly to Scott and on March 26, 2014, gave Scott a check for $1,000. Rosenburg, of Gainesville, is a reconstructive microsurgeon and a former chairman of the Florida Board of Medicine, according to the press release.
Robert Spottswood, another committee member, contributed $10,000 to Scott’s Let’s Get to Work Campaign in September 2013 and $3,000 to Scott in October 2014.
Eugene Lamb Jr. is the only commission member who donated money to Democrats. Lamb gave money to both Tallahassee City Commissioner Curtis Richardson and state Sen. Bill Montford in September 2009, and also contributed to Judge Charles Dodson.
Marili Cancio Johnson gave $300 to state CEO Jeff Atwater in September 2013 and gave $190 to the Republican Party of Florida in 2010.
The commission holds its first meeting in Tallahassee on May 20.
