Phil Ammann
A roundup of Sunday editorials from Florida’s leading newspapers:
Tampa Bay Times — Hurry up and wait on I-275
Driving into Tampa from the Howard Frankland Bridge has become an absolute mess. Don’t worry, the Florida Department of Transportation says, things will be better in another four weeks. (Or maybe six.) Count us as skeptical. Tampa Bay is used to bad road construction and traffic jams, but this project does not instill confidence in the state’s ability to pull off more ambitious projects down the road.
By many measures, the Interstate 275 project, covering 4 miles from the bridge into downtown Tampa, has been a success. It’s coming in within the budget of $222 million, and it’s expected to be completed before the November deadline. The only thing that’s gone wrong is the traffic. The lane changes, highway design and road closures have made this link between the two largest counties on Florida’s west coast a maddening commute, wasting people’s time, gas and patience, and calling into question how well this state can manage even an outdated transportation system.
The DOT insists the gridlock is temporary. It says the tie-ups on the northbound span result from the removal of an auxiliary exit lane near Armenia Avenue. That certainly appears to be part of the problem. The bigger problem is the role the auxiliary lane was forced to play in the first place — serving as a Wild West zone for traffic exiting at Armenia and entering from the Dale Mabry Highway area.
It always takes drivers time to become familiar with new traffic patterns. And as the DOT says, the traffic flow should improve as the alignments become final in the coming months. But the road design seems to have its own shortcomings. The high retaining walls on the northbound span create blind spots at Dale Mabry, where the competition for space has become more aggressive. And the DOT has done a spotty job of maintaining the local road network under the interstate. The traffic lights are so poorly timed on the access roads at Armenia and Howard Avenues that traffic is routinely stuck on the interstate exits.
Bradenton Herald — Bradenton ‘food desert’ remains to with grocery developer’s utter failure
One of Manatee County’s many “food deserts” will remain without easy access to fresh fruit, vegetables and other healthy fare with this week’s demise of the Save-A-Lot project near downtown Bradenton. Shame on the Milwaukee-based developer, Endeavor Corp., for wasting years and years on this plan, misleading neighborhood residents and city officials time and time again with demand after demand for more money.
This project by the Central Community Redevelopment Agency intended to place a grocery store and other retail outlets at the corner of 13th Avenue West and First Street. First hatched in 2006, a now laughable ground-breaking ceremony occurred later that year for the well-named Minnie L. Rogers Plaza, with her descendants in attendance.
Endeavor missed a Dec. 31 deadline to close on $6 million in federal tax credits vital to the project, but kept making demands to the city for more money over the past two years — winning some concessions. Finally, the city had enough and wisely rejected the developer’s latest bid for a higher city investment.
Good riddance to Endeavor. Bradenton needs a honorable developer fully committed to completing this highly desirable project.
The Daytona Beach News-Journal — Pass comprehensive ethics bill
When lobbyists work to influence Florida governments, voters should be able to know what they want — and how much they’re willing to spend to get it. When contractors take public money and then conspire to rig bids or offer bribes, they should face prosecution. When public officials at any level spend tax money, the public deserves easy access to information about revenue and expenditures.
These measures seem like easy and obvious steps to bolster Florida’s tattered record of government integrity. But they are facing a hard road in the Legislature. They are worth fighting for.
To be sure, many Florida lawmakers would like to claim that ethics reform is a done deal. The state passed broad and much-needed legislation in 2013 following a flood of scandals and investigations of loopholes in the state’s ethics laws, including a 2011 report of a Broward County grand jury that every Floridian essentially paid a “corruption tax” in theft and mismanagement of public funds. That legislation put tighter controls on lobbyists, required better training and gave the state Commission on Ethics more teeth to investigate potential wrongdoing. It was a start — but came nowhere near the scope of the reforms called for by the grand jury and other government integrity advocates. Lawmakers came back in 2014 with legislation that expanded the reach of some of the reforms to local officials.
But Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, a strong backer of ethics reform during his term as Senate president, wasn’t satisfied. He sponsored a bill that included several new anti-corruption measures. And when the Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee refused to advance his legislation (SB 582) in the first week of session, Gaetz convinced the Ethics and Elections Committee to approve a different bill (SB 686) that had the same measures, and more. This week, the Oversight and Accountability Committee reconsidered SB 582, keeping both bills alive.
The legislation faces plenty of obstacles. Some powerful senators say it goes too far. Its closest House companion has passed one committee but must make it through three others.
The Florida Times-Union — Kudos for JEA’s customer service – but a few concerns about the challenges to come
It was all smiles earlier this week at JEA’s board meeting.
Not only did the board get to reduce bills but they announced the news that service for business customers was ranked No. 1 by JD Power.
It was validation for all the hard work to change the culture from a bureaucratic one to a consumer-oriented one.
“This is a really big deal,” said JEA CEO Paul McElroy.
Board Chairman Tom Petway agreed and noted that it was a team effort, requiring hard work by the utility’s more than 2,000 employees.
Upward movement was documented by JD Power in six key metrics:
Power quality and reliability.
Billing and payment.
Corporate citizenship.
Price.
Communications.
Customer service.
For the volunteer board members — most of them new to all of this — it was a sweet beginning to a difficult job.
Florida Today – Teachers speak out, but is Legislature listening?
Here’s my message to Florida’s 180,000 public school teachers: Thank you.
Thank you for your dedication. Thank you for your professionalism. Thank you for your long days of teaching and your long nights of grading papers and preparing for the next day’s lessons.
We don’t appreciate our teachers as we once did. Over the last 20 years teachers have been demonized, demoralized and blamed for what some politicians want to brand a failing public education system. With a steady stream of mandates and micromanaging coming from the state capital, teachers had to constantly adjust to the policies pushed by the politically well-connected education-for-profit folks.
A sampling of those changes include standardized testing, grading schools, creating the FCAT, adopting the Common Core curriculum, switching to new unproven tests, tying teacher salaries and school grades to student performance on high-stakes tests, pushing expansion of for-profit charter schools and vouchers, converting public schools to charters and implementing controversial bonus schemes instead of increasing teachers’ salaries.
Teachers have not been particularly engaged in the political process. They’ve been too busy jumping through bureaucratic hoops.
The devaluing of classroom teachers is taking a toll on them and may have reached a tipping point. Teachers are fed up, frustrated and many are leaving the profession.
One such example is Wendy Bradshaw, a special education teacher in Polk County, who resigned and spoke out about her reasons for leaving public education. Her heartfelt resignation letter was posted on social media and quickly spread nationally.
The Gainesville Sun – Cheers and jeers
The state legislative session usually brings plenty of jeers for extreme gun measures being advanced, but this week brought some welcome displays of common sense.
Cheer: Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, for declining to schedule a hearing for a bill that would allow concealed firearms on college campuses.
“I think the dangers outweigh the potential and perceived benefits of passing a bill,” Diaz de la Portilla told GateHouse Media this week.
He’s right and doing the right thing by listening to opposition from university and college presidents, campus police chiefs and some faculty and student groups. The measure also died last year after Diaz de la Portilla refused to place it on the committee agenda.
Cheer: The Florida Sheriffs Association, for this week proposing a compromise to an open-carry bill.
The alternative measure would provide immunity to people who inadvertently or accidentally display firearms — but falls short of letting people with concealed-weapons licenses openly display guns in public. Predictably, National Rifle Association chief lobbyist Marion Hammer rejected the plan.
“My reaction to the sheriffs’ proposal is not only no, but hell no,” she told the News Service of Florida.
It is sad that even law enforcement officials can’t present legitimate concerns about gun measures without being shouted down by extremists. Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell, president of the sheriffs association, has told The Sun she is concerned that open carry would lead to a diversion of law enforcement resources.
Cheer: The Gainesville Police Department, for the sensible policing practices shown in a video that has gone viral.
The Lakeland Ledger — Now, hopefully, calm will prevail at LPD
On Friday, hopefully, the Lakeland Police Department closed the book on the disastrous Lisa Womack era. Per a deal announced last week, yesterday was the effective date of a settlement between the department and Ann Dinges, its former public safety communications specialist. Dinges, hired by Womack after she became police chief in 2011, had been hanging onto her job under the cloud of a potentially ugly lawsuit against the city. That cloud, now, has gone away, and the two sides have committed to part ways voluntarily, if not exactly amicably.
With her departure, Chief Larry Giddens and his staff should be free to put the tumult of the recent past behind them.
Dinges proved to be one expensive hire, although her tenure could have proven more costly were it not for the agreement reached last week.
When Womack needed a spokesperson in 2011, she brought in Dinges, who had worked for the former chief in two other cities. Dinges had been Womack’s executive secretary in Texas, and served as Womack’s public information officer in Illinois. Womack hired Dinges, who had referred to the chief as her “friend” on her job application, over 102 other applicants, a group that included a former TV reporter who had been a public information officer for the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, a former police officer and PIO from Georgia, and an LPD employee who worked in the public information section.
Despite her dubious qualifications, Dinges was paid $60,000 a year to interact with the media and provide records to the public. Yet she proved unreliable at doing either. She routinely forwarded document requests to the department’s lawyer, declined to take reporters’ calls and frustrated cops by forcing them to answer media questions in her stead. In January 2013, Womack shifted Dinges to the job of public safety communications specialist, an effort to segment the marketing aspects of her section from its public outreach duties.
Miami Herald — Immigration is the president’s job
It’s no secret that America’s immigration system is a confused and disorderly mess. Now the U.S. Supreme Court has a chance to inject a needed dose of clarity into the picture by upholding President Obama’s priorities on who stays and who goes.
Presidents, as well as prosecutors and law-enforcement officers, have always had the authority to exercise discretion in carrying out the law. Who gets a ticket and who gets a warning. Who gets charged with a felony and who gets charged with a misdemeanor. How far over the speed limit can you drive without getting a ticket?
This is the same sort of authority Mr. Obama relied on in November 2014 when he issued an order on deportation declaring that the government would target criminals, such as gang members, while giving a three-year reprieve to other individuals. Those excluded are people whose children are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents, who have been here at least since 2010 and who do not have criminal records.
The reasons for Mr. Obama’s order are the same ones that compel police and prosecutors to exercise discretion: limited resources and practicality. It is simply not possible to deport the 11 million individuals who are here without the proper documentation, and it’s silly to pretend otherwise.
The humanitarian impulse was to avoid breaking up families and to allow as many as 5 million people to live here without fear of sudden expulsion. It is also useful to bring all these people out of the shadows so that they need no longer fear talking with their neighborhood police or other law-enforcement figures.
Some might say that there’s a big difference between a cop who doesn’t issue a speeding ticket to someone going, say, five miles over the speed limit, and a president who gives temporary blanket amnesty to millions of people. Obviously, the scope of the president’s order is broader, but there’s nothing new about presidents acting unilaterally on immigration when conditions make it imperative.
Orlando Sentinel — Coalition seeks new state agenda
A week ago, on the same day that Gov. Rick Scott delivered his annual State of the State speech to lay out his legislative agenda for the 2016 session of the Florida Legislature, a coalition of progressive groups called Awake the State held a series of events around the state to present a very different set of goals. Recently we interviewed Stephanie Porta, co-founder of Orlando-based Organize Now — one of the groups in the coalition — to hear more about its priorities. An excerpt of that interview follows. A longer transcript is at OrlandoSentinel.com/opinion.
Q: Why is the coalition making expanding access to health care in Florida one of its priorities?
A: We still have hundreds of thousands of people who do not have access to care, and there is no attempt to expand access to care right now. We’re right in line with, I believe, the [Florida] Chamber [of Commerce] on making sure that Floridians have access to health care that would not only make Floridians healthier, but would provide more jobs here in Florida, too.
Q: So do you want the governor to expand access to health care by accepting funds under the Affordable Care Act?
A: Yes. He’s flipped his position on this: First he was against it, then he was for it, then he was against it again. I think it’s crazy to see the state Legislature and the governor be OK accepting certain types of federal funds and not others. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t say we’re not going to accept that because it’s [Obamacare] but we’re going to take these [other federal funds].
Ocala StarBanner — School raid
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is trying to sell the country on the same flawed education policies causing turmoil in our state.
Bush unveiled an education plan on Monday as part of his presidential campaign. It echoes the policies he supported as governor, such as increasing the number of charter schools.
Last week, Florida teachers rallied against those policies at the Capitol. They argued that an increase in charter schools and vouchers is privatizing education, diverting needed resources from traditional public schools.
The Gainesville-based nonprofit law firm Southern Legal Counsel has made a similar argument in suing the state. The lawsuit, scheduled to go to trial in March, charges the state is failing to meet its constitutional obligation to provide a uniform system of free, high-quality schools.
Educators and students are also frustrated with a troubled testing and accountability system. Bush has been a leading proponent of testing, but toned down his support in the midst of the presidential campaign.
Despite hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on a new statewide standardized test, the initial roll-out was plagued with technical glitches and other problems. Superintendents, including Marion County’s George Tomyn, have said they lack confidence in the system, unsuccessfully seeking a pause in school grades and other implications of the test scores.
Pensacola News-Journal — An assault on transparency
There’s an attempt underway by politicians to make the Sunshine State more shady. Citizens should stand up and shut it down.
Like many such maneuvers, it comes in the the form of linguistic technicalities and new legislation in Tallahassee. Bills filed in both the Florida House and Senate would change current law so that even when a judge finds that a government agency has wrongfully withheld public records from a citizen, the award of that citizen’s legal fees would be discretionary instead of mandatory.
Discretionary vs. mandatory: Why does that matter?
President of the First Amendment Foundation, Barbara Petersen, explains that when government refuses to comply with public records laws, “a citizen’s only recourse is to go to court. The law currently provides for a citizen’s legal fees to be paid for by the government entity if it is found non-compliant. The attorney fee provision creates a level playing field for someone who can afford to pay for an attorney and those who cannot .…
“With a simple change of one word, ‘shall’ to ‘may,’ the public will no longer be guaranteed fair access to what is rightfully theirs. Let us be clear: if this change is made a judge may not award a citizen attorney’s fees even if the judge finds in favor of the citizen.”
In other words, government will be able to break the law and commit a crime, yet be subjected to no punishment whatsoever. On its face, it smacks of one branch of government being able to protect another.
The Palm Beach Post — Amity reigns as owner agrees to scale back Love Street plan
s it too corny to say that the Love Street Project, in the way its critics and proponents are handling their differences, is living up to its name?
Probably so. But there’s no denying that an unusual spirit of cooperation has descended on the players involved with the “waterfront village” envisioned for a prime 4 acres overlooking the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse.
On Tuesday, the Jupiter Town Council voted 4-1 to delay a final vote on the $30 million development after saying they wanted to see a smaller parking garage, fewer buildings, more green space, even the removal of a high tower that threatened to compete with the signature lighthouse.
The funny thing was, the developer agreed. “We’ll come back with a better project,” Charles Modica said. “Smaller can be better.”
Contrast this with the continuing battles over Harbourside Place, the Jupiter retail, hotel and entertainment center on U.S. 1 that has rattled many residents with its imposing scale and irritated nearby homeowners for the decibels generated by outdoor music. Relations are so bad that Harbourside has filed suit against the town and curtly called a halt to all music performances, decrying a “government gone wild” while the city counters that Harbourside is acting “above the law.”
Given that precedent, it’s no wonder that many Jupiter residents have fiercely opposed plans for Love Street — an undeveloped parcel between A1A and the Jupiter inlet, currently a parking lot. About 3,400 people signed an online petition, and dozens wore red shirts at a packed town council meeting on Dec. 15 to express their dismay at seeing a picturesque remnant of Old Florida threatened by some 20 two-story buildings for offices, retail, restaurants and rental apartments.
The opponents were back in force on Tuesday. This time, their sentiments were echoed from the podium.
The Panama City News-Herald — Life is short in the long run
For a decade or so, Glenn Frey was the sweet and sunny sound of a generation. He was a member of the Eagles, the band he led with drummer Don Henley. Each brought different gifts to the recording sessions, but Frey was the one who seemed to best represent the joy-seeking sense of the 1970s. “Take it Easy” wouldn’t have become the summertime anthem it was without the ebullient engine of Frey’s voice.
The Eagles’ music, in fact, was the soundtrack of a generation of baby boomers. While some derided it as Granola Rock, it was by turns celebratory, wistful and eventually, cynical. It dominated the airwaves and the pop charts for years.
Frey himself was not the easygoing drifter of “Take it Easy.” He was, as manager Irving Azoff said, the quarterback of a highly successful business machine that manufactured polished albums, concert experiences and merchandise. He was shrewd and aggressive, even with his own band mates. When guitarist Don Felder balked at the financial terms Frey proposed for a reunion tour, Felder was ousted.
Glenn Frey was driven. He suffered addictions. And he sang like a nightingale.
He was co-writer and lead singer for a slew of hits, including “Best of My Love,” “Lyin’ Eyes,” “New Kid In Town,” “Tequila Sunrise,” “You Belong to the City,” “The Heat Is On.” He co-wrote other pop classics, including “Desperado,” “Hotel California,” “Life in the Fast Lane,” “One of These Nights.”
Now, dead of colitis, pneumonia and rheumatoid arthritis at the age of 67, Mr. Frey joins a somber string of recently departed popular musicians and maestros. David Bowie. Natalie Cole. Scott Weiland. Lemmy Kilmister. Otis Clay. Pierre Boulez. Kurt Masur. The people who brought pleasure to millions of listeners have become lines in an actuary’s ledger.
South Florida Sun Sentinel – Seminole gambling deal a $3 billion test for Scott
Here’s the biggest gamble: whether Gov. Rick Scott can get his $3 billion gambling package through the Florida Legislature. The governor needs the revenue to pay for his overriding goal of cutting taxes by $1 billion.
And here’s the biggest problem for anti-gambling forces: Even if Scott’s grand deal fails, Florida has come to rely on the money gambling adds to the state treasury. To keep revenue coming from the Seminoles, whose agreement or “compact” with the state has expired, the Legislature needs to approve some kind of deal.
The governor, whose deal would allow roulette and craps at Seminole casinos, never was a lawmaker, and it tends to show. He’s not adept at the stroking, compromising, strategizing and bluffing so often necessary to move legislation.
But he and his staff showed a talent for negotiation when they forged the complicated gambling package that Scott is bringing before lawmakers. It attempts to juggle the wishes of a host of competing special interests, from the Seminole Tribe to racinos and other pari-mutuels.
If Wednesday’s session before the Senate Regulated Industries Committee is any guide, a great deal more juggling will be necessary. Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, complained the deal did not raise the possibility for new games at pari-mutuels outside of South Florida. Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples, echoed the point.
Democratic Sen. Gwen Margolis and Republican Sen. Anitere Flores, both from Miami, expressed displeasure that the deal would contemplate creation of new competition for existing gambling operations by allowing slot machines and video race machines at the Palm Beach Kennel Club in West Palm Beach and at a to-be-named facility in Miami-Dade County.
The Tallahassee Democrat – Monkeys and scrub-jays and bears – oh my!
Animals are all over the news right now in Florida: monkeys running wild, passions flaring over whether the mockingbird deserves its honor as state bird, and legislators pushing to keep confidential the names of hunters and fishermen.
No, this isn’t Animal Planet. It’s Florida during the legislative session. Here’s a look at the pressing animal issues of our time:
Hunters have guns? Who knew?
In an attempt to prevent massive numbers of gun thieves from using public records to identify their next targets, the Legislature is considering a bill to keep private the identities of people who purchase hunting and fishing licenses.
What? You haven’t noticed throngs of criminals lined up outside FWC to file public records requests? Neither have we.
Yet Senate Bill 1364, filed by Sen. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla, would keep confidential personal information on recreational fishing and hunting licenses, hunter safety certifications and boating safety certifications and records. There’s an identical bill in the House.
The bills’ stated purpose is to prevent the risk of identity theft and “invasive contacts.” (Translation: Hunters don’t want to be bothered by PETA and other animal activists).
Although the bills reference neither firearms nor the Second Amendment, Hays said the proposal is a proactive approach to keeping guns out of the wrong hands. Criminals, he reasons, can use hunting license records to identify people from which to steal guns.
“It’s about trying to add more gun security and keep guns out of hands that have no business with a gun in their hands,” Hays said. “I don’t see that I need another reason. That’s a good enough reason in itself.”
Not quite, Mr. Hays. Not quite.
The Tampa Tribune — Tread lightly on Uber, Lyft
Bills to bring statewide standards to the popular ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft are moving through the House and Senate and could finally bring much-needed uniformity to an industry turned upside down by smartphone technology.
Disagreements over insurance requirements and mandatory criminal background checks for Uber and Lyft drivers have caused a stalemate in Hillsborourgh County and other communities where the companies are operating outside of established rules.
As the Tribune’s Jeff Schweers reports, the House bill would set insurance limits and background checks that are more in line with what the new ride-hailing companies require of their drivers. It would also supersede local regulations. The Senate bill would be closer to the higher insurance requirements expected of traditional cabs and does not address the background checks.
We hope a compromise can be reached that adequately protects customers and drivers, but that doesn’t make it unaffordable for people wanting to drive for Uber and Lyft.
One of the appeals of Uber and Lyft is the freedom it provides to drivers and passengers. Using their own cars, drivers decide when and for how long they want to work. Passengers report better service than traditional taxis.
It’s clear the companies, drivers and consumers will benefit from statewide standards, which might serve to end the feuding among local regulators, traditional taxi companies and the ride-hailing companies.
More importantly, the bills address insurance “gaps” by setting limits for insurance from the time drivers turn on their smartphone app to indicate they are available to pick up a fare, until after that fare is delivered and the app is turned off. Local regulators complained that the drivers were not covered at all times they were on the road, and that the insurance required by Uber and Lyft left the drivers and passengers vulnerable in the event of an accident.
Both bills eliminate the gaps, though the Senate bill demands more coverage than is necessary.
