Lobbying compensation: Capital City Consulting reports $17.1M rake for 2021

Capital City Consulting earned $17.1 million in lobbying pay last year, the third-highest total among all firms in the state.

Led by co-founders Nick Iarossi and Ron LaFace, the firm’s team of lobbyists represented more than 200 clients for all or part of last year and collected an estimated $9 million lobbying the Florida Legislature and another $8.1 million lobbying the executive branch. At the top end, the firm could have earned $23.9 million.

Florida Politics estimates lobbying pay based on the middle number of the per-client ranges firms list on their compensation reports. Contracts are reported in $10,000 increments up to $50,000.

Two of the firm’s highest paying clients are CVS at $170,000 and Florida Power & Light Company at $163,000. Five other clients paid the firm $140,000 for the year, including the Florida Association of Health Plans, Lennar Homes, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and RAI Services Company. The fifth in that set was bestbet Jacksonville, one of many gaming interests represented by the firm.

Iarossi, INFLUENCE Magazine’s pick for 2021’s “Lobbyist of the Year,” is one of the top gaming lobbyists in the state. During the negotiations for the new Gaming Compact between the state and the Seminole Tribe of Florida, dozens of gaming interests snapped up lobbyists — and many already had CCC on retainer well before the Compact began to solidify.

Other clients in Capital City Consulting’s gaming portfolio: Melbourne Greyhound Park, The Lottery, and Ocala Gainesville Poker and Jai Alai. The firm also represents Las Vegas Sands. The casino giant was the primary backer of a proposed constitutional amendment that would have brought full-fledged casino gaming to North Florida. It paid CCC $60,000 last year.

Higher education was another lucrative sector for the firm. In addition to Florida Tech, the team handled the needs of Florida Atlantic University, Florida International University, Florida State University, New College of Florida and the University of Florida.

New College’s contract was the largest of that set, measuring in at $120,000 overall, $100,000 of it for legislative lobbying.

Motorola Solutions held the top spot on Capital City Consulting’s executive branch client sheet with $253,000 in payments. It chipped in another $95,000 for legislative lobbying, making for $348,000 in payments overall.

Other major executive branch clients included CDR Maguire at $213,000, Accenture at $180,000 and GRM Information Management Systems at $180,000.

In addition to Iarossi and LaFace, Capital City Consulting’s 2021 team included Jim Boxold, Tony Carvalho, Justin Day, Megan Fay, Ken Granger, Dean Izzo, Ashley Kalifeh, Andrew Ketchel, Jared Rosenstein, Scott Ross, and Chris Schoonover.

Florida lobbyists and lobbying firms faced a Feb. 14 deadline to file compensation reports for the period covering Oct. 1 through Dec. 31. Compensation reports for the first quarter are due to the state on May 15.