Mitch PerryThis morning we’ll learn how serious Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam believe in being independent agents, and not just handmaidens to the leader of their party, Gov. Rick Scott.
Today’s Cabinet meeting at the Florida State Fairgrounds in east Tampa could be interesting, or maybe it will be much ado about nothing, which is how some of these events ultimately transpire in government.
The Tampa Bay Times‘ Steve Bosquet is betting on the latter in his reporting today.
The conventional wisdom going into today’s meeting is that there won’t be too much rehashing of the events that led to the Cabinet rubber stamping Scott’s decision to replace FDLE head Gerald Bailey with Rick Swearingen in December. The Cabinet members say they were told that Bailey had resigned. Bailey says he was canned. In any event, the thinking is that this morning’s discussion will revolve around how to avoid such controversies in the future.
It should be noted that CEO Atwater’s first response to Scott after the story broke was to ask that the FDLE job be re-opened, but that went nowhere. Putnam has suggested a written appointment and evaluation process should be looked at.
Meanwhile, the governor has mused about giving Cabinet agency heads one-year contracts, where their performance would be reviewed on an annual basis.
In an editorial Wednesday, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel wrote that, “We must assume the worst about Scott’s motives because he has been deceptive and evasive since the story broke.” And, they added, that if the Cabinet members condone what Scott has done, “we also will have to assume the worst about them.”
In other news …
Why is everything so hard in Tallahassee? Local lawmakers such as Dana Young and Jack Latvala have pledged throughout the fall and winter that this was the year when the Legislature was going to pass a “clean” bill to repeal the somewhat bizarre ban on 64-ounce growlers in Florida. In fact, Latvala introduced such a bill in December in Dunedin. But a funny thing happened to smooth passage — it ain’t so smooth anymore. The bill failed to get through a committee Wednesday, though Latvala and others remain convinced it will get through this year.
Dipa Shah lost to April Griffin the race for the Hillsborough County District 6 race last fall. Since that time, plenty of people have said, “What do you know? Elections matter.” Read about what Shah has to say about that here.
Four years ago nobody of note endorsed Yolie Capin in the citywide District 3 city council race in Tampa. Now, everyone is as she received two big endorsements this week.
