Mitch Perry
The much-anticipated meeting of the Florida Cabinet post-Gerald Bailey scandal got off to an intense beginning Thursday morning when Gov. Rick Scott switched on his microphone and apologized, sort of, for the actions involving the ouster of the now-former FDLE head, likely the greatest crisis of his time as governor.
“Good morning. I want to start the meeting by discussing the departure of Jerry Bailey,” he began in front of a jam-packed equestrian center at the Florida State Fairgrounds. “While I wanted to bring in new leadership at FDLE as we transitioned into a second term in office, it is clear, in hindsight, that I could have handled it better.”
“The buck stops here, and that means I take responsibility.”
Scott then offered up a one-page proposal of changes for reviewing state agencies, including the creation of a “formal appointment process” and one for “regular review” of department heads.
He got nowhere, though, in his attempt to immediately review the tenure of three other agency heads: Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty, Office of Financial Regulation Commissioner Drew Breakspear and Department of Revenue Executive Director Marshall Stranburg.
The 90-minute meeting bogged down in discussing the process of how to review the work of various directors of state agencies, but there was nothing to vote on after Attorney General Pam Bondi said the item hadn’t been put on notice as an “action” item.
CFO Jeff Atwater earlier had suggested in a letter to the governor that he reopen the process of hiring a successor to Bailey. At its Jan. 13 meeting, the Cabinet unanimously approved Scott’s choice of Rick Swearingen to succeed Bailey, but immediately afterward Bailey told reporters that Scott had essentially fired him in December.
On Thursday Atwater again suggested that the selection of a new FDLE head be revisited, though no one else backed him up on that. Atwater said because of the perceptions surrounding Swearingen’s appointment, that the new FDLE chief doesn’t have the full trust of the public.
Bondi then offered that there was no need for a nationwide search, that Swearingen was the best man in the country to succeed Bailey. That’s according to Bailey himself, Bondi said. “I’ve talked to Jerry Bailey,” she said. “He cares about this agency … and that it be in the hands of the best person possible for that job. He believes the best person for that job is Rick Swearingen.”
Meanwhile, Adam Putnam attempted to demonstrate his independence in the matter by saying he has great concerns regarding the allegation that Scott’s former chief of staff, Adam Hollingsworth, ordered Bailey to tell the press that the clerk of the courts in Orange County was the target of a criminal investigation of a prison escape. Putnam called it “the most serious thing in my view that gives me great concern.” But no one picked up that thread of the conversation, either.
In the end, the four agreed to allow Bondi’s staff to review the the proposed changes for their legality, then continue consideration of a “template of agency review” at their next meeting, in March.
Former CFO and Cabinet member Alex Sink, who lost to Scott in the 2010 governor’s race, watched the proceedings from a seat with the rest of the public.
“I think Putnam and Atwater handled themselves fairly well,” she said when asked for a Cabinet evaluation after the meeting. However, she said, “They didn’t go as far as I would have done.” Sink gave Bondi an “F” grade, saying she was the governor’s “enabler.”
“The governor breaks the law and gets away with it,” Sink said. “That’s what he did. He said basically, ‘We didn’t follow the law, but I’m going to get away with what I did.’ That’s just … irritating. The people of Florida should be mad about it. And I think they are. His conversation (is), ‘The way it works in business.’ No. I was in business for 30 years. I had a career in business. I didn’t handle my business the way he says. Well, we know how he handles business. And he cannot bring that attitude to serve the public and to be the governor of the state of Florida, but so far he’s gotten away with it.”
After the tense, 90-minute discussion, Cabinet members lightened the discussion as Bondi went into the crowd to offer a dog for adoption.
