Senate votes to codify ‘Faith and Community’ in Governor’s Office, rejects push to bar employees from campaigns

Clay Yarborough sounds the death knell for DEI.

The Senate has passed Republican Sen. Clay Yarborough’s measure (SB 820) that would codify the Office of Faith and Community.

The bill also survived an attempt to add “guardrails” intended to stop the office from overstepping policy and entering the political realm, with an amendment failing before the bill’s final passage.

Sen. Tina Scott Polsky suggested language that would stop any employee from using “his or her official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with an election or coercing or influencing another person’s vote or affecting the result thereof.” That would also stop employees from participating “in any political campaign while on duty.”

Polsky cited the conflation of policy and politics by Erik Dellenback in 2024, noting that while he has been liaison for the office, he showed up at events and expressed political opinions using state resources in at least three emails “before the election and after the election.”

She differentiated between activities on one’s free time and using the “imprimatur” of the government for political ends, noting that the “elected, secular Governor’s” Office of Faith and Community was used to campaign against constitutional amendments just last year and to promote “Protect Life Sunday” to preachers.

“Shouldn’t all of those churches have lost their tax-exempt status because of that?” the Boca Raton Democrat asked.

Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith called the amendment timely given governmental public resources are used for political advocacy and “partisan campaigning.”

“It’s not only inappropriate, it may in some ways be illegal,” the Orlando Democrat said.

Republican Sen. Erin Grall cautioned against potential overreach in the “redundant and confusing” language suggested in the amendment. And Yarborough, the bill sponsor, declared it an unfriendly amendment, saying this language “singles out one office.”

Senate Democratic Leader Jason Pizzo said the real violation was the interweaving of politics and overt religiosity.

“This is about invoking God’s name for political purposes,” the Sunny Isles Democrat said.

Ultimately, the amendment got just 13 votes.

The overall bill passed by a 27-9 vote. The Office would be headed by “the liaison for faith and community or a director appointed by the liaison who reports to the liaison,” according to the bill language.

The Governor would appoint the Director.

The goal of the Office would be “to better connect with, communicate with, and provide resources to this state’s faith-based and community-based organizations” and to “better serve the most vulnerable persons of this state through more robust and connected faith and community networks in coordination with state resources.”

The bill contemplates a number of ways to make this happen, including advocating for faith- or community-based agencies; establishing and operating the “Florida Faith and Community Phone Line” for those agencies to connect with the Governor’s Office; setting up “meaningful lines of communication” between groups and the Governor’s Office; and using technology to develop “resources for enhanced connection between civil service systems, state agencies, and faith-based and community-based organizations.”

The bill has completed the committee process in the House and is on the Second Reading Calendar.