Siding with homeowners and tenants against the, shall we say, credibility-challenged mortgage banking industry may sound like an easy call for politicians trying to score points with voters.
Then again, in the Florida legislature, things are often not what they might seem. And that means prospects are dim for a proposed “Foreclosure Bill of Rights” and two related bills being filed for the 2010 legislative session, The Bradenton Heraldreports:
A trio of early bills filed in Tallahassee aim to provide more protections to Florida homeowners and tenants in foreclosure cases, but it’s unlikely any will be passed.
The bills, all filed by House Democrats, likely will have an uphill battle next year in the Republican-controlled Legislature, which didn’t act on similar proposals in 2009. All three measures also face resistance from the state’s banking industry, which remains politically influential despite the economic beating it has taken.
And, foreclosure experts say, some of the bills’ provisions might be undercut by state and federal laws and mortgage-relief efforts.
Senate President Jeff Atwater tapped newly elected state Sen. Joe Negron to chair the Judiciary Committee, a plumb post for the freshman senator.
Atwater made few other changes in the committee line-up, leaving most chairmen in place in what for many will be their last legislative session because of term limits.
Negron, a former House member, won a special election last month fill former Senate President Ken Pruitt’s District 28 seat. Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, abruptly left office on the last day of the legislative session early in May.
Negron will serve the final 15 months of Pruitt’s Senate term and face reelection in 2010.
Negron, an attorney who served in the state House from 2000 to 2006, gained national attention when the GOP recruited him at the last minute to replace scandal-tainted U.S. Rep. Mark Foley. Negron narrowly lost the race to Democrat Tim Mahoney, who was later defeated by Republican Tom Rooney.
Public Service Commission lawyers are checking into whether Gov. Charlie Crist has any standing in asking for a temporary halt to two utility rate cases until his two new regulatory commissioners take over on Jan. 1.
Crist this morning asked Chairman Matthew Carter, one of the two current commissioners whom Crist passed over for reappointment, to delay the Florida Power & Light Co. $1.3 billion rate hike hearing and the Progress Energy Florida $500 million request until David Klement and Benjamin “Steve” Stevens take over.
Carter ordered his legal staff to figure out how to handle the governor’s request because he is not one of the intervenors in the case and may have no legal standing to ask for a delay.
Former state Senate President Ken Pruitt said this afternoon that he’s not the unnamed former public official who received $87,000 in secret money from Dr. Alan Mendelsohn.
The Daily Pulp blog this morning reported that Pruitt is the unidentified former public official mentioned in the indictment against Mendelsohn, a Broward County eye doctor who is charged with skimming $300,000 in campaign contributions for his own use and illegally using campaign funds to pay for his mistress’ home and car.
Seated behind his desk at the law firm where he works in the Tradition neighborhood of Port St. Lucie, the Port St. Lucie Republican told Palm Beach Post reporter Daphne Duret that he hasn’t been contacted by any law enforcement official about the investigation and rejected The Daily Pulp blog’s allegation that his name surfaced in the investigation.
“It’s a criminal investigation that I am not a part of at all,” he said. “I’m not a part of it, my name, to my knowledge, is not a part of it. I don’t know what else to say.” (more…)
Gov. Charlie Crist is trying to put the brakes on two pending utility rate cases until his new appointees take office on Jan. 1.
Crist today asked the Public Service Commission to postpone any further hearings or decision on a proposed $1.3 billion Florida Power & Light rate hike and a $500 million Progress Energy Florida rate increase request.
Gov. Charlie Crist and wife Carole at Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary School in Riviera Beach. LANNIS WATERS/Staff photographer
RIVIERA BEACH — After visiting an elementary school that has improved from a D grade to an A in four years, Gov. Charlie Crist said public schools in Florida and Palm Beach County are “on the rise.”
Crist and his wife, Carole Crist, visited Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary School this morning, greeting cafeteria workers, administrators and safety patrols and stopping in on three classes.
Crist is also slated to meet with restaurateurs in Palm Beach County today and to attend a fund-raiser in Manalapan tonight for his U.S. Senate bid.
“I can’t tell you how impressed I am with your school and your accomplishments here and what you’ve been able to do in a short period of time,” Crist said after being shown around by principal Glenda Sheffield.
Bethune Elementary got an F grade in 2002 based on its Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test scores and was a D school in 2006. After Sheffield became principal, the school got C grades in 2007 and 2008 and an A this year.
“You’re an A school. And it wasn’t that long ago that Bethune Elementary wasn’t an A school. That kind of gain and that kind of accomplishment is exactly what Florida students deserve and what they should have,” Crist said.
Asked about the controversy in Palm Beach County over its use of tests roughly every three weeks to measure whether students are on track, Crist gave a vote of confidence to Superintendent Art Johnson.
“I think we’re getting better every day,” Crist said. “I think that’s the message we want to convey to people that may have concerns. Florida’s on the rise and Palm Beach County clearly is on the rise. The leadership that Art has provided here is exceptional.”
Gov. Charlie Crist opted for a Panhandle bar owner and a former newspaper editorial writer over two sitting Public Service Commissioners, putting a pro-consumer stamp on the panel for the first time in decades.
Crist picked David Klement, who spent more than four decades as a newspaperman and now heads the Institute of Public Policy and Leadership at the University of South Florida’s Sarasota-Manatee campus, and Benjamin “Steve” Stevens, a Panhandle accountant who is co-owner of the Cabana Nightclub in Pensacola, to join the beleaguered five-member agency.
Crist snubbed current PSC Chairman Matthew Carter and Commissioner Katrina McMurrian, both appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush, who were up for reappointment and had hoped to remain on the panel now in the midst of two historic rate cases: a $1.3 billion rate hike sought by Florida Power & Light Co. and a $500 million increase proposed by Progress Energy Florida.
Renegade Commissioner Nancy Argenziano, an outspoken critic of the panel and appointed by Crist in 2007, will become chairwoman next year, meaning no more business as usual for the utilities that had strong support from the regulatory panel in the past.
West Boca Community Council President Sheri Scarborough filed papers today to challenge 21-year school board incumbent Sandra RIchmond next year. One of the Boca civic group’s vice presidents, Frank Barbieri, is already on the school board.
Richmond hasn’t opened a 2010 campaign, but has said she’ll “probably” seek a seventh term. Democratic activist Marcia Andrews is also weighing a run for Richmond’s seat.
Gov. Charlie Crist’s office says that Benjamin “Steve” Stevens, one of Crist’s new appointees to the Public Service Commission, “has served as chief financial officer for the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office since 2001.l”
But workers at Sheriff David Morgan’s office said Stevens, a Panhandle accountant, hasn’t worked there since Morgan assumed the post in January.
Stevens, 44, is also an owner of Rick’s Cabana Lounge, a nightclub in Pensacola, according to Department of State records and his PSC application. He’s listed as an owner of Ben Bartows Bar LLC, which has the same address as the bar.
State Rep. Dave Murzin, a Pensacola Republican who chairs the nominating council that included Stevens in the list of six candidates given to Crist, had called Stevens an “accountant extraordinaire.”
To be truly independent, a proposed ethics watchdog for Palm Beach County must be assured of an adequate budget through a dedicated money source such as a surcharge on government contracts, State Attorney Michael McAuliffe said today
McAuliffe, who convened a grand jury that recommended an inspector general to combat public corruption after five local elected officials went to federal prison for ethical misdeeds, spoke to the nonpartisan Voters Coalition this afternoon.
McAuliffe did not take a position on competing views of who should hire and fire the inspector general. The Voters Coalition is part of a consortium of business and civic groups that says the watchdog should answer to an independent ethics commission. County administrators have proposed having the inspector chosen by an independent selection committee but subject to final approval by the county commission.
The grand jury recommended modeling the office on the inspector general in Miami-Dade, where a selection committee chooses the inspector but commissioners have a final vote. Miami-Dade also imposes a 0.25 percent charge on government contracts to help finance the inspector’s office.
McAuliffe said he’s optimistic the consortium and commissioners will reach an agreement on inspector-general language to put before voters in November 2010.
Florida lawmakers have jumped on the bandwagon to stop driving-while-texting in response to a national report that found that the high-tech distraction contributed to 6,000 deaths on the road last year.
State Sen. Thad Altman, R-Melbourne, filed a bill that would ban drivers from texting on cell phones and other hand-held devices while behind the wheel.
“Sending text messages or emails while driving places both the driver and those on the road around them in danger,” Altman said in a press release. “We need additional highway safety laws in place to address the growing use of mobile devices while driving.”
There’s nothing currently on the books to stop drivers from using cell phones while they’re behind the wheel. But Altman’s bill would ban reading, typing and sending e-mails or texts while driving. Eighteen other states already have similar laws in place and Congress is considering a similar ban.
Consumer groups applauded Gov. Charlie Crist’s choice of two outsiders to serve on the Public Service Commission shifting the balance away from a utility-friendly panel for the first time in decades.
Crist ousted PSC Chairman Matthew Carter and Commissioner Katrina McMurrian, both appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush and whose terms end Dec. 31, as the panel gets ready to vote on two pending utility rate increases, including a proposed $1.3 billion Florida Power & Light Co. rate hike.
Instead, Crist tapped David Klement, who spent more than three decades as a newspaperman and now serves as director of the Institute for Public Policy and Leadership at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee campus, and Benjamin “Steve” Stevens, an accountant and chief financial officer for the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.
The regulatory agency has come under fire for allegations of coziness with the industries it oversees as the FPL and Progress Energy Florida rate hearings are underway. Thus far, one PSC staffers has been fired, two more resigned and two have been placed on administrative leave in the aftermath of reports that some of the aides swapped secret BlackBerry messages with an FPL lawyer.
Here’s what consumer advocates had to say about Crist’s selections.
Gov. Charlie Crist appointed two new utility regulators to the Public Service Commission, snubbing current Chairman Matthew Carter and Commissioner Katrina McMurrian.
Crist tapped former newspaperman David Klement and Escambia County Sheriff’s Office CFO Benjamin “Steve” Stevens and shaking up the status quo at the regulatory panel mired in controversy in the process of deciding on a proposed $1.3 billion Florida Power & Light Co. rate hike.
The ouster of McMurrian and Carter makes it likely that renegade Commissioner Nancy Argenziano, an outspoken critic of the PSC who accuses regulators of being too close to the utilities they oversee, will take over as chairwoman of the panel next year.
Crist put Argenziano, a former state senator, on the board two years ago to represent consumers and his picks today of two new commissioners who have no ties to utilities mark a decided shift from a PSC that has up until now been viewed as utility-friendly.
U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd, a Panhandle Democrat, and his wife Sissy have separated after nearly four decades of marriage, according to news reports.
The separation takes place as Boyd, a former state legislator who has served for 12 years in Congress, is campaigning for reelection against Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson.
Boyd, a Monticello farmer, is a member of the “Blue Dog” coalition, a group of conservative Democrats.
Gov. Charlie Crist will announce one of his picks for the Public Service Commission this morning in Kissimmee, two days before his selection is due to the Florida Senate.
The announcement is a last-minute addition to Crist’s schedule. Crist is in Orlando for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new Waldorf Astoria hotel.
Two current regulators put on the panel by Gov. Jeb Bush are up for reappointment as the PSC is mired in controversy over allegations of coziness between the regulatory agency and the utilities it oversees.
The PSC is in the midst of two rate case hearings, including a proposed Florida Power & Light Co. $1.3 billion rate hike. FPL said it would implement the rate hike before the PSC makes its final vote on the base rate case on Jan. 11.
Freshman U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Orlando, came under fire from Republicans this week after summarizing the Republican health care plan as “Don’t get sick” and, if you do, “Die quickly.”
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele called Grayson’s remarks “a calculated scare tactic and smear” and said Democrats serious about “civil debate on the floor of the House” should demand an apology.
Grayson took to the House floor Wednesday to offer an “apology” that drew more GOP outrage: “I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven’t voted sooner to end this holocaust in America.”
Florida House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R-Boca Raton, who is a devout Jew, responded: “Comparing the American health care system to the systematic murdering of over six million Jews is totally outrageous and unfit for someone holding public office. Congressman Grayson should apologize to the Jewish community and the families of those whose loved ones were brutally executed.” (more…)
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