Gov.-elect Rick Scott will name Miami-Dade County Juvenile Services Department chief Wansley Walters as secretary of the Department of Juvenile Justice, according to sources on his transition team.

Walters initiated a pilot diversion project in Miami-Dade in which juveniles receive civil citations for first offenses and has more than two decades experience working with children, substance abuse, diversion and mental health issues.

That program is considered a national model and was lauded by the White House two years ago.

Walters was Scott’s lead transition team member on juvenile justice.

Among the team’s recommendations was a statewide expansion of the civil citation program as an arrest alternative for juveniles who commit misdemeanor crimes.

Juveniles who receive the citations must perform community service and participate in intervention programs to avoid having an arrest record for their crimes.

More than 8,000 children in Miami-Dade, most of them black, have successfully completed the program and arrests have gone down by 21 percent, according to transition team documents.

The citation program is one of the recommendations to keep youth out of detention and reduce their chances of winding up in prison as adults.

Scott has said he supports programs that will keep juveniles out of lock-up as part of his plan to reduce recidivism and save money on prisons.

Walters replaces former secretary Frank Peterman, who came under fire for misusing state funds to pay for travel between Tallahassee and his home in St. Petersburg. Peterman, a former state representative who is a Democrat, was one of the few agency heads Scott asked to leave after he requested that others remain on the job for up to three months after he takes office on Tuesday.

Florida’s new first lady Ann Scott is asking inauguration celebrants to bring a new or “gently used” children’s book to the governor’s mansion to promote reading.

Scott will officially become the state’s first lady on Tuesday after her husband Rick is sworn in as Florida’s 45th governor.

Ann Scott and Volunteer USA are conducting the book drive for youth organizations and foster kids in Tallahassee, according to a press release issued by the governor-elect’s inaugural team today.

“Rick and I believe in family, strong values and the power of a good education. We believe in supporting our community and we spend a lot of time volunteering. That’s what we taught our daughters and that’s what we believe is important for the future of Florida,” Ann Scott said in the release.

Donors can drop off the books during the open house at the governor’s mansion on Tuesday.

Gov. Charlie Crist is seeking a federal emergency disaster declaration for nearly three dozen Florida counties, including Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie, impacted by severe cold weather and frost.

The disaster would allow farmers and other agricultural business owners to access federal disaster funds to cover the losses from damaged crops.

State officials estimate the cold snap caused at least $270 million in economic losses.

FOX News anchor Greta Van Susteren will be the keynote speaker at Gov.-elect Rick Scott‘s inaugural event honoring women, his inaugural team announced this morning.

Van Susteren will headline the “Salute to Women in Leadership Breakfast” on Monday, the day before Scott is sworn in as Florida’ 45th governor.

The breakfast will “honor the contributions of many great Florida women, including the historic election of Jennifer Carroll as Florida’s next Lieutenant Governor and Pam Bondi, the state’s first woman elected to serve as Attorney General,” according to a press release issued by Scott’s inauguration team.

Bondi, a former Tampa prosecutor, is no stranger to Van Susteren. She frequently appeared on Van Susteren’s “On the Record” show as a legal analyst and got a shout-out from the FOX News host after defeating former state Sen. Dan Gelber in November.

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Public relations doyenne Vivian Myrtetus, Gov. Charlie Crist‘s former spokeswoman, is setting up her own communications shop after leaving U.S. Sen. George LeMieux‘s office in Washington.

Myrtetus worked on Crist’s campaign for governor and served in a variety of other PR posts in Florida government before going to work for LeMieux after Crist appointed him to fill in for U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, who retired early.

Myrtetus’ Beacon Communications Group in Tallahassee will go up against a cadre of other former governors’ press secretaries PR firms, including Ron Sachs and April Herrle, who both served under the late Gov. Lawton Chiles.

The statewide grand jury looking into public corruption issued its preliminary report today and called on the legislature to beef up Florida’s ethics laws.

The 127-page preliminary report suggests that lawmakers take a page from Palm Beach County’s anti-corruption measures enacted after three county commissioners wound up behind bars for misusing their office.

The statewide grand jury, at work for nearly a year and set to expire in February, report recommended requiring employees at private businesses that have government contracts to be subject to the same ethics laws as public employees.

Other recommendations include:
- Tougher sentences for officials who use their public office to commit crimes;
- Creating an independent Inspector General to oversee agency inspectors general;
- Expanding bid-tampering laws to include bid-rigging schemes;
- Giving the Ethics Commission the power to initiate investigations.

Gov.-elect Rick Scott has hired Indiana Corrections Commissioner Edwin G. Buss as Florida’s corrections secretary and Wal-Mart executive Bryan W. Koon to head the state’s emergency management division.

The pair – both former military men – are the first Scott has named to head his executive agencies before taking office on Jan. 4.

Here’s what Scott had to say about Buss in a press release issued late this afternoon:
Buss brings to Florida nearly twenty-four years of hands-on experience in corrections, emergency response, public safety, supervision and budgeting. As Commissioner of the Indiana Department of Corrections and a key member of Governor Mitch Daniels’ cabinet, Buss was responsible for over 7,500 employees, 26,000 inmates, 10,000 parolees throughout the state’s corrections facilities. Prior to serving as Commissioner, Buss served as Superintendent of two Indiana prisons where he refined Death Row and execution procedures, implemented accountability metrics and implemented a safe prison initiative. Throughout his career, Buss has been successful in implementing innovative policies that improve operations while reducing wasteful spending.

And here’s Koon’s biography from the press release announcing his appointment:
Koon brings to Florida nearly twenty years’ experience managing tactical and strategic emergencies in the military, government and private sector. In his current role as Director of Emergency Management for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Koon is responsible for the emergency management operations of over 8,500 facilities worldwide. He is an acknowledged expert in the fields of emergency preparedness, disaster response, continuity of operations and continuity of government. Koon’s broad and varied experience includes several years in the White House Military Office where he developed, maintained and implemented high level, classified programs to ensure continuity of government and continuity of operations in the wake of a tactical or natural disaster. He also served the nation with distinction as a Surface Warfare Officer in the United States Navy, both active duty and in the Navy Reserve.

Gov.-elect Rick Scott was flying high at the second stop on the opening day of his inaugural celebrations before taking office on Jan. 4.

Scott, his wife Ann, their daughter Jordan and her husband Jeremy climbed aboard the popular “Soarin’” ride at Epcot accompanied by Arianna Davis and Mike Laelante, two children from Frontline Outreach, a program for inner city youth.

Earlier, Scott hosted a lunch at the Disney Yacht Club for some of his campaign volunteers and supporters where he reiterated his campaign pledges to shrink state government (“It’s too big”) and do away with regulations.
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Most lieutenant governor’s fade out of the spotlight once they’ve taken office, but expect Lt. Gov.-elect Jennifer Carroll to turn that tradition upside down.

Carroll, a former state representative from Jacksonville, said she’ll be representing the Sunshine State as its economic ambassador as part of Gov.-elect Rick Scott’s plan to make Florida the “number one place to do business” in the world.

Scott, who once headed the House’s economic development committee, said she plans to travel throughout the country and the world promoting, figuring out how to boost imports and exports and encouraging businesses to set up shop in Florida.

It’s all part of Scott’s ambitious pledge to bring 700,000 jobs over seven years to Florida, where more than 1 million workers are out of a job and the state’s unemployment rate – now at 12 percent – keeps climbing.

Carroll and Scott are on the first leg of a four-day fete celebrating his inauguration as the state’s 45th governor before they are sworn in on Jan. 4.

Gov.-elect Rick Scott’s inaugural festivities got underway this morning in his Naples hometown, a week before Scott officially takes the helm as Florida’s 45th governor on Jan. 4.

About 200 well-wishers crowded into a nippy courtyard as a Dixieland band played jazz at the Food & Thought Organic Market and Restaurant as Scott and Lt. Gov.-elect Jennifer Carroll shook hands, posed for pictures.

“Who’s ready to create 700,000 jobs? Who’s ready to get rid of all regulations that are killing jobs in this state? Who’s willing to use accountability budgeting to look at every state agency? Who’s ready to get that done?” Scott said, echoing his campaign refrain.

Scott reiterated his pledge to scrutinize state spending to make sure taxpayers are getting the best bang for their buck and got in a little president-bashing as well.

“We cannot continue to go down the path we’re on. We cannot continue to go down the path Barack Obama’s taking us…We are going to make sure we change how we run this state,” Scott promised.

Scott and Carroll and the newly elected Florida Cabinet are scheduled to make stops in Orlando and Clewiston today as party of four days of inaugural partying.

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This week’s Politics column weighs in with its Top 10 list for Palm Beach County-centered political stories in 2010.

Multimillionaire Rick Scott’s improbable self-financed rise from political obscurity to the governorship doesn’t make the list because he lives in Naples. But billionaire Jeff Greene’s self-financed Senate bid is in the mix because he homesteads in Palm Beach.

Read the list and weigh in with your own picks…..

Pat Gleason, the veritable font of all government in the sunshine knowledge, is going back to work at the attorney general’s’ office, this time for AG-elect Pam Bondi.

Gleason is currently serving as Gov. Charlie Crist’s special counsel in the Office of Open Government and has for years been the go-to lawyer on matters regarding Florida’s broad Sunshine laws.

“Pat is a leading authority in our state on open government and public records, and I am honored to have her join my administration,” Bondi said in a press release. “We have worked together for over a decade, and I have the highest respect for her work ethic, integrity and the transparency she brings to the government process.”

Gov.-elect Rick Scott is winding up three days of behind-closed-doors briefings from his nearly 200 transition team members to prepare for his move into the governor’s office on Jan. 4.

Scott’s meeting in private with his teams although First Amendment Foundation lawyers say the meetings should be open to the public.

Scott’s aides told Palm Beach Post reporter John Lantigua the meetings on the 12th floor of the Florida Atlantic University-Broward College Higher Education Complex were off-limits. He was advised to wait in the lobby to interview attendees inside the public building.

When Scott’s briefing from his economic development team ended, Lantigua caught some of the attendees on the 12th floor before being asked by a Scott aide to leave.

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Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Cabinet’s pardon of the late iconic rocker Jim Morrison nearly 40 years after his death wasn’t enough, his Doors bandmates are saying.

In fact, it was unnecessary, The Doors’ remaining members Ray Manzarek, John Densmore and Robby Krieger contend, because Morrison never did what he was accused of.

“Four decades after the fact, with Jim an icon for multiple generations – and those who railed against him now a laughingstock – Florida has seen fit to issue a pardon,” the band members and the Morrison family wrote in a press release. “We don’t feel Jim needs to be pardoned for anything.”

What they want instead is an apology.

“If the State of Florida and the City of Miami want to make amends for the travesty of Jim Morrison’s arrest and prosecution forty years after the fact, an apology would be more appropriate – and expunging the whole sorry matter from the record,” they wrote.

Morrison was convicted after police reported he taunted a crowd March 1969, at the now-defunct Dinner Key auditorium in Miami with verbal sexual come-ons and simulated oral sex, then pulled down his pants and exposing himself to thousands of fans. He was convicted in 1970 of public profanity and indecent exposure and sentenced to six months in jail and a $500 fine.

He died in a Paris bathtub in 1971 while his appeal was pending.

Read the entire press release after the jump.
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Gov.-elect Rick Scott is meeting for the third and final day with his transition teams to get advice on how to revamp Florida government when he takes office on Jan. 4.

Although Scott set up a website for citizens to give him their suggestions for change, the meetings in downtown Fort Lauderdale are off-limits to the press and the public. One of Scott’s staff even advised transition team members in an e-mail message that they were not allowed to bring anyone with them inside the (public) building.

The Economic Development Team met at 9 a.m. today on the 12th floor of the Florida Atlantic University-Broward College Higher Education Complex.

A reporter was told the meeting was closed to the press, that the 12th floor was a “secure area,” and he was advised to wait in the lobby if he wanted to catch participants coming out of the meeting.

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Democratic firm Public Policy Polling says Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, who’s up for reelection in 2012, begins with “tepid” support from his own party and has failed to make an impression on a “remarkable” 31 percent of Florida voters despite being a Senator nearly 10 years.

Still, PPP’s Tom Jensen notes, Nelson does well with independents and not too shabbily with Republicans and wins early hypothetical match-ups against potential Republican challengers Connie Mack (44-to-36 percent), George LeMieux (47-36), Mike Haridopolos (44-32) and Palm Beach County’s own Adam Hasner (46-30).

One Republican who’d give Nelson trouble: former Gov. Jeb Bush, who outpolls him 49-44.

“Nelson’s in decent shape but certainly not invincible and the competitiveness of this race will hinge a good deal on how strong the Republican candidate field ends up being,” says the Democratic pollster.

Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner-elect Adam Putnam has his new team ready to go with less than two weeks until he takes office on Jan. 4.

Putnam has hired Sterling Ivey, who’s been Gov. Charlie Crist’s spokesman since Crist took office, as his press secretary. Ivey also served as spokesman for the Department of State under Gov. Jeb Bush.

Putnam’s tapped more than a dozen long-serving government workers such as his chief of staff Mike Joyner, who spent more than 25 years working for the state including a stint as chief of staff at the Department of Environmental Protection.

And Putnam’s hanging on to several of current Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson’s employees, many of whom have worked in the department for years.

See who’s on Putnam’s administrative team after the jump. (more…)

Gov.-elect Rick Scott has hired a military lifer, a Jeb Bush ally, and his long-time policy adviser to serve as his chief lieutenants when he takes over on Jan. 4.

Scott today named Mike Prendergast as his chief of staff. Prendergast is a U.S. Army colonel who lost a bid for Congress last month.

Scott tapped his close friend Mary Anne (“Mac”) Carter as his “senior policy adviser,” a powerful post in which she will oversee the Office of Policy and Budget.

Hayden Dempsey, a Tallahassee lobbyist and lawyer with Greenberg Traurig, will take over as Scott’s special counsel and oversee legislative affairs. Dempsey once served as Gov. Jeb Bush’s legislative affairs director and deputy general counsel.

Jon Costello, who works for lobbyist Gary Rutledge and worked on Scott’s campaign, will head up legislative affairs. Rutledge is a Scott ally whose lobbying clients include South Florida racetracks.

Brian Burgess, who’s served as Scott’s campaign communications chief, will hold on to the post once Scott
becomes governor. Burgess also helped with Scott’s previous political venture, Conservatives for Patients’ Rights, a group aimed at preventing President Obama’s health care law from being passed.

Read the team’s biographies from Scott’s press release after the jump.
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Florida will gain two congressional seats and become an even more coveted presidential prize with two additional electoral votes as a result of new census data released today.

Florida, which has 25 U.S. House seats now, will have 27 beginning with the 2012 elections. The perennially up-for-grabs Sunshine State will have 29 electoral votes in the 2012 presidential election, up from 27 in 2008.

The 2010 census pegs the U.S. population at 308,745,538 — up 9.7 percent from 2000. Florida’s population is 18,801,310 — a 17.6 percent increase over 2000.

Florida remains the fourth most populous state in the U.S. — trailing California (37.3 million), Texas (25.1 million) and New York (19.4 million).

Florida and New York will both have 27 U.S. House seats. Only California (53) and Texas (36) will have more.

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By Tonya Alanez

Florida Gov.-elect Rick Scott’s chief of staff will be Mike Prendergast, members of Scott’s transition team said today.

Prendergast, a retired U.S. Army colonel who lost a bid for Congress last month, is the first member named to the incoming Republican governor’s administration. An official announcement is expected later today. (more…)