Gov. Rick Scott and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater said Tuesday that state offficials have agreed to an almost $500,000 settlement with a Tallahassee art gallery and a construction firm ensnared in a controversy stemming from the new First District Court of Appeal building.
The settlement still must be approved by the Legislative Budget Commission. And even though the state is paying not only the full amount owed Signature Art Gallery and Peter Brown Construction — plus the private companies’ legal fees — Republican leaders cast the settlement as a victory for taxpayers.
The companies will be paid the $392,658.56 owed them, along with $122,224.14 for litigation and other costs, according to the settlement.
“Our most important goal is to protect taxpayer dollars to best meet the needs of Florida families,” Scott said. “It was right to ask for a rigorous and thorough review of the tax dollars
committed to this project.”
Atwater, a former North Palm Beach legislator, said, “With this settlement, the parties now agree that it is appropriate for the Legislature to determine the legitimacy of the payment request.”
The stand-off with the contractors began in 2010, when Atwater’s predecessor, Democrat Alex Sink, completed an audit of the First DCA project a month before her defeat by Scott in the governor’s race. She said a “perfect storm” of wrongdoing helped run cost of the project – which she dubbed the Taj Mahal – to $48.8 million, about $17 million more than initial estimates.
The courthouse, she said includes 20 miles worth of imported African mahogany, granite countertops and other luxury fixtures.
It had become a “travesty,” Sink said, because of a lack of oversight by the state Department of Management Services and bullying by appeals court judges – particularly Chief Judge Paul Hawkes. Hawkes has since stepped down from the court.
Sink froze payments to Signature Gallery for 369 framed, historic photos for for the courthouse. The hardline stance was continued by Atwater after he was elected that fall. The construction company included in the settlement had contracted with Signature Gallery to provide the art work.
According to the settlement announced Tuesday, the photos don’t sound destined for the First DCA building. Instead, the artwork involved in the settlement will go to the Department of State’s Division of Cultural Affairs.
An organization supporting three Florida Supreme Court justices facing merit retention this fall began running a TV spot Tuesday blasting the “politicians in Tallahassee” for looking to overhaul the court.
The ad, by Defend Justice from Politics, a political spending committee, is airing a spot in West Palm Beach, Miami and Tampa markets that condemn the push to defeat the last three justices appointed by a Democratic governor. The spot calls it a “political power grab.”
Justices Barbara Pariente, Fred Lewis and Peggy Quince are facing what is shaping up as the most vigorous merit retention fight in Florida history.
A small tea party group, Restore Justice 2012 began criticizing justices last year over decisions that blocked measures pushed by the Republican-led Legislature, but the billionaire Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity also recently weighed in with an ad attacking the court.
When the Florida Republican Party’s executive board voted last month to oppose the justices, that seemed to crank up the merit retention contest to a new level.
Gov. Rick Scott said Tuesday he has no problem with the GOP’s decision, although he steered clear of expressing any opinion about the justices being targeted. Another prominent Republican, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, though, said he was uneasy with the party stepping into the non-partisan retention fight.
Atwater said, “it wouldn’t have been certainly a direction that I would have recommended.”
“We as a party hold certain principles and we look for policies and candidates who are going to shape those with the expectation that justices are going to just constitutionally use good judgment and rule,” Atwater said.
Here’s Defend Justices’ TV spot: http://tinyurl.com/9tmz9eg
Allen West works the crowd in Port St. Lucie before this afternoon's Mitt Romney rally
PORT ST. LUCIE — U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Palm Beach Gardens, drew shouts of “West! West! West!” and at least one suggestion he run for president when he showed up this afternoon for a Mitt Romney rally at Tradition Square.
“You’ve already got a great candidate,” West said to a man who said he should run for the White House.
Florida CFO Jeff Atwater and state Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, are among the elected officials on hand. Romney is expected to arrive and speak later this afternoon.
“How about that debate?” Atwater asked the crowd, drawing a big cheer. Romney was the consensus winner of Wednesday night’s first of three presidential debates.
Atwater also got a big response when he mocked former Vice President Al Gore for suggesting Obama’s performance might have suffered because he hadn’t had time to adjust to the altitude in Denver. Atwater noted Denver is where Obama accepted the Democratic nomination in 2008.
“Barack Obama had no problem four years ago standing in front of Greek columns telling us how he would fundamentally change America from Denver,” Atwater said. “It’s time we fundamentally change who sits in the White House.”
Mitt Romney’s closed-door comments in Boca Raton about 47 percent of Americans not paying taxes and being “dependent on government,” were defended by a top Florida supporter Tuesday — although Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater also implied his party’s presidential nominee should have known better.
“Any one of us who believes there’s not a camera on or a recording device or a cell phone, you’re living yesterday,” said Atwater, part of Florida Catholics for Romney’s leadership team. “I think everyone has to be on-game, on-message all the time.”
Atwater said he hadn’t reviewed the tape of Romney’s comments, recorded surreptiously in May at a fundraiser at hedge fund manager Marc Leder’s home and made public this week by Mother Jones magazine. But based on what was reported, Atwater said at least some of Romney’s comments about which voters he could persuade — and which others were unreachable — made sense.
“It seems to me what he was expressing was ‘my job,”‘ Atwater said. “My job is to talk to those individuals I have a chance of persuading. My job is to talk to those folks who may still be open-minded to what I am talking about. If that was the intent of what he was saying, I think all of us have heard candidates speak in…that kind of language.”
Atwater added, “It may not been as artfully expressed…but every candidate has done this.”
But Atwater, a former Senate President from North Palm Beach, distanced himself from Romney’s assessment that almost half the American population is mooching off government.
“We have initiatives that we vote on here in this Legislature every year for people who on any given day are particularly challenged and facing an obstacle like Medicaid. But Medicaid rolls rotate. In two years, six-months, someone is new on and somebody is off. They got their footing again.”
With CNN and others initially reporting this morning that the federal health care law’s individual mandate had been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater was one of the first elected officials in the state to issue a statement.
A minute later, Atwater was one of the first to issue a retraction.
At 10:10 a.m., Atwater’s office issued a four-paragraph statement commending the justices for striking down the mandate. At 10:11 a.m., Atwater’s office issued a “recall” notice.
Political and financial heavy-weights backing U.S. Rep. Connie Mack are asking George LeMieux step out of the U.S. Senate race, a “difficult and selfless step toward unifying our party now.”
Mack supporters sent a letter to LeMieux saying that with Mack leading in the polls, it’s time for LeMieux to drop out.
“Your withdrawal from the election and endorsement of Connie would be of great benefit to the entire Party as we turn now to the fall elections and unify behind our shared goal of stopping President Obama and Senator Nelson from doing any more damage to our state and country. We thank you for your dedicated service to our Party, and hope that you will not only recognize how important it is for conservatives to win in November, but that you will take the difficult and selfless step toward unifying our Party now,” the group wrote.
LeMieux spokeswoman Anna Nix responded with a swipe at Mack.
“With Mack the Fourth’s history of violence and financial misconduct, voters will no doubt realize he lacks the maturity to be a United States Senator. George LeMieux is the only candidate who can defeat Bill Nelson in November and end Harry Reid’s reign as Majority Leader,” Nix said in a statement.
As Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwatermulls a late entry into the GOP Senate primary, the influential American Conservative Union has weighed in for U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, R-Cape Coral.
ACU puts on the annual CPAC conferences and issues yearly ratings of congressional conservatism (Mack got a 92 percent ACU score last year, compared to 100 percent for Sen. Marco Rubio and 88 percent for Reps. Allen West and Tom Rooney).
Mack is running against former appointed Sen. George LeMieux and businessman Mike McCalister for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.
Here’s the endorsement statement from ACU Chairman Al Cardenas, a former Republican Party of Florida chairman: “From his proven leadership on pro-growth economic policies and energy independence solutions to his courageous efforts to bring attention to dangerous and tyrannical regimes across the world, it is clear Connie Mack is the innovative, conservative leader ready to take on Bill Nelson this fall. Liberals in the Senate have rubber-stamped President Obama’s agenda, and now it is time for voters to hold them accountable. Congressman Mack is one of many great conservatives running for Senate across the country, and the American Conservative Union PAC is proud to endorse him. The ACU PAC urges all Florida conservatives to support Connie Mack for U.S. Senate, and we look forward to aiding his victory in both the primary and general elections.”
Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater says he’s considering entering the Republican U.S. Senate primary after being “asked by a number of people who I have tremendous respect for in conservative circles around the state.”
Atwater, a North Palm Beach resident, said he has received several calls in the last few weeks asking him to consider a candidacy.
“I’m going to consider it. I’m going to take a look at it. To date, I haven’t made one outbound phone call,” Atwater said.
Republicans Connie Mack and George LeMieux are the leading Republican contenders to challenge Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson. But some in the GOP have said they are underwhelmed by the party’s field and its fundraising.
The Legislature’s latest bid to revamp personal injury protection (PIP) auto insurance looks like it could collapse amid the same intra-industry squabbles that killed previous efforts over much of the past decade.
Gov. Rick Scott is an ardent advocate for reform — tucking the demand for action into his State of the State address in January.
Now, Capitol hall talk is swirling about the idea of a special session on the subject –that amounts to a rhetorical surrender on the idea of any deal being reached before the Legislature’s scheduled March 9 finish.
But House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, said Friday that a special session isn’t part of his plans. Prospects for consensus also looks tough, he conceded.
“I don’t know whether we’ll be able to bring the House and Senate positions together before the end of session,” Cannon said. “But I’m not contemplating a special session on the issue.”
Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, whose district includes parts of northern Palm Beach County, is sponsoring a bill (SB 1860) that would enact a series of reforms, including implementing medical fee schedules, licensing medical clinics that provide personal injury protection (PIP) benefits, and requiring insurers to promptly pay claims.
Negron says his approach is closest to that pitched by Scott and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, who are pushing hard to rid the system of fraudulent claims and shady clinics who operate to draw on the $10,000 insurance coverage every Florida motorist is supposed to carry.
The House proposal (CS/HB 119) by Rep. John Boyd, R-Bradenton, would scrap the state’s PIP law, replacing it with a proposed emergency care insurance that maintains the $10,000 medical coverage, but would require all accident victims to be treated in emergency rooms or by their personal physicians — not clinics — within 72 hours.
Massage therapists, accupuncturists and chiropractors would be from receiving PIP payments for medical treatments, under the House proposal.
Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet are putting pressure on lawmakers to approve an all-out ban on Internet cafés now on its way to the House floor but facing a doubtful future in the Senate.
The House Economic Affairs Committee approved the bill (HB 3) this morning, drawing the praise of the Republican governor and Cabinet who want the so-called “casinos on the corner” shuttered.
Critics of the cafés, an estimated $1 billion industry which operates under state “sweepstakes” laws and are largely unregulated, say they prey on the state’s poor and vulnerable. But the café operators say they provide good jobs for their employees and a place to socialize for seniors and others.
Scott believes the store-front casinos found in strip malls throughout the state are already illegal but wants lawmakers to officially ban them.
“These store front casinos are impacting Florida’s neighborhoods and families,” said Governor Scott. “They are and should be illegal. Representative Plakon’s bill closes this loophole and I commend his dedication to shutting down these establishments,” Scott said in a statement released by Rep. Scott Plakon, the Longwood Republican who’s sponsored the bill.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam joined in the chorus demanding the shut-down.
But the Senate is moving forward with a separate measure that would regulate the cafés and impose a $100 fee per computer terminal for operators. Estimates of the number of cafés in the state range from 800 to 1,400 but all agree they have mushroomed in the past few years. Palm Beach County commissioners recently barred new cafés from opening in unincorporated areas.
The Senate Regulated Industries Committee approved a regulation measure and set aside a bill that would make the cafés illegal.
Times may be tough but there’s still plenty to be grateful for, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater tells Floridians in a Thanksgiving video message released today.
Atwater, a North Palm Beach banker and former Senate president, says he’s thankful for his “exciting year” as the executive in charge of the state’s checkbook and he’s appreciative of the country’s military serving overseas, who “risk their lives every day so that we can enjoy the blessings that we have been afforded: our safety, our security, the ability just to spend time with our families, our friends.”
Read about Atwater’s possible face-offs with Gov. Rick Scott over state contracting and The Florida Bar over PIP after the jump. (more…)
A day after Gov. Rick Scott and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater urged lawmakers to overhaul Florida’s personal injury protection auto insurance standard, House and Senate panels began Wednesday what is likely to prove months of wrestling with the issue.
Rep. Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton, had his proposal (HB 119) dissected by the House Insurance and Banking Committee, with legislators quizzing him about efforts to limit lawyers’ fees, expand clinic regulations, and limiting the number of visits an accident victim can make to massage therapists and chiropractors.
Two lawmakers, Rep. Bill Hager, a Boca Raton Republican, and Rep. Evan Jenne, a Fort Lauderdale Democrat, urged lawmakers to consider scrapping personal injury protection completely — saying the system was beyond repair.
“Have we arrived at a point where we say this sucker is such a rotting carcass that we’ve got to throw it out?” Hager said.
Boyd, however, said the Legislature should make one more attempt at repairing PIP — the $10,000 mandatory insurance coverage which critics say for years has spawned a lucrative industry of staged auto accidents, unneeded medical treatments, and frivolous lawsuits.
“We still think we have a chance to salvage this thing,” Boyd said.
While Boyd was pitching his bill, the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee was hearing testimony from a wide-range of industry representatives. Among them: Gary Brown, who runs Choice Medical Centers, operating in Palm Beach and Broward counties.
Brown said lawmakers could help shrink what critics say is almost $1 billion in higher insurance and legal costs borne by Floridians, if they more strictly regulated clinics. He said legislation should demand tougher licensing requirements and bar clinics from referring patients to lawyers.
But Brown also said the insurance industry needs to be a focus for any legislation.
Boyd’s bill, and others being developed, chiefly target those making money off insurers. Brown, though, gave the industry low marks.
Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, asked Brown to grade on a 1-to-10 scale how responsive companies are to paying PIP claims.
“I’d say zero,” Brown said, saying the industry’s cold shoulder fuels lawsuits.
Gov. Rick Scott and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater called on lawmakers Tuesday to revamp state law governing motorists’ personal injury protection (PIP), which critics say is costing Floridians an extra $1 billion a year in higher costs stemming from fraud, questionable medical treatment and legal costs.
Insurance rates for the $10,000 mandatory PIP coverage have spiked as much as 80 percent in some Miami and Tampa Bay-area neighborhoods between 2008 and 2010, according to state officials.
PIP insurance claims also are up 40 percent over that time even as accidents statewide have tumbled by 8 percent – with leaders saying the disparity stems from a rising number of suspected staged accidents to fraudulently draw payments.
Atwater turned to law enforcement officers flanking him Tuesday at a Capitol news conference, saying, “we’re going to get you some relief.” He also said consumers needed help.
“They have been trying to swim in a pool of piranhas, and we’ve got to throw them a lifeline,” Atwater said.
But Atwater, Scott and several lawmakers attending Tuesday’s call for change acknowledged that there was no clear path to overhauling the PIP system.
Insurers, the hospital industry, lawyers and health care providers were gathered into a working group last month under state insurance consumer advocate Robin Westcott, but failed to agree on recommendations.
“They’re all fighting for their part,” Atwater said.
Now, it’s legislators’ turn.
“It’s going to be a challenging bill to get passed,” acknowledged Rep. Bryan Nelson, R-Apopka, an insurance agent, who doubles as chairman of the House Insurance and Banking Subcommittee.
U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, says he doesn’t disagree with the House GOP leadership’s piecemeal approach to the economy.
But Rooney has introduced his own comprehensive “Restore America Act” that addresses taxes, regulations and domestic energy production in a single piece of legislation.
“I’m sick of people asking ‘Where’s your jobs plan?’ So here it is,” Rooney says in this week’s Politics column, where you’ll also read about CFO Jeff Atwater‘s take on the U.S. Senate race and business reaction to a new countywide commission chairman idea.
Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney rolled out a list of endorsements from two state Senators and 22 state House members today.
If you’re keeping score, that brings Romney’s Florida legislative endorsement total to 36, including 8 Senators and 28 House members.
The only local on Romney’s new endorsement list is state Rep. Pat Rooney Jr., R-Palm Beach Gardens. Rooney’s brother, U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, endorsed Romney earlier this year and on Monday joined U.S. Reps. Connie Mack and Ander Crenshaw as honorary co-chairs for the Romney campaign in Florida.
Romney has also snagged recent Florida endorsements from Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater of North Palm Beach.
A list of Romney’s legislative endorsements is after the jump…
Senate President Mike Haridopolos has agreed to call in State Board of Administration executive director Ash Williams to answer questions about a $125 million investment after Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, Haridopolos’ predecessor, asked for the public meeting.
Atwater, a North Palm Beach banker, asked Haridopolos on Thursday to bring Williams in to satisfy Sen. Mike Fasano’s demands for information about an investment earlier this year in hedge fund Starboard Value and Opportunity. Williams gave Fasano, R-New Port Richey, a bill for more than $10,000 in response to a public records request for documents regarding the investment, which was in the works for more than two years before the investment was made in April.
“It is my deep belief that you and the other members of the legislature, elected to represent the interests of Floridians, should have full and open access to information wherever it might reside throughout government, including the SBA,” Atwater wrote in a letter to the senate president.
Atwater also said Fasano should not be charged to review the documents and that he trusts Fasano to keep any confidential information in the records private. On Monday, Fasano asked Haridopolos to subpoena Williams and the documents or to order him to appear before a Senate committee to explain the investment and the public records charges.
“Being that the CFO is a champion of transparency and given his expertise in this realm, I plan to take his recommendation and hold a meeting that will be open to the public and ask the Director of the SBA, Ash Williams, and his staff to be available to answer any questions that the public or my fellow legislators may have about the investment, as well as the public records request,” Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, said in a statement late Thursday. “Like CFO Atwater, it is my hope that this meeting will alleviate any questions that lawmakers or the public may have regarding this investment and the SBA, and the IAC may continue to conduct business.”
With car insurance fraud skyrocketing in Florida, Gov. Rick Scott cited a need Tuesday to revamp the state’s four decade old requirement that motorists carry Personal Injury Protection (PIP).
Driven in part by widespread accident fraud, auto insurance premiums have spiked by more than $900 million over the past three years, Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty told Scott and the Cabinet.
McCarty blamed “fraudsters and hucksters” for much of the problem. The state’s Divison of Insurance Fraud reported Tuesday that PIP fraud referrals have more than doubled since 2007 to 6,699 this year.
Scott said it’s clear that the state’s PIP law is in need for an overhaul by lawmakers next year — with McCarty charged with coming up with proposals to put before lawmakers in coming weeks.
Motorists must carry $10,000 PIP policies. But business groups and insurance companies have long fought the requirement. PIP legislation collapsed last session in a predictable tug-of-war between insurers, consumers and medical organizations.
Scott, though, backed by Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, said Tuesday that changes need to be made, although neither of the officials said they knew what steps should be taken.
“Are we doing things through regulation…that is allowing fraud to happen, that normally wouldn’t happen?” Scott said.
Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater said Monday he will sign off on a $5,000 payment to cover funeral expenses for Eric Perez, an 18-year-old who died in state custody in West Palm Beach on July 10.
The Palm Beach Post and The Miami Herald reported this weekend that Atwater blocked the payment. His office told Department of Juvenile Justice officials they lacked statutory authority for the payment although the agency has had a policy for two years to pay up to $5,000 for funeral costs of children who die while in their custody and has issued the payments twice before.
On Monday, Atwater blamed Department of Juvenile Justice officials for what he called “a tragic delay” in a press release Monday afternoon. Atwater promised to send a check to the Perez family’s attorney within 48 hours.
“Regrettably, this tragic delay would not have occurred if the Department of Juvenile Justice had not blatantly ignored guidance from my office,” Atwater said in the release. “In the future, I would hope that DJJ would be more transparent in its dealings with the public and with taxpayer monies.”
When Gov. Rick Scott and the all-Republican Florida Cabinet meet, it’s mostly a millionaires club, according to new financial disclosure reports.
Only Attorney General Pam Bondi claims a net worth of less than $1 million. Bondi, a former Hillsborough County prosecutor, quit her job last year to campaign fulltime, resulting in her reporting no income in 2010 and a net worth of $472,696.
Her assets are a house and a car.
Scott, considered Florida’s wealthiest governor in history, reported a $103 million net worth — down by more than half from a year earlier. But still a bundle detailed in four pages of assets and income sources.
Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, scion of a Polk County citrus family, reported a $6.8 million net worth. Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, a former Senate president from North Palm Beach, was worth $1.6 million at the end of last year, according to his report, filed this month.
Atwater said he earned roughly $114,000 last year, with income from the state of Florida, investments, and banking work with Bank of America. Putnam, who left Congress last year to run for Agriculture Commissioner, reported income topping $570,000, including his congressional salary, investments, income from Putnam Groves, Inc., and the sale of his Washington, D.C., home.
Attorney General Pam Bondi responded Thursday to West Palm Beach Democratic Rep. Mark Pafford’s request to examine the circumstances surrounding Gov. Rick Scott’s staff stiff-arming Democratic protesters at his budget-signing last month at The Villages.
Bondi hinted she was concerned, but powerless to step in.
“Throughout my nearly two decades in public service, I have been committed to transparency and open government,” Florida’s top legal officer, a Republican, wrote. “While I do not take lightly the questions you have raised, Florida law does not empower me to investigate your concerns.”
Pafford, who earlier wrote Scott seeking a response, was among Florida House Democrats who urged Bondi and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, also a Republican, to push for more answers and an apology from the governorfor his office’s role in bullying a couple dozen Democratic protesters at last month’s ceremony.
A governor’s staffer apparently urged Sumter County Sheriff’s deputies to rein-in the protesters, claiming the budget-signing was a private event. Deputies confronted the protesters, keeping them out of the governor’s view and ordering them to discard their signs.
For his part, Pafford said in a statement, “While I appreciate Attorney General Pam Bondi’s acknowledgment letter, I remain concerned that constitutional rights protecting Florida’s citizens have purposely been ignored by the Governor’s Office.
“Since January 2011, when members of the press were banned from attending inauguration events in the state capitol building, the pattern of privacy has been the norm. I believe Floridians want answers to what transpired in The Villages and accountability,” he added.
