Florida lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a measure now on its way to Gov. Charlie Crist that would prohibit adoption agencies from discriminating against gun owners.

The Senate voted 38-2 on the bill (HB 315) this morning, with Democratic Sens. Ted Deutch of Boca Raton and Frederica Wilson of Miami the only hold-outs. The House earlier unanimously passed the measure.

Critics of the measure, even those who voted for it, said the measure fixes a problem that no longer exists.

State officials say they are unaware of any families having been denied the opportunity to adopt because they own weapons or have them in the home.

Children’s Home Society of Florida had asked prospective parents about their gun ownership but discontinued doing so after Department of Children and Families officials told them the form they were using was illegal.

But the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Thad Altman, said that the change in the law is needed anyway because some Floridians are opting to go overseas to adopt children rather than have to submit to the intrusive adoption process in Florida.

“This bill will make a difference. There will be American children that will be adopted as a result of this bill,” Altman, R-Melbourne, said.

The measure provided an venue for Democrats to champion what have been futile efforts to repeal the state’s ban on gay adoptions.

On Tuesday, GOP leaders in both chambers allowed Democrats to briefly debate a repeal of the state law that prohibits gay couples or individuals from adopting although they are allowed to be foster parents.

Barring adoption agencies from refusing to allow gun owners to adopt while “permitting those same adoption agencies to consider whether or not the adoptive parents are gay and at the same time to specifically prohibit the adoption in that instance makes me wonder how it is that we prioritize in this body,” Deutch argued.

Deutch, who is running for Congress, said that he hopes lawmakers in the future repeal the ban pass a law “that once and for all says that it is the best interest of the child that is most important in deciding where that child should be placed….and it should be a prohibition in inquiring about whether that couple is hetersosexual or homosexual…That’s a day…I hope that day comes soon.”

Rep. Mary Brandenburg, a Lake Worth Democrat, has filed a bill each of the eight years since she was elected to the House that would repeal the ban. Again this year, it is not expected to get any traction or even a House committee hearing.

Senate President Jeff Atwater allowed Democrats to talk about repealing the state’s gay adoption ban during the afternoon session today.

Sen. Nan Rich has tried and failed for the past four years to have her bills that would do away with Florida’s 33-year-old prohibition against gay couples or individuals adopting.

But today, Atwater allowed Sen. Charlie Justice to offer an amendment on a bill that would prohibit adoption agencies from discriminating against gun owners. Justice’s amendment proposed a similar prohibition for discrimination based on sexual orientation.

“Whether a person owns a gun or not has no bearing on his or her ability to be a loving parent,” Rich, D-Weston, said.

The ban on gay adoption is a “far graver inequality,” she said, and is “a law grounded on fear and ignorance rather than in sound public policy.”

Gay couples are allowed to be foster parents but are barred from permanently adopting the children. More than 3,000 Florida kids are waiting to be adopted and about 25,000 of them live in foster care.

A state appeals court is currently considering whether the law is unconstitutional, as some judges have recently ruled. The 1st District Court of Appeals could rule at any time on a case in which a judge allowed Martin Gill, a gay Miami-Dade County man, to adopt two foster children who have been in his care for years. The state is appealing the adoptions.

“I know this amendment is not going to pass today and that Florida’s discriminatory adoption ban will not fall today,” Rich concluded. ”It’s been four year since there’s been any debate on this issue in any official Senate proceeding in any Senate committee and it’s been 33 years since this issue has been debated on the floor of this chamber. It’s about time we did something about that.”

Justice, D-St. Petersburg, withdrew the amendment before a vote could be taken.

Rep. Scott Randolph, D-Orlando, offered a similar amendment on the House floor this afternoon. He also withdrew the measure before it could be voted on.

Republican lawmakers in the Florida Senate took turns firing shots at the state’s largest teachers union today during a committee hearing over whether the GOP-majority wants to approve a massive expansion of the school voucher program. (They do.)

Finance & Tax Chairman Thad Altman said expanding vouchers would help reduce class sizes, a priority of the Florida Education Association, which opposes vouchers. Sen. Rhonda Storms, R-Valrico, asked FEA lobbyist Lynda Russell to read a Harvard study often cited by voucher advocates “for your education and intellectual expansion.”

Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Sarasota, challenged the union’s assertion that parents top priorities were small class sizes, safe schools and less emphasis on the FCAT.

“They don’t want better teachers for their kids?” Bennett said.

The bill’s lone opponent on the committee, Sen. Charlie Justice, D-St. Petersburg, tried to reign it all in. “Everyone has had their shot at the teachers union,” he said. “Can we get back to the bill?”

But Storms said that FEA President Andy Ford “can take care of himself.” She used her laptop to pull up a copy a recent speech from Ford, who said the union saved millions for public schools during the 2009 session and “once again fought back the barbarians at the gate.”

“That’s us … We’re the barbarians,” an upset Storms said.

House Speaker Larry Cretul reversed his position on a measure that would make 911 calls exempt from public records.

Cretul, R-Ocala, had pushed the bill at the behest of Florida Farm Bureau President John Hoblick, whose organization contributed $30,000 to the Republican Party of Florida over the past two years. Hoblick was incensed about a 911 call aired after his son died after a night of drinking and using prescription pills.

“The issue of broadcasters using taped calls of desperate citizens seeking help from 911 remains a very important one. I’ve listened to many people on this matter, both pro and con, read news articles, correspondence, and editorials. There’s no question that the broadcasts provoke strong feelings. For now, it’s best to take a breather, turn our attention to the bill to improve 911 service in Florida—an equally important measure. I don’t think we need to move forward on the 911 tapes bill at this time,” Cretul said in a statement provided by his spokeswoman Jill Chamberlain.

The proposal outraged First Amendment advocates and some crime victims, including the family of Denise Amber Lee, who was murdered after the botched handling of a 911 call in Charlotte County, who want the tapes to remain available because they hold emergency dispatchers and law enforcement agencies accountable and because they are used to train dispatchers.

Denise Amber Lee’s family is backing a measure that would make Florida require training and certification of 911 dispatchers.

Chamberlain did not know whether the House sponsor Rep. Rob Schenck, R-Spring Hill, would pull the bill from his committee where it is scheduled to be heard later this week.

Thanksgiving Day shootings, Deerfield teen set on fire: Listen to more recent high-profile 911 calls


Take the Poll: Should 911 calls be kept off the air?

A Times/Herald analysis of IRS records shows Rubio’s spending “belies his image as an outsider riding a wave of anti-establishment fervor and gunning to knock off Gov. Charlie Crist for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination.” From the story:

• Rubio failed to disclose $34,000 in expenses — including $7,000 he paid himself — for one of the committees in 2003 and 2004, as required by state law.

• One committee paid relatives nearly $14,000 for what was incorrectly described to the IRS as “courier fees” and listed a nonexistent address for one of them. Another committee paid $5,700 to his wife, who was listed as the treasurer, much of it for “gas and meals.”

• He billed more than $51,000 in unidentified “travel expenses” to three different credit cards — nearly one-quarter of the committee’s entire haul. Charges are not required to be itemized, but other lawmakers detailed almost all of their committee expenses.

It would be more difficult to sell carburetor pipes, chillums and chillers in Florida under a bill approved today by a panel of state lawmakers.

Don’t know what those items are? Most members of the House Finance and Tax Council didn’t either. Not that that stopped them from approving the bill 16-0.

Story here.

Denise Amber Lee’s six-minute 911 call that helped convict her killer is among the most notorious examples of 911 calls gone wrong, the calls that are now in House Speaker Larry Cretul’s crosshairs as he tries to create a public records exemptions for them.

Her husband Nathan Lee sent an e-mail to the sponsor of Cretul’s bill, House Government Accountability Policy Council Chairman Rob Schenk, pleading with the committee to shoot down the measure that would make 911 call recordings secret except for transcripts that could be available after 60 days. Lee also asked that his message be read at Schenk’s committee hearing the bill (PCB GAP 10-03) before it was voted on this morning.

Schenk made no reference to Lee’s message and did not read it before the measure passed by an 8-5 vote. And Cretul, who used a procedural maneuver to ensure the bill passed, never read it at all. He said he received it last night. Public records show that Cretul, his spokeswoman Jill Chamberlin and Schenk received it around 3:30 p.m. yesterday.

“I haven’t read the e-mail. I’m sure that he makes some excellent points,” Cretul, R-Ocala, said shortly before the House began session at 1 p.m.

Nathan Lee and his parents are pushing a separate 911 bill that would require uniform training standards for 911 dispatchers throughout the state. His wife was killed despite five 911 calls made in two counties, including one from a witness whose call was ignored.

Lee’s e-mail uses the botched handling of the eyewitness’ emergency call made on the day his wife was killed in 2008 to demonstrate why the calls should be available to the public.

“She provided the exact location of this event and even though there were, by all accounts, 4 police cars within a mile of this call, it was never dispatched. This call was, obviously, grossly mishandled and would have resulted in the saving of Denise’s life. Two days after this call, she was found in a grave, naked and with a single gunshot wound to the head. This call was hidden from the public and myself. And even hidden from the police department who was actively investigating the case and searching for my wife for two days. The subsequent internal affairs investigation shows the communication center and agency who took this crucial call were immediately aware that the call was about Denise. The call was suppressed. Had the eyewitness not contacted the North Port Police Department we may never have known about her call. And the prosecution would have lost the last eyewitness to see my wife alive,” Lee wrote.

Cretul said he supports the training and certification bill.

“But my whole interest in this issue has been watching what it also does to families and what it does to people that call in. They become suddenly out there for all the world to see,” Cretul said in an interview. “This is a very tough, very difficult issue. Very sensitive in all respects.”

Read the entire text of Nathan Lee’s message after the jump.
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A bill that’s one of House Speaker Larry Cretul’s priorities that would make 911 call tapes secret is on the fast-track in his chamber but lacks a Senate sponsor.

Cretul is pushing the measure on behalf of Florida Farm Bureau President John Hoblick, whose 16-year-old son died from a lethal combination of alcohol and illegal prescription drugs. Hoblick, out of town when his son Jake died, heard his older son John’s 911 call on the news.

House staff and the bill sponsor Rep. Rob Schenk, R-Spring Hill, kept the Speaker’s blessing of the bill hush-hush until this week when Cretul told a St. Petersburg Times reporter that Hoblick asked him to do something about the 911 calls.

Cretul used a seldom-used procedural maneuver today to guarantee that the measure (PCB GAP 10-03) passed. He temporarily assigned one of his lieutenants, House Speaker Pro Tem Ron Reagan, R-Bradenton, to the committee. Cretul didn’t need the insurance, however; the Government Policy Accountability Council approved it with an 8-5 vote.

Despite the Speaker’s clout in the House, the bill lacks a Senate sponsor.

Sen. Garrett Richter had originally agreed to run a companion for Schenk. But an open government shell bill he had sponsored that could have been used for Schenk’s bill was designated to be heard in the Banking and Insurance Committee, which has nothing to do with the 911 calls, he said. Richter backed off the bill even before controversy surrounding it - some victims and First Amendment lawyers staunchly oppose it - began this week. The Naples Republican said he won’t sponsor the measure.

Mack Bernard, D-West Palm Beach

From the Florida House Democratic office this afternoon:

State Representatives Ronald Brisé (D-North Miami) and Mack Bernard (D-West Palm Beach) are pleased to announce that they will join Haiti’s President René Préval during his visit to The White House on Wednesday, March 10, 2010. Both legislators are Haitian-Americans who have traveled to Haiti since the earthquake. They have worked extensively with colleagues to facilitate Florida’s relief efforts in earthquake-torn Haiti.

(more…)

Florida Rep. Ari Porth, D-Coral Springs, removed his name today from the list of co-sponsors for a tax incentive package for the film industry in Florida. A story today in The Palm Beach Post highlighted a provision in the bill (HB 697) that could prohibit films and TV shows with gay characters from receiving a 5 percent “family-friendly” tax break.

“I believe in the film industry tax incentives, but was uncomfortable with provisions limiting the field of qualified recipients. I hope to be able to support the measure in the future,” Porth said in an e-mail.

Movies and TV shows with gay characters could be ineligible for a “family-friendly” tax credit in Florida under a little-noticed provision tucked into a $75 million incentive package that Republican House leaders hope will attract film and entertainment jobs to the state.

The bill would prohibit productions with “nontraditional family values” from receiving a so-called family-friendly tax credit. But it doesn’t define what “nontraditional family values” are, something the bill’s sponsor had a hard time doing, too.

“Think of it as like Mayberry,” state Rep. Stephen Precourt, R-Orlando, said, referring to The Andy Griffith Show. “That’s when I grew up — the ’60s. That’s what life was like. I want Florida to be known for making those kinds of movies: Disney movies for kids and all that stuff. Like it used to be, you know?”

Story here.

Republican House Speaker Larry Cretul is not counting on $1 billion in Medicaid that many believe the state will receive from the federal government. Less surprising, the House also does not include $433 million from Gov. Charlie Crist’s would-be gambling compact with the Seminoles.

Budget writers will use allocations to begin drawing up the state’s spending plan for next year.

Cretul is instructing his chamber to find state dollars in the K-12 budget to replenish the $778 million drop-off in property tax collections caused by spiraling home values. He is also insisting that federal Medicaid dollars Crist counted on for his budget be supplanted with state money. Cretul wants 5 percent of the budget in reserves and no new taxes.

“I know budgeting this year will be very difficult,” Cretul wrote in his memo. (Read it here.)

The Senate quietly approved a measure designed to clean up the Public Service Commission with a 39-1 vote this afternoon.

The bill (SB 1034) would make public all communications between the utilities the panel regulates and the commissioners or their advisory staff.

It would also bar commissioners or high-level staff from going to work or lobbying for the utilities for four years after they leave the PSC, double the current two-year limitation, aimed at stopping the “revolving door” between the commission and the utilities they make billion-dollar decisions about.

The bill will make certain that former commissioners and staff “will not be able to continue what they’ve done in the past and for a change our consumers will be represented,” the bill’s sponsor Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, argued.

The changes come from a 1992 grand jury report that lawmakers largely ignored designed to keep regulators and utility representatives at arm’s length.

This year’s proposal came about in the wake of reports that PSC staff and a Florida Power & Light Co. lawyer were swapping secret BlackBerry messages. Other details about questionable relationships between FPL and the commission were revealed during Juno Beach-based FPL’s proposed $1.2 billion rate hike hearing.

On the opening day of FPL’s rate increase hearing last year, Commissioner Nathan Skop revealed that the PSC’s lobbyist, Ryder Rudd, had attended a Kentucky Derby party at the Palm Beach Gardens home of FPL Vice President Ed Tancer. Rudd later quit.

Since then, the agency has struggled through investigations into BlackBerry messages exchanged between the PSC and an FPL attorney, a myriad of ethics complaints and allegations of interference from political leaders, including Gov. Charlie Crist, who threatened to not reappoint any commissioners who voted in favor of the rate hike.

The bill would also require that the commissioners behave more like judges by applying the canons of judicial conduct, including refraining from inappropriate political activity and avoiding the appearance of impropriety.

Public Service Chairwoman Nancy Argenziano is backing the proposed changes.

Recognizing Palm Beach County day today, PBC home-boy Sen. Dave Aronberg recited some facts about the state’s largest county before giving a shout-out to some county officials watching the Senate session from the East Gallery.

Aronberg, D-Greenacres, introduced PBC Commissioner Burt Aaronson as “The Godfather of Palm Beach County.”

Aaronson was first elected to the commission in 1992.

Aronberg’s intro may be considered a dubious distinction, considering that three of Aaronson’s former county commission colleagues are in prison for corruption charges.

With a slew of lawmakers, including Senate President Jeff Atwater, running for higher office this year, Senate Rules Chairman Alex Villalobos delivered a stern warning to members about using staff for campaign purposes.

Villalobos, who would have been in Atwater’s presidential shoes were it not for a coup staged by Atwater and his backers more than two years ago, sent a memo to the Senate’s 40 members outlining what their aides can - and mostly cannot - while on the clock.

Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, is leaving office early to run statewide for chief financial officer. Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson, forced out because of term limits, is running for Congress, along with Democratic state Sens. Frederica Wilson of Miami, Charlie Justice of St. Petersburg and Palm Beach County’s own Ted Deutch of Boca Raton. Senate Majority Leader Alex Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, is also expected to run for Congress.

And Sens. Dave Aronberg of Greenacres and Dan Gelber of Miami Beach are running statewide in a Democratic primary for attorney general.

Senate staff can’t use annual leave or comp time to work on campaigns, nor can they work on a campaign during their lunch hour, Villalobos wrote.

They can volunteer after hours, that means outside the hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

But aides can’t take a paying job with a campaign unless they get permission from Atwater and take leave-without-pay first.

“A Senator who uses staff paid by the Senate to work on his or her campaign while ‘on duty’ may be liable for theft,” Villalobos wrote. If the employee earned more than $5,000 or more as a state worker, the crime is a felony.

And the staffer who works on the campaign could also be liable for theft.

Oh, and no using state equipment like telephones or computers for campaign stuff. That’s a misdemeanor.

The Senate considered some sweeping changes to Public Service Commission, the panel that oversees billions of dollars in utility rates, without voting on it.

The measure (SB 1034), which Senate President Jeff Atwater previously said he wanted passed out of the chamber today, is on the fast-track in the Senate but isn’t moving so quickly in the House.

The proposal, backed by five-member Public Service Commission and Public Counsel J.R. Kelly (who represents consumers), is aimed at injecting new ethical standards into the maligned regulatory agency entangled in secret messages swapped between staff and a Florida Power & Light Co. lawyer. That and other questionable actions did not break any Florida laws, a number of investigations found.

The changes, proposed by longtime PSC critic Sen. Mike Fasano, would require that all written and oral communications between commissioners and their aides, called ex parte communications, be put in the public record and placed online where everyone can see them.

“We had staff and commissioners that were communicating with multi-billion dollar utility companies and we didn’t know anything about it. Absolutely nothing. Now when anybody has access to them, we’re going to know within 72 hours after their transmission,” Fasano, R-New Port Richey, said.

The measure would also bar commissioners and their aides from going to work or lobbying for the utilities they regulate for four years, which would be twice the current restriction.

Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson tried but failed to keep the limitation to two years, arguing that the restrictions surpass those of even lawmakers who control the state budget and who are barred from lobbying for just two years.

The bill would affect all the electric, water and gas companies that are regulated by the commission. Under the proposal, a company could be fined one-tenth of one percent of its annual operating revenue for violating the restrictions.

The Senate could vote out the measure as early as tomorrow.

Rep. Kevin Ambler, R-Tampa, gives a thumbs up as the Florida Legislature opens today. Just hours later, gloves were off between Republicans and Democrats. (AP)

The House Republican Office noted that it took their Democratic colleagues less than five hours to launch the first attack of session.” “So much 4 bipartisanship,” the office tweeted.

Indeed.

The House Democratic Office press release quotes House Speaker Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, who said this morning that it was time to “do government business in a new way.” Democrats note that Republicans have controlled state government in Florida for the past 12 years.

“It is interesting to hear Speaker Cretul confess that Republican leadership since 1998 has led to unnecessary spending and a failure to follow basic government accountability measures,” Democratic Leader Franklin Sands said.

Ladies and gentlemen, your 2010 Florida House…

Richard Hartsfield, an employee of the House Sergeant of Arms office, cleans the glass of the House gallery on Monday before the start of the legislative session today. (AP)

The bill (HB 7033) would delay about $1.8 billion in unemployment tax payments for Florida businesses. It passed 117-0.

Companies are supposed to pay a higher tax rate starting in April because Florida’s spiraling unemployment has zeroed out the state fund that pays jobless benefits. To replenish that account, the unemployment tax rate is set to jump from about $8 to $100 per worker.

“Recharging Florida’s economy and putting Floridians back to work is our top priority this year,” House Economic Development & Community Affairs Policy Council Chairman Dave Murzin said. “Making sure employers can afford to keep the employees they already have is part of that agenda.”

By delaying the tax hike for two years, the state will pay for unemployment benefits by continuing to borrow from the federal government and ultimately accumulate $675 million in interest payments. The bill includes an assessment on employers over five years to cover that cost.

The Senate is expected to approve the bill this afternoon and send it to Gov. Charlie Crist, who is expected to sign it into law.

The 60-day 2010 legislative session began with the usual pageantry as Senators, their families, Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Cabinet and the Florida Supreme Court crowded into the Senate chambers for Senate President Jeff Atwater’s opening day speech.

The chamber was filled with opening-day flowers, one of the only exemptions in the gift ban law barring lawmakers from accepting presents of any kind, including food.

Among the guests attending this morning: Linda King, widow of the late Sen. Jim King, the Jacksonville Republican who died earlier in July after a bout with pancreatic cancer and who once served as Senate President.

The Senate dedicated a committee room to King and read a resolution honoring the veteran lawmaker who was instrumental in getting end-of-life legislation passed.

Stay tuned for audio of Atwater’s remarks and other opening day treats, including the House’s session kick-off, winding up with Crist’s 6 p.m. state-of-the-state address.

With Florida suffering from its highest unemployment in three decades, pumping life into the state’s dismal job market is at the top of almost every lawmaker’s to-do list this year.

“It’s been an economic tsunami,” Gov. Charlie Crist said of the collapsing housing market and spiraling unemployment that has slashed Florida’s tax collections by 17 percent since he took office three years ago.

Crist, like his fellow Republicans in charge of the state Senate and House, will largely look to tax cuts and incentives to spark job creation as the legislature begins its annual spring session Tuesday day.

Story here.