Gov. Charlie Crist ordered an investigation into “Wafflegate” but his concerns about transportation officials’ possible violations of the state’s Sunshine laws aren’t keeping him from signing the bill they were writing about into law tomorrow.

Tomorrow, Crist will hold ceremonial signings in Tampa and Orlando of the sweeping rail bill passed during a special session last week.

Today, Crist acceded to Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink’s request for the inspector general investigation.

But he rejected Sen. Paula Dockery’s suggestion that he delay signing the bill that paves the way for SunRail.

Dockery’s fought for three years the deal in which the state will pay CSX at least $430 million for 61 miles of track in Central Florida for a commuter rail project. The state will share the rails with CSX, which will continue to operate freight on the line for less than $4 million a year.

The Palm Beach Post reported on Sunday that CSX played a major role in the crafting of the bill.

“For three years, the agency has been stonewalling citizens trying to examine this back-room deal. Given the secretive code words used to hide its communications, the agency has violated the public trust. Until the investigation is completed, I would encourage the governor to delay signing – or better yet, veto – the legislation we’ve now learned was authored by CSX,” Dockery, R-Lakeland, said in a statement.

Orlando Ax the Tax chairman Doug Guetzloe also asked Crist to hold off on signing the bill into law. Guetzloe and the state Tea Party Chairman Fred O’Neal have asked Leon County State Attorney Willie Meggs to investigate the matter they coined “Wafflegate.” Guetzloe also said he will file an ethics complaint and ask Attorney General Bill McCollum’s office to look into it.
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Gov. Charlie Crist ordered his inspector general to investigate the state’s top transportation officials’ use of code words in e-mails.

Crist made the request after Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink asked Crist for an internal investigation to find out if Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos (whom Crist appointed in 2007) and her deputy Kevin Thibault tried to hide their e-mails from public records review by giving the subject line of “pancake,” “pancakes” and “French Toast.”

The e-mails sent in November contained information about a proposed rail bill later approved by lawmakers during the special session that ended last week.

“Given our state’s proud and comprehensive public records laws, I remain concerned that DOT employees may have deliberately used these code words in an attempt to disguise their actions from the people of Florida. We live in the Sunshine State, and this is not the way the people’s business should ever be done,” Sink, the presumptive Democratic candidate for governor, wrote in a letter to Crist to Crist asking for the investigation.

Minutes after Sink’s office released her letter, Crist’s office sent out his response.

“I agree with the letter that was just received from Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink. Accordingly, I have directed Chief Inspector General Melinda Miguel to conduct an inquiry of the Department of Transportation,” Crist said in a statement.

Crist’s order for an investigation came after numerous demands for an inquiry from other sources.
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Tea Partiers have asked Leon County State Attorney Willie Meggs to convene a grand jury to investigate state transportation officials’ use of code words in e-mails.

Tea Party Chairman Fred O’Neal filed a request with Meggs yesterday asking for a grand jury to look into “deliberate evasion of Florida’s Public Records law” as well as “as an arrogant disregard” of the state constitution’s Sunshine Law guaranteeing access to public records and meetings.

Tea Party activists dubbed the messages “Wafflegate” after The Palm Beach Post reported that Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos and her deputy Kevin Thibault exchanged three messages last month with the subject lines “pancake,” “pancakes” and “french toast.”

Doug Guetzloe, chairman of “Ax the Tax,” said he plans to file complaints with the ethics commission and Attorney General Bill McCollum’s office and another to Meggs.

“This is a direct violation of public trust,” Guetzloe said. (more…)

Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos said that the word “pancake” in the subject line of an e-mail from her deputy Kevin Thibault was just a way for the message to stand out from the hundreds she receives daily.

The code words were not a way to circumvent public records laws, Kopelousos insisted.

“I get hundreds of e-mails in a day and Kevin was trying to get me to look at something,” Kopelousos said. “There was nothing more, nothing less than just that. He wanted to get my attention so I would read the email he was forwarding.”

Kopelousos said her department e-mail searches include not only the subject line but the attachments as well.

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Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink is outraged over high-ranking transportation officials’ use of code words in e-mails, possibly to avoid being captured by public records requests.

The Palm Beach Post reported this weekend that Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos and Deputy Secretary Kevin Thibault exchanged messages in November with “pancakes” and “french toast” as the subject lines in e-mails crafting the sweeping rail bill lawmakers approved last week.

The messages had nothing to do with breakfast.

The officials should quit if the messages were intended to subvert the state’s broad public records laws, Sink said.

“We live in the Sunshine State, and this is not the way the people’s business should be done. Those who acted this way should be held accountable, which is why if anyone at the Department of Transportation was involved in this activity, including Secretary Kopelousos, they should immediately resign,” Sink, a Democrat who is running for governor, said in a statement this morning.

In another message, FDOT attorney Bruce Conroy advises FDOT general counsel Alexis Yarbrough not to reply to a chain of messages concerning whether the department needed to change state law to broaden its powers over high speed rail projects.

“Fyi below to discuss in lieu of emails,” Conroy wrote on Oct. 19.

Thousands of e-mails from state transportation officials revealed that CSX – the transportation giant that stands to get at least $432 million from taxpayers in a deal to build a Central Florida commuter rail line – played a major role in crafting the legislation.

The Florida Senate gave a final thumbs-up on a rail bill that is now headed to Gov. Charlie Crist, who has pledged to sign it into law.

The third time was the charm for the chamber, which passed it with a 27-10 vote but had twice before refused to sign off on a Central Florida commuter rail project called “SunRail” included in the measure.

The House passed the bill yesterday and a last-minute deal between the AFL-CIO, the Department of Transportation and Tri-Rail officials paved the way for its passage in the Senate.

The bill includes up to $15 million a year for Tri-Rail, enough to keep its current 50 trains-a-day running. That will keep the commuter line and the state from having to pay back $256 million in federal funds that would have to be returned if the schedule had been cut.

The measure also allows state transportation officials to move forward with the purchase of 61 miles of railroad track from CSX Inc. for the SunRail Central Florida commuter project. That commuter line will run from Poinciana to Maitland and was another sticking point in the Senate.

The bill creates two statewide panels to oversee passenger rail and diverts $60 million a year from real estate sales taxes to be spent on rail projects beginning in 2014.

The Florida Senate is poised to take a final vote on a rail bill approved by the House yesterday after less than two hours of debate.

The measure faced fierce opposition in the Senate but a last-minute deal cut by the AFL-CIO, the Department of Transportation and Tri-Rail cleared the way for its passage.

Leaders of the union, which has 500,000 members, had strenuously objected to the measure throughout the special session because, they said, it created a policy that would have had a negative impact on the state’s 7,000 railroad workers.

But the deal preserved up to 184 jobs for employees of CSX Inc. who work on Tri-Rail and what will become SunRail.

The deal combined with up to $15 million included in the measure for Tri-Rail is likely to sway some Democrats who had planned to vote against the measure.

Lawmakers had given themselves until Friday to finish up the special rail session.

The Senate did not make any changes to the House bill so once it passes it will go directly to Gov. Charlie Crist, a proponent of the proposal who will sign it into law.

A last-minute deal between the AFL-CIO, Tri-Rail and state transportation officials has satisfied union leaders that their workers won’t be laid off under a bill now being debated in the Senate.

The union had opposed the measure, which the House passed easily yesterday.

The labor issue posed a threat to its passage in the Republican-dominated Senate despite the support of GOP leaders including Senate President Jeff Atwater.

The Senate could take a final vote on the measure as early as this evening.

The side deal means that the Senate is poised to pass the same bill the House approved by an 84-25 vote yesterday. Once passed by the Senate, it goes to Gov. Charlie Crist – one of its biggest supporters – for final approval.

The rail bill that is the subject of the special session squeaked out of three Senate committees and is headed to the Senate floor this afternoon where its fate remains in doubt.

The Senate Transportation and Economic Development Appropriations Committee approved the measure by a 4-2 vote. Sen. Chris Smith, a Democrat from Ft. Lauderdale, cast the crucial vote in favor of the measure allowing it to pass out of its final committee and head to the floor for debate this afternoon.

The House easily approved the measure – backed by GOP leaders including Gov. Charlie Crist and Senate President Jeff Atwater – yesterday. The Senate is expected to vote it tomorrow.

Two contentious issues remain in the measure. The AFL-CIO says it would reclassify railroad workers to transit workers and the workers would lose federal job protections that they say make trains safer.

And language in the bill dealing with who would pay for accidents – taxpayers or transportation giant CSX Inc. – on a proposed commuter line that would be shared by the state and CSX is also causing angst for some senators.

Two committees passed the bill earlier by 5-4 votes thanks to some committee changes ordered by Atwater, R-North Palm Beach.

Atwater pulled Sen. Ronda Storms, a Valrico Republican and fierce opponent of the SunRail measure included in the bill, off the committee in October. Had Storms remained on the panel, Smith’s vote would again have been the tie-breaker.

The Senate Judiciary Committee narrowly passed a rail bill that the House easily approved yesterday but for the third time faces a serious challenge in the Senate.

As in its first committee yesterday, the bill passed by a 5-4 vote.

Contentious testimony this morning centered on the controversial “SunRail” Central Florida commuter rail deal in which the state will pay Jacksonville-based CSX Inc. $641 million for 61 miles of track from Deland to Poinciana. The transportation giant would be able to continue to operate its freight on the line in exchange for a $1 a year payment to the state.

Who would pay for accidents on the line was the heart of the debate in the committee this morning.

The proposal would cap liability for CSX – even if freight operator is at fault – at $10 million. The state would be on the hook for the rest of the damages, which have run into hundreds of millions of dollars in other states.

Why wouldn’t Florida do the same as some other states that make freight operators liable for criminal negligence, Sen. Dan Gelber, a lawyer, asked committee Chairman Joe Negron.

“It’s because of pleading requirements and other issues that arise in indemnification agreements we’ve made the choice that we’ve made,” Negron, R-Stuart, said.

Gelber wasn’t satisfied.

“What we’re really doing in this is we’re allowing a private company to insure itself for criminal misconduct, for wanton misconduct, for gross negligence, for gross recklessness which nowhere else in Florida have we ever done. We’ve never done that by statute. So this is a major move,” said Gelber, D-Miami Beach, who was on the losing side of the vote.

The measure is now being heard in the Senate Transportation and Economic Development Appropriations Committee, where it is also expected to pass.

The Senate will debate the bill on the floor this afternoon.

A sweeping rail bill narrowly passed its first committee in the Senate by a 5-4 vote after being approved by the House earlier today.

The Senate Transportation Committee approved the measure after two hours of testimony and questions and a lot of distancing by Senate sponsor Jeremy Ring on what the bill is not about.

It’s not about SunRail, he repeatedly asserted. SunRail is the controversial Central Florida commuter rail project that the Senate failed to approve twice before, most recently in May.

It is unclear yet whether Ring has the votes in the Senate to pass the bill (HB 1). Republicans in the Senate are split over the bill in part because of the SunRail deal in which state transportation officials have already agreed to pay CSX Inc. $641 million for 61 miles of track around Orlando. In exchange, the transportation giant can continue to run its freight cars on the line for $1 a year.

A last-minute addition to the committee made Friday secured its passage.

Senate President Jeff Atwater placed Sen. Mike Fasano, chairman of the Senate Transportation and Economic Development Appropriations Committee and a SunRail supporter, on the committee late Friday to replace Sen. Larcenia Bullard, who was hospitalized.

Without Fasano’s “yes” vote today, the bill would have died.

Two more Senate committees will vote on the bill tomorrow before it goes to the floor for debate tomorrow afternoon.

A heated exchange took place in the Senate Democratic Caucus meeting this afternoon over the sweeping rail proposal that is the topic of the special session now underway.

Conspicuously absent from the meeting were representatives of the state Department of Transportation, responsible for a controversial $641 million deal with transportation giant CSX Inc.

A provision included in the bill that would allow state transportation officials to unlink union jobs from railroads has put the measure in jeopardy in the Senate.

A frustrated Sen. Tony Hill, a former longshoreman and union organizer, demanded that fellow Democrat Jeremy Ring, the bill’s Senate sponsor, fix the measure to ensure that union workers won’t lose their jobs.

“Get it right. Get it right. It’s your bill. Get it right,” Hill, D-Jacksonville, told Ring.

The bill is either all about jobs or has nothing to do with jobs, depending on who is talking and what day of the week it is.

About 138 Tri-Rail workers would get pink slips if the bill passes, union representatives say.

That’s not true, countered South Florida Regional Transportation Authority Chairman Jeff Koons, also a Palm Beach County Commissioner.

He claimed the only way Tri-Rail workers will be out of a job is if the controversial bill does not pass because the commuter rail system won’t get the extra $15 million a year included in the measure. Without that, he said, Tri-Rail won’t be able to run its full schedule.

“We are holding our nose. We are supporting this agreement,” Koons told the packed conference room.

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