The Florida Senate unanimously approved a measure aimed at getting rid of the pill mill plague spreading from South Florida to the West Coast.

Under the bill (SB 2272), doctors in good standing and others except felons could own the pain clinics, they would not be allowed to advertise and would have to register with the Department of Health and submit to inspections.

More than seven Floridians die every day from overdoses of prescription drugs, bill sponsor Sen. Mike Fasano said.

“This year we want to make sure those pain management clinics are registered and inspected so they stop the killing,” Fasano, R-New Port Richey, said.

The proposal is one of Palm Beach County’s priorities. The House has yet to vote on its version.

Secretary of State Kurt Browning pounding the Capitol halls today with one thing on his mind: saving the state’s libraries.

“This is a good government issue. This is motherhood and apple pies, public libraries,” said Browning.

He’s about halfway there.

State lawmakers originally scrubbed all funding – $21.2 million – for public libraries from the budget.

But during negotiations between the House and the Senate, the House has put in about $11 million and the Senate slightly more with $13 million.

That’s still not enough to reach the $21.2 million required to draw down about $9 million in federal aid. The state and federal funds keep the libraries in small counties alive and help purchase new books and other materials in others.

With the state’s economy in the tank, more and more Floridians are turning to libraries for free Internet access to search online for jobs and assistance.

The extra money for the libraries – about $10 million – is a drop in the bucket for the state’s $68 billion budget.

“I know money’s tough and I know money’s tight but you’re talking about some library systems that are so dependent on those state dollars” including the one in rural Hardee County that happens to be in Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander’s district, Browning pointed out.

“We need to have these libraries funded. So yes, we’re working on it.”

The Senate approved a last-minute amendment that would carve out a special exemption for the Callery-Judge Groves development in West-Central Palm Beach County allowing builders to bypass rigorous planning requirements for large developments.

The amendment would allow county-created “limited urban service areas,” like Callery-Judge, counties to circumvent the review process for traffic rules and large developments.

The amendment was added by Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, onto a growth management bill (HB 7099) shortly before the Senate passed the measure by a 36-2 vote.

The House could take up the measure as early as Tuesday, and if any more changes are made, send it back to the Senate for another vote before the session ends next Friday.

UPDATE: The Senate Ethics and Elections Committee unanimously approved (SB 902) a tougher measure than the House’s version.

The Florida House approved a measure that would allow counties and cities to go beyond current state law in fines and jail time for county officials and staff who violate local ethics ordinances or financial disclosure requirements.

Under the measure, counties like Palm Beach could double the current fine from $500 to $1,000 and extend jail time from 60 days to one year for corrupt officials.

The House approved the bill (HB 1301) – one of Palm Beach County’s top priorities this session – by a 111-1 vote today, but the Senate is taking a different approach.

The Senate Ethics and Elections Committee is about to combine the ethics proposal with two measures that would impose much harsher penalties on corrupt officials pushed by Palm Beach State Attorney Michael McAuliffe.

Both anti-corruption proposals are being blended with a measure (SB 902) that would increase the legislature’s oversight over state agencies’ contracting, a priority for powerful Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander, chairman of the committee.

One of the harsher measures would make it a crime for any public official to knowingly withhold information about a financial interest in something on they vote or cause to take place. It would would also require disclosure of financial interests that could benefit a family member.

Another would enhance penalties for crimes, such as official misconduct, that public officials commit in their official capacity.

The two stricter measures are sponsored by Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, a former federal prosecutor who specialized in corruption cases. The PBC-backed proposal is sponsored by Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres. The two colleagues are running against each other in a Democratic primary for attorney general.

McAuliffe said the changes in the law would make it possible for the state rather than federal officials to prosecute officials like the three former Palm Beach County commissioners and two city commissioners who went to prison on federal corruption charges.

Palm Beach County officials said those bills aren’t a priority and aren’t working to make sure those bills (SB 1076, 734) pass.

A House committee killed one of Sen. Joe Negron’s priority bills on a tie vote this afternoon after using a procedural maneuver to keep opponents of the measure from speaking against it.

The measure (HB 1227, SB 1216) would have made the state’s 8 children’s services boards be re-authorized by voters every six years. County commissions can now put the boards, which have taxing authority, on the referendum whenever they want.

Negron sponsored the bill because because he’s miffed about the Martin County Children’s Services Council, which was planning to spend millions on new headquarters in his Stuart hometown.

Palm Beach County Commissioner Jeff Koons was among opponents of the measure who traveled to Tallahassee to testify against it.

They didn’t get to say a word.

With the end of the House Military and Local Affairs Policy Committee meeting nearing, member Chris Dorworth used a procedural maneuver to limit debate on the issue to the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Debbie Mayfield, R-Vero Beach, and one opponent who sits on the committee.

Two Republicans joined Democrats to kill the measure on a 7-7 vote.

Nearly half of the phone calls to the Palm Beach County courthouse will go unanswered and people could wait for up to four hours to get served in person under budget cuts slipped into the Senate budget with little warning last week, county clerk Sharon Bock warned in a letter to Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach.a

“Access to justice has already been severely compromised in Palm Beach County,” Bock wrote. “Further cuts will cause court cases to languish without any foreseeable resolution.”

Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander cut the clerks’ budget $23 million statewide – a $2.7 million cut in Palm Beach County – in a last minute amendment filed less than an hour before his budget meeting began on Thursday.

The Senate is expected to vote on the budget tomorrow. Palm Beach County Democratic Sens. Dave Aronberg and Ted Deutch filed an amendment to restore the clerks’ $23 million Alexander cut using a complicated formula that bases their budgets on per-case costs.

Bock said she would stop offering walk-in service at courthouses in Belle Glade, Palm Beach Gardens and Delray Beach, forcing the downtown courthouse to handle another 324,000 customers if the cuts go through.

Bock axed 101 workers last year after taking a $7.1 million budget hit and said she will have to lay off another 100 under the current plan, a 23 percent reduction in staff.

After chopping $46 million from county clerks’ funding last year, Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander diced another $23 million from the clerks’ budgets in a last-minute amendment late yesterday.

Sixty-five of the state’s 67 clerks would see budget decreases from 1 to 10 percent, including Palm Beach which faces a $2.6 million, or 8 percent, reduction under Alexander’s proposal. That could mean doing away with about 100 jobs.

Fred Baggett, a lobbyist who represents the clerks, said he and a few of the county officers met with Alexander on Tuesday, two days before the Ways and Means Committee meeting at which he made his proposal. But they had no idea the drastic change was coming, Baggett said.

Smaller counties “cannot function at this level,” Baggett said.

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A “Corruption County”-inspired bill that would beef up penalties for county officials who violate ethics ordinances moved forward in a House committee this afternoon.

The changes that would allow counties to go beyond current state law in fines and jail time for county officials and staff who violate local ethics ordinances or financial disclosure requirements.

Under the measure, counties like Palm Beach could double the current fine from $500 to $1,000 and extend jail time from 60 days to one year for corrupt officials.

The House Public Safety and Domestic Security Policy Committee unanimously approved Rep. Kevin Rader’s bill (HB 1301) today.

Rader, D-Delray Beach, and fellow Palm Beacher Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, sponsored the proposals at the request of Palm Beach County officials.

A $1,000 fine may not seem like much of a price to pay for politicos who’ve been convicted of taken thousands of dollars in bribes, steering hundreds of thousands of dollars in contracts to their buddies or voting on multi-million dollar deals in which they have a financial stake.

But, Rader said, the fine “and a year in jail is a step in the right direction.”

Palm Beach County recently established an ethics panel in an effort to shed its “Corruption County” image. In the past four years, three former county commissioners and two West Palm Beach city commissioners were sent to prison on corruption charges.

With Palm Beach “Corruption” County in mind, lawmakers are moving toward stiffening local ordinances combating ethics violations.

Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, is backing a bill that allow counties to increase the current penalties for violations of county ordinances imposing ethical standards and financial disclosure requirements from 60 days in jail to one year in jail and double the fine from $500 to $1,000 per occurance.

The Senate Community Affairs Committee signed off on Aronberg’s proposal (SB 1980) this afternoon with a 9-1 vote.

Aronberg sponsored the bill at the behest of the scandal-plagued Palm Beach County Commission, which recently established an ethics panel in the wake of a federal corruption probe that landed three former county commissioners in prison. Palm Beach County Rep. Kevin Rader, D-Boynton Beach, is the House bill (HB 1301) sponsor.

Aronberg said the measure, which would apply to all counties if it becomes law, puts teeth into local ordinances.

“Living in Palm Beach County, I’m well aware this has become a priority for the voters in my district,” Aronberg, who is running in a statewide Democratic primary for attorney general against Senate colleague Dan Gelber. “Hopefully, this will help remove our reputation as ‘Corruption County.’”

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.

Palm Beach County Commissioner Jeff Koons asked utility regulators to approve Florida Power & Light Co.’s $1.2 billion rate hike, saying the utility is the county’s largest employer and needed the extra money to help the state go green.

The Public Service Commission yesterday instead slashed FPL’s rate hike to just $75 million and limited the amount of profit the Juno Beach-based utility can earn to 10 percent, far less than the 12.5 percent return on equity it sought.

“While no one – especially in the current economy – looks forward to higher electric bills, FPL’s proposed rate increase is necessary in order to make a greater investment in green technology, energy sources that will ultimately protect the consumer from uncertainties and bill fluctuations in the future,” Koons wrote in a letter to commissioners on Jan. 5 expressing his personal opinion on the rate case.

FPL President Armando Olivera said the company will immediately halt modernization projects at its Riviera Beach and Cape Canaveral power plants and cease moving forward with most of its efforts to build two new nuclear reactors at its Turkey Point facility.

He said the projects could have brought 20,000 new jobs to Florida over the next five years.

The Republican Party of Florida board of directors gave Chairman Jim Greer a vote of confidence today at their quarterly board meeting in Tallahassee.

Palm Beach County GOP state committeeman Peter Feaman and Charlotte County GOP Chairman Bob Starr cast the two votes against Greer. There were 27 board members in attendance.

GOP National Committeeman Paul Senft made the motion to take a vote of confidence in Greer “in the interest of party unity and for clarification.”

“We’ve got to not throw the party under the bus,” Senft said before making the motion.

Lawmakers are preparing to start a 10-day session on rail issues that in part could keep Tri-Rail on track.

The 49-page bill legislators will consider includes an extra $13 million to $15 million a year for Tri-Rail that’s been operating at a deficit since its inception two decades ago.

That’s “probably as good as we could get right now,” said Palm Beach County Commissioner Jeff Koons, who is also chairman of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority that oversees Tri-Rail.

That’s a big deal for leaders in Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Broward counties where Tri-Rail runs. Federal officials have threatened to ask the counties to give back more than $200 million if Tri-Rail service is cut back as officials there have threatened.

Tri-Rail is paid for by the state, rider fares and the three counties in which it runs – Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade.

But the commuter line used by 15,000 riders daily has operated in the red by about $15 million every year.

Leaders in the three counties say they don’t have the money to make up the deficit and state lawmakers have refused to grant them the $2 rental car surcharge (also known as a tax) they’ve sought to cover their losses.

Now, state lawmakers are willing to fork over $13 million to $15 million a year to keep Tri-Rail on track to prove to federal lawmakers that Florida is serious about commuter rail. That way, the state will have a better chance at getting some of the $8 billion in stimulus money for high-speed rail projects.

The money will come from gas taxes and other fuel fees and should qualify as a “dedicated funding source” federal officials are seeking, Palm Beach County Commissioner Jeff Koons said.

“I think we ended up in the middle in the sense that we didn’t get our funding source but then a reallocation of those dollars is probably as good as we could get right now,” Koons said.

The Florida Supreme Court rejected Gov. Charlie Crist’s request for a statewide grand jury to look into corruption.

Crist’s request did not meet the “minimal requirements” necessary to determine that a grand jury is needed, the high court ruled today, by failing to specify what crimes or wrongs occurred and where they took place.

Crist last month petitioned the court to empanel a statewide grand jury to focus on public corruption in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties and the judicial circuit that includes Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry and Lee counties.

The assignment – that the panel investigate public corruption from bribery to other seemingly unrelated crimes such as child pornography and drug offenses – sets forth a “monumental task” so broad as to possibly be untenable, former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Gerald Kogan, a veteran of anti-corruption efforts in Miami-Dade County, said when Crist filed the petition.
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Sen. Mike Haridopolos will be named the 2011-2012 Senate President on Dec. 8 at 5 p.m.

The Melbourne Republican will assume the post after the two-year tenure of current Senate President Jeff Atwater ends next fall.

Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, is leaving the Senate to run for Chief Financial Officer.

Haridopolos’ ascension is a trifecta for the Palm Beach and Treasure Coast region and continue its domination of the top of the Senate for a total of six years.

Atwater’s district includes part of Broward and Palm Beach counties. He was preceded by former Senate President Ken Pruitt, a Port St. Lucie Republican whose district included Martin, St. Lucie and Palm Beach counties.

The southeastern portion of Haridopolos’ Senate District 26 dips into St. Lucie County.

The three political leaders each previously served in the Florida House before joining the Senate.

A rate hearing to consider Florida Power and Light’s proposed $1.5 billion-a-year rate hike will continue, the panel overseeing the state’s utilities ruled.

The Public Service Commission hearing came to an abrupt halt earlier this morning when Commissioner Nathan Skop revealed that commission staffer Ryder Rudd had attended a Kentucky Derby party at the home of an FPL executive in Palm Beach County.

Skop asked that Rudd, who earns $92,000 a year, be removed from the case and other pending FPL dockets, including a $1.6 billion proposed natural gas pipeline.

Rudd had oversight of more than $4 billion in FPL cases pending before the panel, Skop objected. Skop also asked for Rudd’s resignation and questioned whether the current rate hike case should be dismissed.

PSC Chairman Matthew Carter ordered a recess and asked general counsel Patrick Imhof for advice on how to proceed.

Imhof told the panel that this morning’s rate hearing should continue but Rudd, who was never identified by name, should be taken off the case.

“Our recommendation is to remove the person in question from all FPL dockets pending review by the inspector general and review with the office of the general counsel,” Imhof said. But, he added: “There is no impediment to the rate case moving forward at this time.”

Carter ordered a lunch break so the commission, staff and lawyers representing the utility and consumers could have a “fresh start.”

The hearing is scheduled to begin again at 1 p.m.

Infighting within the state GOP has weakened the party so badly that it is verging on irrelevant, a former party chairman says — despite its overwhelming dominance in the legislature and its decade-long lock on the governor’s office.

Other Republican leaders charge that current party Chairman Jim Greer and, by default, Gov. Charlie Crist are out of sync with what grass-roots Republicans want.

“It would be hard to imagine us being any more impotent than we appear to be right at this point,” said former state Republican Chairman Tom Slade, who headed the party from 1993 to 1999. That was a period when the GOP took over the state House and Senate and sent Jeb Bush to the governor’s mansion.

Greer flexed his political muscles this year when he tried to use a parliamentary procedure to hamper former state House Speaker Marco Rubio’s candidacy to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez. Crist had jumped into the Senate race in May, garnering Greer’s support immediately.

That transformed what had been a whisper campaign against Greer into public criticism from county leaders and others throughout the state, who said the chairman had gone too far.

Rubio later characterized the Senate GOP primary as a battle for the “heart and soul” of the Republican Party in Florida.

But Greer, hand-picked by Crist, says the party is doing just fine and blames reports of its demise on a few disgruntled but vocal outliers.

“I don’t think that the party has anywhere near the problems that some are promoting in the state. In fact, I think this party in Florida is very strong and I see it each and every day,” Greer said in a telephone interview.

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Florida counties are suggesting something that sounds like a scarlet letter to warn innocents away from households with scary serpents.

It’s the latest twist in the tale of the python-induced paranoia that’s wound up with bounty hunters seeking the critters in throughout Palm Beach County on lands abutting the Everglades.

The July 1 death of a two-year-old girl who was strangled by a pet python in Central Florida set off demands for an open-season on the snakes, which have overrun the national park. Gov. Charlie Crist gladly complied and ordered the bounty hunt for the pests last week. (U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, has had the Burmese python infestation in his sights for some time).

Now, the Florida Association of Counties wants state wildlife officials to give them more control over dangerous animals. The association sent a letter to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission last week asking them to let counties notify neighbors where perilous pythons and other classified creatures reside.

Perhaps the counties have something like the sex offender registry on the Internet where neighbors can see where perpetrators live.

Will the pythons be forced to take up residence under bridges like sex offenders banned from living near schools, parks or other places where children congregate?

WEST PALM BEACH — A Palm Beach County grand jury, finding “a crisis of trust in public governance,” has recommended sweeping reforms to penalize corrupt politicians, open government to public view and create an Office of Inspector General as a watchdog to ensure that public funds aren’t squandered for officials’ private gain.

The grand jury report, released today by State Attorney Michael McAuliffe, called for dramatic revisions in how the county buys and sells land. It called for an end to noncompetitive, commissioner-controlled underwriter rotation as a way of selecting firms that underwrite bonds that fund county projects.

More here.

In her new role as Palm Beach County elections supervisor, former state Rep. Susan Bucher has cut $1 million from the office’s $11 million budget, learned how to design ballots and earned high marks from the Palm Beach County Voters Coalition, Post reporter Jennifer Sorentrue writes today.

“I have been watching over everybody’s shoulders,” said Bucher, who makes $134,000 a year. “I have dedicated my first year as one of learning from the bottom up. I want to understand how all of the operations work so we can make some calculated decisions for improvements.”

More here.