Gov. Rick Scott weighed-in Monday for the first time on three Florida Supreme Court justices whose actions on candidate qualifying day are now subject of an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

“They should comply with the law,” Scott said. “It’s the Supreme Court. You’d think they’d comply with the law.”

The three justices under fire, Barbara Pariente, Peggy Quince and Fred Lewis, also are subject of a lawsuit filed Monday in Leon County Circuit Court. The suit, advanced by the conservative Southeastern Legal Foundation, seeks to remove the three from the November ballot “if no documentation exists to establish that their candidacies are proper and lawful.”

In April, the justices were helped by court staff to complete their papers just minutes before a deadline for judicial qualifying. Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood, later steered Scott to a section of state elections law which bars candidates from using public employees during working hours in the “furtherance of his or her candidacy.”

A violation is a first-degree misdemeanor. Scott this month forwarded Plakon’s request for an investigation onto the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which has since begun a probe.

Plakon was the sponsor of a proposed 2010 ballot measure aimed at bolstering Republican attempts to keep the federal health care law from being enacted in Florida, a goal Scott shares. The proposed ballot language was ruled unconstitutional by the court, although a rewritten measure is expected to go before voters in November.

 The justices’ qualifying kerfuffle also has been seized on by opponents of the three justices, already tarred as a liberal-leaning bloc by a tea party-linked political committee called Restore Justice 2012. The campaign is seeking to make the trio the first Florida justices ever ousted in a merit retention campaign.

Gov. Rick Scott asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement on Monday to review a legislator’s call for it investigate whether laws were broken by three Florida Supreme Court justices who received staff help in submitting their campaign papers to state elections officials.

Scott said that because the Florida Constitution does not give him power to remove justices, he cannot order the FDLE action requested by Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood.  But in a letter, Scott said that he was forwarding Plakon’s request to the agency, which can take investigate if ”it independently deems necessary and appropriate.”

“Like you, I believe it is important for the people of Florida to have full faith and confidence in all government officials — whether executive, legislative or judicial,” Scott told Plakon.

 The normally routine candidate qualifying by Justices Barbara Pariente, Peggy Quince and Fred Lewis played out publicly in April when the court took an hourlong recess during arguments in the state Senate redistricting case. That allowed justices to complete the paperwork needed for them to seek merit retention this fall.

With the help of court staff, the documents were filed with election officials only minutes before the deadline. But Plakon pointed Scott to a section of state elections law that prohibits candidates from using the services of public employees during working hours in the “furtherance of his or her candidacy.” A violation is a first-degree misdemeanor.

Since then, the issue also has been seized on by opponents of the three justices, already tarred as a liberal-leaning bloc by a tea party-linked political committee called Restore Justice 2012. The campaign is seeking to make the trio the first Florida justices ever ousted in a merit retention campaign.

Dan Stengle, who is advising the justices on their merit retention campaign, said he welcomed FDLE’s review. But he also said he expected it to end quickly.

“There was no electioneering done here or anything that was illegal,” Stengle said. “There are much larger issues before the court to be talked about.”

Although the main assistance given justices by staff was in notarizing filing papers, Stengle and other supporters have said that action was simply ministerial. It didn’t equal campaign work, they said.

Plakon said he was prompted to request the FDLE probe following media reports about the justices’ qualifying. He said he was satisfied that Scott passed on his letter to the agency.

“They’ll look and evaluate if there’s enough out there to pursue,” Plakon said. “Otherwise, no harm, not foul.”

Keith Kameg, an FDLE spokesman, said the agency expected to decide “later this week on our course of action.”

With Gov. Rick Scott still mulling a lawmaker’s request for a law enforcement investigation, supporters of three Florida Supreme Court justices said Thursday no laws were broken when court staff  helped justices file qualifying papers with elections officials.

Attorney Barry Richard, who represented George W. Bush before the court following the 2000 presidential election, submitted a legal opinion to Dan Stengle, legal counsel for Justices Fred Lewis, Peggy Quince and Barbara Pariente.

He denied that justices using court employees to notarize filing papers amounts to what opponents call a criminal misdemeanor. State law prohibits candidates from using the services of a public employee during working hours ” in the furtherance of his or her candidacy.”

“The act of affixing a notary seal to qualifying documents does not indicate that the notary endorses the candidacy of the person filing the documents,” Richard wrote. “It simply certifies that the notary has witnessed the signature and has confirmed the identity of the person signing.”

Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood, has asked Scott to order the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to look into the controversy surrounding the justices qualifying.

The issue played out publicly last month. The court took an hourlong recess during arguments in the state Senate redistricting case to allow justices to complete their qualifying papers for merit retention this fall.

With the help of court staff,  the documents were filed with election officials only minutes before the deadline.

Since then, the issue has been seized on by opponents of the three justices, already tarred as a liberal-leaning bloc by a tea party-linked political committee called Restore Justice 2012. The campaign is seeking to make the trio the first Florida justices ever ousted in a merit retention campaign.

Plakon said Thursday that to him, the case was an obvious violation. “Every candidate learns early on, you don’t use your staff for anything political,” Plakon said. “No one should be above the law.”

But Stengle, the justices’ legal counsel, also advanced an additional level of defense. He questioned whether the justices are really candidates.

 “Florida’s district court of appeal judges and Supreme Court Justices are not elected, but appointed through the merit selection process,” Stengle said. “Every six years, they are required by the Florida Constitution to participate in the merit retention process so that citizens of Florida may evaluate their job performance. Any documents that they are required to file by virtue of their positions as appellate judges or justices to qualify for merit retention are part of routine court business.”

Fallout continued Thursday from actions by three Supreme Court justices filing their candidacy papers last week, with a Republican state lawmaker calling for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to examine whether state law may have been broken.

Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood, said in a letter to Gov. Rick Scott that according to media reports, including a story in the Palm Beach Post, court employees assisted the justices in notarizing documents and filing their documents with the state’s Division of Election. The filings were completed just minutes before a noon Friday deadline.

Plakon pointed Scott to a section of state elections law that prohibits candidates from using the services of public employees during working hours in the “furtherance of his or her candidacy.” A violation is a first-degree misdemeanor.

“We have a responsibility to the people of Florida to see that our laws are followed by all, regardless of status or position,” Plakon wrote in his letter to Scott.

A Scott spokesman, Lane Wright, said the governor was traveling Thursday and had not seen Plakon’s letter. But Wright said the governor would look into the request.

Plakon was House sponsor of a proposed ballot measure in 2010 aimed at allowing Floridians to opt out of federal health care overhaul. In a 5-2 ruling, the Florida Supreme Court ruled the amendment’s ballot summary was misleading and unconstitutional. Two of the justices who were part of the majority, Jorge Labarga and James Perry, were subjects of an unsuccessful attempt to deny them merit retention that year.

An organization called Restore Justice 2012, whose leader, Jesse Phillips, is close to Plakon, is working to deny Justices Fred Lewis, Barbara Pariente and Peggy Quince another six-year term on the court in merit retention this year. The three justices joined in the majority decision in the health care ballot case.

Dan Stengle, legal council to Quince, Lewis and Pariente, has denied any wrongdoing by the justices in their haste to file papers last week. Although he acknowledges that several court employees assisted justices, Stengle said that the financial disclosure documents filed are similar to those filed every year by public employees. It’s not unusual for justices to ask a clerk or other employee to notarize the paperwork, he said.

In defense, Stengle released copies of disclosures filed two years ago by Chief Justice Charles Canady and Justices Ricky Polston, who were unchallenged by critics in their merit retention contests. Supreme Court employees also notarized these documents, the records show. The only difference, Stengle implied, was that the latest filings were played out publicly — in a scramble that forced a delay in a court hearing, when justices learned their paperwork was not complete.

For his part, Plakon said he was not supporting Restore Justice 2012. But Plakon acknowledged that he disagreed with the majority ruling in the health care ballot case and that it helped “bring attention to the issue of judicial activism.”

Restore Justice put a statement on its website about Plakon’s letter, and also sent an email to potential supporters that carried a solicitation for contributions.

“This whole ordeal illustrates the problems that inherently arise when activist judges selectively uphold the law when it is convenient to their agenda, and ignore or rewrite it when it’s not,” the campaign wrote.

Phillips, who leads the campaign, told the Post, “I’m taking a wait and see attitude. But I agree with (Plakon’s) statement that no one is above the law.”

Conservative activists called Tuesday for Gov. Rick Scott to veto an energy bill pushed by fellow Republican Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, with critics saying it picks winners and losers by providing tax incentives to wind-, solar- and biofuel companies.

Americans for Prosperity and the Heartland Institute have been spearheading an effort that’s flooded Scott with emails and phone calls opposing HB 7117, which would provide $16 million in renewable energy tax credits next year.

The organizations’ condemn the approach as “crony energy” that builds on millions of dollars in incentives already provided for alternate energy production by the Obama administration, which they also oppose.

“There’s no reason to set us down this path,” said Slade O’Brien, state director for Americans for Prosperity. “I don’t think there are going to be economic benefits. You’re basically going to cost the Florida taxpayer more money for energy….if you’re passing this bill, increasing the energy costs of being in Florida as opposed to being in Georgia, as opposed to being in Alabama…that’s not good business. That’s not smart.”

Americans for Prosperity, a grassroots activist organization, was founded by David and Charles Koch, whose Koch Industries includes oil refineries, energy development and commodities trading. AFP also is a mainstay of the tea party movement, which was a big Scott supporter in his 2010 election.

AFP and the Heartland Institute’s opposition creates some tricky crosswinds for Scott.

Putnam, a former congressman, is seen as a future Republican candidate for governor — maybe even a 2014 primary opponent for Scott.  Putnam has been a strong proponent of energy diversity, which draws support from the state’s agricultural industry, already invested in biofuel production.

In another twist, the energy bill’s House sponsor, Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood, had been AFP’s ‘legislator of the year’ last year.

O’Brien offered no apologies.

“We’re equal opportunity complainers when things aren’t right,” O’Brien said.

Florida’s cap-and-trade law — a legacy of former Gov. Charlie Crist — would be repealed under legislation approved 82-34 Thursday by the House.

Before Crist abandoned the Republican Party and lost a U.S. Senate campaign as a no-party candidate, he had emerged as an environmental progressive, joining then-California Gov. Arnold Schwartzenegger in pushing their states toward limiting carbon emissions.

But Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood, said Thursday the move was wrongheaded. Plakon’s bill (HB 4001) would erase the Florida Climate Protection Act, which gave the state’s Department of Environmental Protection authority to push for a program to reduce greenhouse gas from electric utilities. The measure still has to clear the Senate.

Fighting the repeal, Rep. Joe Gibbons, D-Hallandale Beach, said climate change affects everyone — and Florida’s coastline is vulnerable to rising sea levels. But ruling Republicans tarred the measure as a job-killer. Also infuriating, at least one GOP legislator pointed out, was that it came from Crist.

“We made a mistake then by passing this job killing legislation,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach. “Let’s ensure that we never have another governor concerned about being politically romanced in California than creating jobs for the state.”

Crist’s cap-and-trade measure was never implemented by the Legislature. But it has had a political afterlife not likely to disappear anytime soon.

The roles of former House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, a Boca Raton Republican now running for Congress, and Republican U.S. Senate candidate George Lemieux, a former Crist chief-of-staff, in passing the cap-and-trade measure has been used against both men on the campaign trail.

Looking to break a standoff with the Senate, the House approved a ban on internet cafes Thursday, with supporters saying they were following the lead of cities, counties and law enforcement officials who have condemned the spread of the streetcorner gambling centers.

Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood, has been pushing the ban for a couple of years — even as the cafes proliferate. He accused them of preying on people who shouldn’t be putting down money on the sweepstakes games.

“Their targeting our poor and elderly has turned me into a crusader on this,” Plakon said.

But the Senate has shown no interest in Plakon’s ban. Instead, Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, is proposing a milder, regulatory bill (SB 380) for the cafes — that also seems to be going nowhere in the Senate.

“I challenge the Senate today…you may agree or disagree. But I hope they put up some solution,” Plakon said.

The Palm Beach County Commission in January prohibited business licenses from being issued to new cafes in the county, in a bid to stem their spread. But the cafes remain popular — and profitable, records show.

Even Plakon’s bill (HB 3) was softened by the House to continue to allow games offered by such charity groups as the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and Disabled American Veterans.

Industry leaders, though, also are shrewd political players.

Allied Veterans of the World and Affiliates Inc., based in St. Augustine, works with many veterans’ charities and operates Internet cafes at 39 sites around the state, mostly in North and Central Florida.

It claims to have contributed more than $2.5 million to veterans and first responders in 2011, although documents submitted to the state’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which regulates charities, provided no detail of the donations.

An estimated 1,000 Internet cafes have opened in Florida since they first started popping up in shopping centers in 2006. They sell internet time or phone cards and profit from computerized sweepstakes-style games that the industry says comply with state gambling laws.

House panels Monday narrowed the roster of proposed redistricting plans for Congress and the state House, – settling on new maps that proponents say help keep more cities and counties together within individual district boundaries.

In the House Congressional Redistricting Subcommittee, three proposed maps were approved  on 10-4 votes, with Democrats locked in opposition. The House earlier unveiled seven proposed congressional plans and five ways to redraw state House districts.

A separate panel Monday also reduced to three the number of House plans slated for later review by the full House Redistricting Committee.

Rep. Dwayne Taylor, D-Daytona Beach, who led opponents to the congressional proposals, said lawmakers should take the proposed plans on the road for another round of public hearings — similar to those conducted through the summer when no maps were available for review.

Another critic of the plans, Jim Roach, a Cape Coral businessman and Democratic candidate for Congress, also argued that the plans should be rejected because they tend to pack Democratic registered voters into districts.

Roach’s analysis of the proposals for 27 congressional districts — up from the state’s current 25 districts, because of population gains in the 2010 Census — showed that as many as 14 proposed districts are Republican leaning, in terms of registered voters. The plans create a maximum of 11 districts that are Democratic leaning, Roach said.

Democrats currently command a more than 500,000-voter advantage over Republicans in Florida.

But 19 of the state’s 25 members of Congress are Republicans — a disparity Democrats attribute to gerrymandering in the last redistricting go-around in 2002.

Roach said that in the proposed 11 districts where Democratic voters dominate, they outnumber Republicans by more than 20 percent — an overwhelming advantage that reduces the party’s overall strength and ability to compete in neighboring districts.

“That’s packing,” Roach said.

Rep. John Legg, R-Port Richey, co-chairman of the subcommittee, countered saying the proposed maps were drawn without consideration of voter registraion totals. Legg said voter-approved Amendments 5 and 6 to the state constitution require that lawmakers draw boundaries without consideration of political party or incumbents.

Legg said lawmakers and staff members steered clear of such data when crafting the maps.

Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood, also said Taylor’s call for more public hearings would likely only prompt accusations that ruling Republicans were seeking to delay redistricting.  Another road show also could threaten the likelihood of getting new boundaries approved in time for candidate qualifying in June, Plakon said.

“It’s probably impractical to do,” Plakon said.

The three proposals approved Monday were scheduled to go before the full House Redistricting Committee later this month.

In Palm Beach County, the plans are identical. The most dramatic changes being made reduce the eight-county district now served U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, to four counties, including northern Palm Beach County. The Broward-Palm Beach county district held by U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, loses a key, Republican-dominated portion of the county’s north coastline to Rooney.

West’s district becomes more Broward-oriented and gains more registered Democrats, likely making his 2012 re-election bid tougher.

The three state House proposals all create a new, Hispanic-oriented district in Palm Beach County, centered in the Lake Worth-Palm Springs area.

To create the district, many of the voters are moved from the district currently served by Rep. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth. Clemens last month announced that he  expected to run for a still-to-be-determined Senate seat in Palm Beach County, saying he was frustrated by how voters in his District 89 were being scattered into other districts under House plans.

A Leon County judge Wednesday removed from the November ballot a proposed amendment that would have let state money flow to religious institutions, lifting a prohibition in place since 1885.

But Circuit Judge Terry Lewis’ decision won’t be the last word. Under a new law approved last spring, Attorney General Pam Bondi know gets 10 days to rewrite the ballot proposal — meaning it is still likely to go before voters in November.

The state’s largest teachers union as well as several religious clergy had urged that Lewis not only remove the proposed amendment, arguing that the ballot title and summary language of Amendment 7 will mislead voters, but also erase the new attorney general’s provision as unconstitutional.

Lewis agreed with opponents’ amendment argument. But he let the rewrite by the executive branch stand. But the teachers’ union was quick to declare victory.

“Amendment 7 would have required taxpayers to fund a broad array of religious programs and institutions,” said Andy Ford, president of the Florida Education Association. “The judge agreed that taxpayers and voters need to be told the truth and that the purpose and effect of the amendment was not clear in the ballot summary and was misleading to voters.”

Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood, was among the sponsors of the measure (CS/HJR 1471), approved mostly along party lines in the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Plakon and other supporters said the measure was designed merely to remove discriminatory language from the state’s Constitution, which they say is rooted in 19th Century anti-Catholic fervor. Florida is among more than 35 states with such so-called Blaine amendments, named for a former Maine congressman who proposed such a restriction in the U.S. Constitution.

Despite the prohibition, the Legislature already directs millions of public dollars each year to religious-affiliated organizations in Florida to serve foster children, prison inmates, and low-income and elderly Floridians.

The Florida Supreme Court has never embraced a hard-line interpretation of the Blaine prohibition. Instead, earlier rulings allowed such spending if it promotes the general welfare, as opposed to advancing religious doctrine.

A measure capping legal damages for agencies providing foster care services cleared a House committee on an 11-3 vote Monday, just hours after prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty for Jorge and Carmen Barahona, the Miami-Dade couple accused of torturing and killing their foster daughter last month.

Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood, acknowledged the Barahona case hung heavy over his legislation, adding “evil people do evil things.”

But he said the death of  10-year-old Nubia and near death of her twin brother, Victor, would be best avenged by assuring that agencies can provide better care.

“We have to make sure people like Victor and Nubia are taken care of,” Plakon told the House Health Care budget subcommittee.

Supporters of the bill (HB 1019) said it’s needed to help stem rising liaibility insurance costs, which representatives of several children’s care organizations said are threatening to put them out of business.

But Gary Farmer, a Fort Lauderdale trial lawyer, said, “If there’s an increase in lawsuits, it’s because more kids are being injured.”  (more…)

Legislation capping legal damages for agencies providing foster care services cleared a House committee Wednesday, despite emotional testimony from opponents who said lawmakers are putting dollars ahead of the safety of children in a troubled system.

But House sponsor Scott Plakon, R-Altamonte Springs, said his proposal (HB 1019) is aimed at helping agencies better serve children, by lowering insurance costs he says spike because of “frivilous lawsuits.”

“It’s clear, there is a problem with the rates going up,” Plakon told the House Human Services Access subcommittee. “Even if they don’t do anything wrong, it’s only a matter of time before they’ll get sued.”

But critics derided the legislation, coming only a month after the death of 10-year-old Nubia Barahona and near death of her twin brother, Victor, which the state’s Department of Children & Families acknowledges stemmed from systemic failures within the agency and a private organization, Our Kids of Miami-Dade/Monroe Inc., which handled their adoption.

Our Kids could be shielded from more costly liability under the legislation, which cleared the committee on an 11-4 vote.

“This legislation is not in the public’s interest,” said Thomas Bates, a child advocate from Monticello who was raised in foster care. “It decreases the rights of foster children and it allows agencies to escape responsibility.” 

Plakon’s proposal would cap financial awards for pain and suffering at between $200,000 and $1 million, and would cap economic damages at $2 million.

Sen. Jack Latvala, R-St. Petersburg, is sponsoring a similar bill (SB 1500). The bills also would lower the amount of liability insurance the agencies must carry from $1 million to $500,000. The measures also would hold DCF harmless from lawsuits filed against the agencies.