 |
See Vocational
Rehabilitation |
Park
reservations
Numerous complaints have dogged the Florida Park Service
since it switched its camping reservation system to Reserve
America, a private concessionaire.
(see Fish
and Wildlife for updates- many complaints filed)
Florida
department under fire Two state
agencies that signed an aggressive privatization contract
without first conducting a study to see if it's feasible are
being criticized.-- State auditors said the Department of
Business and Professional Regulation and the State
Technology Office should have conducted a feasibility study
and a cost-benefit analysis before signing a contract valued
at about $30 million.
Editorial:
Private foster-care plan mirrors DCF problems
The 1998 Legislature, tired of controversies involving the
state's social-services agency, voted to privatize Florida's
foster-care and adoption services. This month, a critical
report on the first privatization program should be required
reading in Palm Beach County.
Private prison
program in Florida not being monitored appropriately,
recommendation for them to return to DOC (see OPPAGA
reports)
See JEB
as CEO
JEB's civil rights record - trade rule of law (affirmative
action) for a set of promises (One
Florida)
- JEB was right about doing nothing for minorities
- JEB touts more minority contracts as a success after one
year. But when the truth is told about how he got these
results and how much extra money it cost the taxpayers, how
long will this last?
JEB will work to preserve Florida's resources
- Everglades
bill's dirty tradeoff
Gov. Jeb Bush would have you believe the Everglades funding
bill he signed into law Wednesday was the best way to
guarantee steady funding to restore Florida's River of
Grass, that the poison pill in the legislation making it
harder to oppose bad development was no big deal and that
the number of people opposed to the measure was small and
largely uninformed. None of that is true. The governor
should have vetoed the measure and brought the Legislature
back to pass a clean bill. He didn't, and it's fair to ask:
Why not?
JEB's view of less government costs more and provides
less services - independent arbiter calls Service First = Service Worst
JEB trusts the people?
- Trust
the voters
Gov. Jeb Bush asserts that the average Floridian believes our tax
structure is fundamentally sound. If that's so, why doesn't Bush let
them vote on it?
- JEB listened to the state workers as he prepared
"service first" - see 7000
emails and speaking
out on service first
Tax cuts to the wealthy - and cutbacks on public
services later when the economy's in trouble. Corporate
tax relief is the given, social services for the rest of us is the variable. See
Special Legislative Session
JEB's environmental record - the Bush's have never seen a
picturesque landscape without thinking how much money can be
made off of it
- Vetos raid on Florida Forever, but allows $100 million to
be shifted from environmental trust to cover part of tax
cuts to big business 6/6/02
- Sell out the Itchetucknee river to Anderson Columbia
- Sell out Manatee Springs to White Mining
- North Florida = St Joe/Arvida's 500,000 acres = regulatory
rollbacks and comprehensive plan waivers due to staff
shortages at DEP and DCA will help St Joe Arvida meet
their goal of maximizing profits on their
developments. St Joe Paper restructured itself in 1997
- 1998 to St Joe and began to aggressively market and develop
its vast land holdings in North Florida. JEB's
connections to StJoe/Arvida go way back though. JEB
takes over Governor's office 1998, the year StJoe begins
aggressively marketing its holdings ... connections? See
St Joe's "Great Florida
Northwest" formerly the Panhandle and growth
management
Popular referendum for tax increases? Like JEB's referendum
for paring government back 25% whether it needs it or not.
Poll the workers for ideas while the plan is already written,
reviewed, and on its way to approval. JEB's referendums
are like shell game hustles.
JEB's urban renewal plan? ????
JEB cuts back on state jobs for the grunts -
 |
25% of the jobs
slated to disappear - a 2.7% raise for the ones who remain, then
a bonus for 1/3 of workers instead of raise, then 2.5% with
an increase in employee share of insurance |
|
but
JEB's personal staff come on at higher and higher salaries (up
to $95,000) |
|
his
friends whether qualified or not get state jobs unaffected by
the cuts at salaries of $80,000/ yr and up |
|
and if you're a
good friend , a supporter, or a legislator like the new
education head you could get $400,000 - |
|
while the average
state worker makes well under $30,000 |
|
12/01 letter from JEB says state workers should be
grateful to the management team making over $90,000 for
forgoing their raises in 2001 - calls salaries up to $90K
"modest salaries"... |
|
|
See Service First
Promises
|
JEB's Commitment to Drug Treatment - (see drug
treatment)
- 80% of Florida in- prison substance abuse programs eliminated in
special legislative budget. DOC provided about 1/3
of the residential drug treatment for adults in the State of
Florida.
- Drug prevention programs cut from Department of Juvenile
Justice.
- JEB opposes the upcoming "Right to Treatment"
initiative but allows state funding for treatment to be cut.
- Bush
blasts proposition that would offer drug users treatment
MIAMI — Gov. Jeb Bush called a ballot proposition that
would allow some drug offenders to escape imprisonment
by entering treatment programs "misleading"
and said it would "destroy" Florida's drug
court program. Bush, addressing 45 graduates of
Miami-Dade County's drug court Friday, said he was
disappointed with the state Supreme Court's decision
Thursday to allow the proposition onto the 2004 ballot.5/18/02
- Gov.
Bush's veto of methadone money may send addicts back onto
streets - A decision by Gov. Jeb Bush to veto a $1
million appropriation for three South Florida methadone
clinics could affect more than the patients who depend on
their daily dose of the heroin substitute, critics say.6/14/02
JEB's get tough on crime initiative-
- Major cuts to Department of Juvenile Justice negate gains
of recent years - some restored but home detention automated
instead of face to face visits
- passed in 1996 with JEB's help, the rule to mandate
inmates to serve 85% of the sentence was hastily applied,
causing confusion and lawsuits as the new rules were applied
retroactively and then rolled back by the courts
- JEB's gun control - 10 years (use a gun in a crime), 20
years (shoot someone), life (kill someone) helped to
increase Florida's prison population from 56,000 to over
71,000
- JEB's prison director cripples the prison system with
major changes to the infrastructure that made the
system almost dysfunctional and will take many years to
repair. (see Oppaga
report 12/2000)
- Where did the lost money go? Well you can't make major
changes like the Moore/Wolfe team did, and change them
again and again and not waste a lot of money
- For instance, the statewide system was organized into 5 regions,
then 5 regions and 7 service centers, then 4 regions
and 5 service centers, then... all the while leasing
properties then giving them up, and moving
staff and supplies all around the state
- having the first staff layoff in Florida prison history and
sinking worker's morale to the lowest point in DOC history
- 80% of in- prison substance abuse programs eliminated in
special legislative budget of 2002
.... wakeupcall, 7/30/01 (this should get you started WF -
let your readers add to it) - thanks wakeupcall, it's being
updatred regularly...
- Bush
sides with business buddies on tax issues
The governor is once again blowing smoke in your face and
telling you it's perfume.
- Bush
sends off UF graduates
GAINESVILLE - Gov. Jeb Bush gave the commencement address Saturday to
more than 700 graduates of the University of Florida. Bush said that
hard work and living a life of humility are key points for this year's
graduates to become leaders of the next generation.
- Editorial:
Jeb misses the mark - The Palm Beach Post
Gov. Bush demonstrated last week how anyone can shoot like Annie
Oakley simply by making the target wherever he decides to fire.
Signing the largest state budget cuts in a decade, the governor
pronounced them "responsible" -- by his principles...
Editorial:
No thought behind cuts to balance state budget
The governor can say what he wants, but the revised state budget
shortchanges Floridians and darkens their future. -- The
Legislature will vote Thursday on more than $1 billion in
spending cuts to bring the budget back into balance after the
slow economy collided with $1.6 billion in tax cuts passed since
1999. Gov. Bush chose to say: "We in Florida have been
successful in meeting the priority needs of our people and
preparing for a brighter future." He's wrong. 12/9/01
Democrats
lambaste record of governor
Democratic candidates for governor railed
against Gov. Jeb Bush when they spoke to members of the state's
second-largest labor union Saturday night at the Hotel Royal
Plaza in Lake Buena Vista. 10/28
(Top)
Gentle Jeb.(Jeb Bush runs
a new kind of campaign in his race for governor of Florida) .....
National Review, Oct 26, 1998
Whatever's going on in Texas, Florida has a Bush who shows what
'compassionate conservative' means.
'WHO would have thought that in Alachua County this many people
would come out for the Republican candidate for governor?" The
question, asked by the candidate himself, had an easy answer: no one.
Both the Weather Channel (Hurricane Georges was making his way up
Florida's Gulf Coast) and local history suggested a small turnout for
Jeb Bush's campaign barbecue. Democrats outnumber Republicans 2 to 1
in this northern county. Voters here picked Bill Clinton over Jeb's
dad by a whopping 20 percentage points, and they chose Lawton Chiles
over Jeb himself in the 1994 governor's race by an even larger margin.
But this day, more than two thousand people showed up, the largest
crowd in living memory for a Republican in the area, and more than ten
times the number his opponent, Buddy MacKay, has drawn here this year.
"This is what it's all about," said Bush, "throwing
conventions aside."
Four years ago Bush ran as a self-described "head-banging
conservative," calling for the abolition of the Department of
Education and proposing that all tax increases be submitted to a
popular referendum. He still considers himself a conservative, but
this time his tune is more Hootie than heavy metal. He's campaigning
hard in black churches, poor neighborhoods, and public schools-not to
mention Democratic strongholds like Alachua County-and his speeches
combine appeals for less government with vows to fight urban poverty
and child abuse. He's racking up endorsements from Democratic
officials and black leaders, in the process making MacKay, a
thirty-year veteran of Florida politics, look like a novice. And at a
time when complacency has leeched the life out of the state's
Democratic establishment, Bush threatens to boot it out of Tallahassee
altogether.
Bush's political moment has been four years in the making. After a
bruising primary in 1994, he faced incumbent Gov. Lawton Chiles, a
giant of Florida politics who has been in elected office since 1958.
Chiles beat him by less than 64,000 votes, the closest gubernatorial
election in state history. The strong showing instantly pegged Bush as
the front-runner for 1998-even before it was revealed that
Chiles-MacKay campaign workers, pretending to be from senior-citizen
and tax-watchdog groups, had made more than 70,000 phone calls to
voters in the final weeks of the race, warning falsely that Bush
planned to "abolish Social Security." "A lot of people
felt that Jeb Bush was actually elected but for a minor
technicality," says University of Florida political scientist
Richard Scher, "and since then he's acted as if he's the rightful
heir."
In 1994, Bush advocated requiring state prisoners to serve at least
85 per cent of their sentences before being eligible for parole (at
the time the average was just 37 per cent), and in 1995 he worked with
Republican legislators to get a law to this effect passed. When the
state unemployment-compensation fund ran a surplus, the legislature
adopted his proposal to give businesses a refund, to the tune of $162
million. Bush traveled around the state promoting charter-school
legislation, and in 1996 he joined with T. Willard Fair, president of
the Urban League of Greater Miami, to found Florida's first charter
school in one of Dade County's toughest neighborhoods. The contrast
with the listless Chiles administration was such, says John Thrasher,
the incoming Republican Speaker of the Florida House, that "Jeb
was almost a phantom governor."
BUSH'S success underscored the turmoil within the Florida
Democratic Party. For decades, the Democrats could rely on party
loyalty and the sheer charisma of icons like Chiles and
governor-turned-senator Bob Graham. But in recent years they have
slipped, and in 1996 the GOP took the state legislature for the first
time since the Grant Administration. Republicans hold the majority of
Florida's seats in Congress, and they may take five of six elected
state cabinet positions this fall. And now the Democrats are racially
divided: in January, Democratic legislators ousted State Rep. Willie
Logan from the party leadership and replaced him with a white woman,
alienating the Black Caucus. A Bush win could leave the nation's
fourth largest state almost entirely in Republican hands.
"We have compassion fatigue," Bush said in Alachua,
delivering what has become his credo, "because we've defined
compassion by how much money we've been willing to send to Tallahassee
and Washington." Properly understood, "compassion is defined
as 'suffering with,' acting on a sense of consciousness when you've
seen the hurting and the misery around you."
This sounds like a less wonky version of Jack Kemp; Bush's
proposals complete the analogy. On education, Florida's most pressing
issue, his plan calls for grading schools based on their students'
improvement on standardized tests. A school that moves up a grade, or
that receives an A, will get more autonomy and funding. Students at a
school that receives an F for two consecutive years will get vouchers.
Bush, who is pro-life, favors duplicating foster-care and adoption
reforms that have been successful in Sarasota, where non-profit groups
provide all services, resulting in a 65 per cent increase in
adoptions. He tackles gun control, normally a difficult issue for
Republicans, by calling for increased sentences for those who use guns
in a violent crime.
Bush's comprehensive urban-renewal proposal seems most
representative of his campaign. The plan uses small-scale government
activism to achieve conservative goals-small-business loans, support
for faith-based ministries, beefed-up drug and crime prevention-along
with warmer and fuzzier ones, like new-parent counseling and a
statewide mentoring program. One component involves turning over
foreclosed or abandoned houses to qualified poor families (drug-free,
crime-free, at least one parent employed), which would be required to
pay fair market rent and refurbish the house. If the family fulfills
these obligations, after five years the home is theirs.
These sorts of policies have helped Bush capitalize on the Willie
Logan flap, and he has won the endorsements of a number of black
officials, notably State Sen. Jim Hargrett, and Logan himself. After
winning only 4 per cent of the black vote in 1994, Bush is now
expected to get as much as 20 per cent.
Outsiders have worried that Bush is moving too far to the center,
but Florida conservatives are with him. "Jeb is showing how we
can apply conservative principles to practical, everyday
situations," says State Rep. Victor Crist. "Being a
conservative doesn't mean you are cheap and cold-hearted, it means
being compassionate and responsible in utilizing limited
resources." Still, the question remains: Can the kinder, gentler
Jeb say no when he has to?
Buddy MacKay hasn't helped his own chances. During his three
decades in public life he has earned a reputation for moderation and
competence but not brilliance, and his unfocused campaign is drawing
comparisons to Bob Dole's failed 1996 presidential run. Recently he
has shown signs of life, attacking Bush on vouchers ("They will
devastate the public-school system") and unveiling his own
education and inner-city proposals. But his proposals, introduced
after Bush's, have a me-too quality. "The people who know Buddy
think very highly of him," says Jack Latona, a Fort Lauderdale
City Commissioner and a Democrat who has endorsed Bush. "It's
just you look at him and say, where are we going?"
Willard Fair brings up a visit Bush paid recently to a small group
of migrant workers in the farm town of Immokalee. "He's so far
ahead in the polls, he didn't have to go out there for 41
people," says Fair. "He didn't bring any cameras, and he
didn't make any promises, he just listened to what they had to say.
That's raw compassion."
Although Bush's commanding lead-52 per cent to 37 per cent in the
most recent Mason-Dixon poll-is likely to shrink as election day
approaches, his campaign is beginning to have the feel of a victory
tour. "People love him," says John Thrasher, who has
accompanied Bush on parts of the trail. "It's like walking around
with Elvis."
Maybe so, but was the King ever this nice?
COPYRIGHT 1998 National Review, Inc.
in association with The Gale Group and LookSmart. COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale
Group
(Back)
(Top)
DANIEL RUTH
Published: Oct 9, 2002
Who's tap-dancing now?
There is certainly nothing more entertaining during an election season than a politician caught with his mouth open saying remarkably stupid stuff.
Of course, the most obvious question surrounding Gov. Jeb Bush's big- time gaffe last week is: ``What were you thinking?''
Well, thank goodness you weren't. This is too precious.
In a meeting with some Panhandle Republican legislators, the governor managed to expose himself in just a few minutes to allegations of homophobia, devious election manipulation and flip-flopping like a carp on the dock over his fundamental education policies.
After setting the tone of the meeting by salaciously joking he had inside information suggesting a lesbian relationship between the two women arrested in the disappearance of Miami's Rilya Wilson, Bush proceeded to script campaign commercials for rival Democrat Bill McBride.
Hardy-har-har. Was this the governor's office or a warm-up act for Paula Poundstone?
The leader of the fourth-largest state in the union told his friends that if the proposed class-size amendment is approved by the electorate next month, ``I've got a couple of devious plans if this thing passes.''
Finally, Jeb! acknowledged he privately approved of the state setting teacher pay guidelines, while publicly advocating local control over schools, something he had no interest in discussing on the stump, ``because it's just kind of a philosophical reversal on my part, and I don't want to spend my time explaining a reversal.''
Talk about stepping on your exclamation mark!
Wasn't this guy always touted as the smart brother?
Nobody Was Laughing
Although the lesbian point was unseemly, it probably carried the least political liability considering Bush is unlikely to have Elton John and Rosie O'Donnell holding fundraisers for him.
But for the chief executive officer of the state to hint broadly that he has ``devious plans'' to usurp the will of the voters less than two years after the nation's foremost election debacle would be like Tyco hiring Ken Lay as its new boss because it wants to put its scandal-ridden past behind it.
As well, it's probably not a good idea in a razor-thin campaign to admit blithely that what you're saying in public bears rather little resemblance to your views in private.
Prevarication is one thing in politics. Admitting you are the Joe Isuzu of the stump is quite another.
Perhaps realizing he had just served himself up on a platter to the Bill McBride camp, complete with an apple in his mouth, Jeb Bush started a counteroffensive buck and wing that would make Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly look like they had two left feet.
First, Bush claimed his use of the phrase ``devious plans'' was meant simply to be ``satirical,'' although he probably meant sarcastic. But considering he already was misspeaking more than Norm Crosby over lunch with Professor Irwin Corey, who's really keeping score?
Which Is It?
No matter, really, if you listen to the audio tape of the governor's remarks whether he was trying to be satirical or sarcastic. Judging from the lack of laughter, his office audience sure seems to be taking him seriously.
Ah yes, the audio tape.
Bush has claimed dubiously that he didn't know reporter Alisa LaPolt of Gannett News Service was in the room while he was making a complete doofus of himself.
But LaPolt should be well known to the governor, having covered him for nearly FOUR YEARS, and because she was wearing her press credentials and made no effort to hide her recorder, Bush: A) has worse short-term memory than an Alzheimer's patient; B) is dumber than Bullwinkle; C) is being more disingenuous than Michael Corleone at his nephew's baptism; or D) all of the above.
Bush then compounded his political woes during the weekend when he blew off a question and answer session with 500 black SUPPORTERS, many of whom had driven hours for the chance to speak with him. He lamely said he would rather just shake hands with them.
Maybe that sort of strategy is just plain hubris or a candidate trying to minimize damage control by shooting himself in the other foot. Or maybe elements of the McBride camp have managed to infiltrate and take over the Bush campaign.
Now that would be too devious to suggest, wouldn't it?
Columnist Daniel Ruth can be reached at (813) 259-7599.
http://www.tampatrib.com/MGAT0BGJ27D.html
Top
Jeb says he is 'devious'; nothing new about that
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Tuesday, October 8, 2002
No one who has examined Jeb Bush's record as governor could have been
surprised to learn that he is making plans to ignore what voters might tell him to do. The governor hasn't listened to anyone since taking office, and he won't listen to anyone for another four years if Florida makes the mistake of reelecting him.
During a meeting last Wednesday in Tallahassee with Republican legislators from northwest Florida, Gov. Bush discussed campaign issues. Because he didn't recognize Alisa LaPolt, a reporter from Gannett News Service who has covered him almost since he took office in 1999, Gov. Bush revealed his true political self, not the one you see in campaign commercials.
The governor opposes the constitutional amendment that would require lower class sizes. In public, he offers an alternative that he calls "more thoughtful." In private, to the group of GOP lawmakers, he said, "I have a couple of devious plans if this thing passes." He envisions a subsequent amendment of his own design that would make Floridians decide how much more they would pay in taxes and how much they would lose in services to pay for the smaller classes. Rather than ask himself and the Legislature to do their jobs, he would intimidate Floridians into killing the amendment they had passed.
There is a legitimate argument about whether the class-size amendment would direct the money where it is needed most, but Gov. Bush doesn't want to engage in that debate. He fears that the amendment would prevent him from carrying out his real priority, which is cutting taxes, not investing in edcuation. He refuses to consider paying for smaller classes by repealing some of the special-interest exemptions that cause the sales tax to cover less than half of all sales.
At the same meeting, Gov. Bush said that he and the Legislature, not local school boards, might set teacher salaries. Again, this is the governor admitting in private what his public record has made clear. The governor who preaches local control doesn't practice it. He dismantled the local boards that were helping to set social welfare policy, and Tallahassee began giving orders and passing along costs.
Gov. Bush wants to undercut school boards because he thinks he has been allocating plenty of money for teacher raises, and he is tired of reading about how Florida's average salary is $5,000 less than the national average. In fact, many school districts have had to use state money just to keep up with expenses, since Gov. Bush and the Legislature have kept per-pupil spending flat -- after adjusting for inflation and growth -- and other costs, such as health care, have been rising.
The governor understands that he would look hypocritical by proposing to subvert local control. So he told the legislators in what he thought was a private setting that "I'm not sure we'll do this in the campaign, because it's just kind of a philosophical reversal on my part, and I don't want to spend time explaining a reversal."
Finally, in the same meeting, Gov. Bush said he had "juicy details" about the arrest of two women who were caregivers for Rilya Wilson, the now-6- year-old girl whom the governor's social welfare agency lost track of for 15 months before admitting it last May. Like a fourth-grader giggling in the school bathroom, Gov. Bush passed along rumors that the women are lesbians, adding, "Bet you don't get that in Pensacola." Rathen than work in public to solve a problem he created, the governor makes political jokes in private.
Gov. Bush defended his remarks by saying he didn't realize a reporter was in the room. In other words, he wishes he hadn't been caught. His reaction is understandable. He has been devious from the time he campaigned in 1998, and the record is catching up with him.
Running against Buddy MacKay four years ago, Gov. Bush said vouchers were only a small part of his education plan. After taking office, he made vouchers a centerpiece. As a candidate, the governor said he would put his faith in the people. Once in office, he took the people's well-intentioned constitutional reforms and amassed far more power -- from university boards to the commissions that nominate aspiring judges -- than the people had intended. He put an education plan in place without consulting educators. He abolished affirmative action without consulting those who would be affected.
It is what state Sen. Kendrick Meek, D-Miami, leader of the class-size amendment, calls "kingdom politics." The governor strong-arms school superintendents into opposing smaller classes. He browbeats the universities into opposing the amendment that would reinstitute a statewide governing board for the university system, thus diluting the governor's power.
With the election approaching and Bill McBride running well on the issues where Gov. Bush is weakest, however, the governor has begun running away from what he has done and what he intends to do. He issues proposals to build classrooms, reward "master" teachers -- he had capped the plan, saying it was too expensive -- and help teachers get low-interest loans. He could have done all of those in the past four years, but Gov. Bush has had other priorities. The Gov. Bush who thought he was speaking in private is the same Gov. Bush who has been there all along. Now the public knows.
.... Palm
Beach Post Editorial, Tuesday, October 8, 2002
Top
Bush's Gaffes Show His True Colors
JUDY HILL, Published: Oct 8, 2002
Oh, for heaven's sake.
It's as if Eddie Haskell has been reincarnated and taken up residence in the Florida governor's mansion.
Surely you remember Eddie, from ``Leave It to Beaver.''
He was Wally Cleaver's smarmy friend who assumed a saccharine, goody-goody facade for Ward and June Cleaver but showed his true colors in private to his buddies, who he knew would never spill the beans.
Jeb Bush came off like Eddie last week when he told a group of Panhandle lawmakers and political candidates that he had ``juicy details'' about Rilya Wilson's caretakers, arrested last week on charges of fraud.
His juicy details had nothing to do, however, with finding Rilya, missing since January 2001.
Instead, it focused on the women's alleged sexual orientation.
Bush intimated that the women are lesbians.
After relating which was the ``husband'' and which the ``wife,'' Bush quipped, ``I bet you don't get that in Pensacola.''
That certainly sounds like a reference to Pensacola's image as a politically conservative city. Was Bush assuming that everyone from the area has a lack of tolerance?
Not Confined To Slurs
This was the same governor who, on Saturday at an African- American Leadership Summit in Orlando funded in part by the Republican Party of Florida, claimed he was so committed to diversity that he couldn't imagine making important state decisions by meeting with ``10 white guys,'' but would, instead, consult with a more diverse group.
Would that include lesbians and gays? Or is Bush more homophobic than politically ambitious?
In his now famous meeting with the Pensacola contingent, he also confided that he had ``devious plans'' to cripple a constitutional amendment limiting class size that Florida voters are expected to pass in November.
By threatening to cut funds to nursing homes to pay for class-size reduction, he would certainly polarize voters and pit the young against the old.
So much for the governor who wants to bring us together.
No, Not Everybody Does It
So that's the deal. The bottom line. It's apparently permissible - at least to Jeb Bush - to make fun of a minority group, pit one group against another and reveal you're planning to pull the wool over the eyes of Florida voters if you're behind closed doors and out of hearing distance of the ``public.''
So far, Bush has said little about the incident, beyond that he didn't know a reporter was there and he was being sarcastic when he used the word ``devious.''
As for implying Rilya Wilson's former caregivers are lesbians, Bush said he only related what he'd been told.
Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan tried to take some of the sting out of this Bush gaffe by vowing that Bush is the same in private as he is in public, although he might choose his words more carefully in a public setting.
``Everyone needs to look inward,'' said Brogan. ``Are there conversations that take place in your own homes that you wouldn't have at a neighborhood barbecue?''
He added that it's naive for anyone to think that anyone else speaks in exactly the same way in one room as they do in another.
That sounds suspiciously like a spoiled kid trying to get away with a particularly egregious crime.
The old ``Everybody does it'' excuse. No, Jeb, not everybody does.
Some do. But that doesn't make it right.
.... JUDY HILL, Published: Oct 8, 2002 in the Tampa
Tribune
Top
One of the problems with taking the swashbuckling CEO approach to management is
that your intuition, judgment and timing better be right or you're in
trouble.
When it's the governor doing this it's the people who are in trouble.
Questionable
judgment
It is true, as Gov. Jeb Bush, says, that Roy Cales, who had been serving as
Florida's first technology czar, deserves the presumption of innocence as he
prepares to defend himself against charges of grand theft. Cales is accused of
using a phony letter from a television station to persuade a Tallahassee bank to
lend him $35,000 five years ago. Cales resigned his $95,000 job this week, but
his lawyer says his client "emphatically denies he did anything wrong, much
less illegal."
He
told us so
The problem with One Florida all along was that Bush delivered it as though he
were Moses bringing the stone tablets down from the mountain.
(Top)
I sent a letter to the Governor asking to have the citrus canker eradication program stopped. This program is ineffective and has already cost a tremendous amount of public money. It offends individual rights and is based on false propaganda, also hurting the tourist industry. It is untrue that this program may save a 9 billion dollar industry when the value of the citrus crop is 1.1 billion dollars.
This figure includes all economic factors claimed to effect the economy. This figure of 1.1 billion dollars reflects the output of the entire industry, including 90% of the juice producers, who are not effected by the canker which is only a blemish on the skin of the fruit.
I received an automated response, full of erroneous statements, the same as sent to others who have turned to the Governor.
Here is the Governor's letter and my response to it.
Sincerely,
Peter Harsany, D.Sc. (Doctor of Agricultural Economics)
The Governor,s response:
Thank you for your letter sharing your concerns about the Department of Agriculture's Citrus Canker Eradication Program. I sympathize with all of our residents who find that their trees are infected with canker or are within the 1900-foot radius of an infected tree. Although the eradication of infected citrus trees in Florida continues, the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is currently not removing citrus trees located in the 1900-foot zone due to ongoing litigation. However, during the slowdown of the Citrus Canker Eradication Program over the last nine months, the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has made many improvements to the program to address the concerns of residents. The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services now confirms all new tree infections with a lab test.
Previously, the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services two pathologists do visual confirmations on each infected tree. So even though each infected tree had two concurring opinions, visual identifications will be confirmed with a lab test. The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services now notifies the city and/or county once a week of all the newly infected trees with the address of each tree and a map with the tree's location identified. This will help homeowners see not only where the infected trees but also how close those trees are to their own homes. When the Citrus Canker Eradication Program is in a neighborhood, community liaison officers are in the field to meet with residents and answer their questions. When the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services resumes removing citrus trees, they will be posting personnel for at least four hours a day in city halls where cutting is underway, or in the unincorporated areas at a county government building, to answer questions and work with the residents.
The immediate Final Orders, which notify residents that their trees will be removed now include the diagnostic report of the positive tree and pre-printed legal forms residents can use if they choose to contest the Department's action in court. The time between delivery of an Immediate Final Order and tree removal has been extended from five (5) days to ten (10) days to provide homeowners with more time to appeal if they choose to exercise this right.
They have also begun to print their notifications in French Creole for the Haitian-speaking residents. Previously, the notifications were printed only in English and Spanish. A Quality Control Section has been created to respond to homeowner complaints about damages that were not readily apparent to employees and repaired at the time of tree removal. This section requires a response from the contractors within 72 hours of notification of damages.
These improvements should enhance communication between the residents and the department and provide clarification to those residents whose trees become infected with canker or are within the 1900-foot radius of an infected tree and may be impacted in the near future.
The 1900-foot policy is based on the results of scientific research that demonstrates canker's ability to spread to nearby trees and was determined from a specific research study conducted in Miami-Dade and Broward counties from 1998 to 1999.
Scientists with backgrounds in plant pathology investigated the distance the disease can spread from disease-positive trees to nearby exposed areas under weather conditions in South Florida. More that 19,000 trees were identified and monitored for evidence of the citrus canker disease. From this research, they determined that approximately 95 percent of the time, the canker bacteria fell within 1900 feet of the positive tree.
With continued surveying around the zones to ensure immediate removal of any disease that escapes the zone, the scientists are confident that this disease can be eradicated. Since the court imposed the moratorium on cutting trees located within 1900 feet of infected trees in Miami-Dade and Broward counties in November 2000, the canker infection has spread to an additional 58.7 square miles in those counties as of the beginning of August. The need to cut such a large radius, 1900 square feet, around infected trees is specifically to stop the spread of the disease.
Now that we temporarily cannot cut the exposed trees, the disease is once again spreading. However, our research dollars have not been spent solely on studying the spread of canker. Alternatives to our current methods for controlling the spread of citrus canker have been and continue to be pursued. For example, the Institute of Food and Agriculture Sciences at the University of Florida has been conducting research on citrus canker resistant trees.
Of course, there is no guarantee that the initial trees will test out to be 100 percent canker resistant and free of unanticipated side effects.
Even if this initial research succeeds, it is a long-term solution that is not available to growers in the near future. We have recently had an additional $5 million included in our current agreement with the United States Department of Agriculture to advance research into canker treatment. This will fund new research into alternative methods of eliminating canker. Many people have suggested alternative methods of controlling canker that have been used in South American countries. For instance, copper sprays and windbreaks have been mentioned as the two primary methods used to control canker in Argentina. Copper spray is only marginally effective in South America in suppressing the disease and does not eliminate it. Copper would likely be even less effective under Florida's environmental conditions. Copper spray does not prevent a citrus tree from becoming infected and must be used continuously to have any effect at all. Overuse of copper can result in heavy metal contamination of groundwater and create other environmental problems.
Windbreaks are also only marginally effective and would take years to establish in Florida. They would even be helpful as a control measure if the infestations were limited to commercial citrus groves and even then would not provide enough protection for highly susceptible citrus varieties such as grapefruit. However, our worst infestation is the "backyard tree" infestation in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Citrus canker has been found in more than 200,000 residential citrus trees scattered throughout this area. Windbreaks of this size, in an area of approximately 500 square miles, would be financially and logistically prohibitiive.
Agriculture is second only to tourism as a top industry in this state. Within our agricultural industry, citrus is the leading commodity and is synonymous with Florida, the Sunshine State. The most profitable portion of the citrus business is the out-of-state shipment of fresh fruit. The more wide-spread citrus canker becomes, the greater the likelihood that other states and countries will not accept fresh fruit shipments from Florida. Mexico, with which we have a trade agreement, has already placed a moratorium on Florida citrus due to our canker infestation.
Florida could potentially lose $500 million annually in revenue if other countries and states follow Mexico's lead. Financially, we cannot afford to lose $500 million in state revenue each year; therefore, we need to stop the spread of citrus canker.
The well-being of our agricultural life-support system is directly related to a healthy economy in Florida which in turn benefits all of our citizens.
The Department of Agriculture's position is that to stop the spread of citrus canker it must be eradicated. There are too many ways the disease can be spread to simply control the disease. I agree that citrus canker must be eradicated quickly in order to protect Florida's citrus industry from further damage.
The Department of Agriculture had a fund set up to help replace trees that need to be destroyed due to canker and provides a gift certificate to each property owner that impacted by the eradication effort. I sincerely hope that you will encourage anyone who has had a citrus tree removed due to canker infection to use this certificate to replace the tree they lost with a non-citrus variety. In addition, during the 2001 session, the Florida Legislature approved the payment of
$100 per tree to residents* who have lost or will lose more that one citrus tree during the eradication
effort. I understand the sacrifice that many of our residents are making and recognize that this is very difficult for all involved. However it is a sacrifice that will preserve the future of Florida citrus and the healthy economy of the state.
Sincerely,
Jeb Bush
JB/hrn
((*NOTE: at the time of this posting - 11/2/01 - this payment is slated to
be cut )
My answer: Dear Governor: I was impressed having received from you a lengthy answer to my letter of October 23, 2001. I was, however, less impressed when reading it, to realize that it is actually an automated answer and a repeated summary of untrue communications of the Department's propaganda.
You referred to matters I did not mention in my letter and you praise the improvements the Department made "to address the concerns of residents."
Representatives of your Agricultural Department apparently still do not understand that the only improvement in the eyes of homeowners is to stop the totally useless and senseless eradication program and to stop spending millions of dollars of public funds (including court cost) on this program. Keeping two more pathologists busy in order to identify infection of trees is merely a new added expense.
It should be admitted that canker MAY only affect a small section of the industry and not necessarily bankrupt it.
Homeowners do not care much about blemishes on the skin of their garden fruits. A respectable scientist, Dr.Whiteside, (not employed by the Department) concluded through his lifelong research that citrus canker is a self eliminating disease.
In your letter you try to defend the 1900 foot policy, which I did not bring up in my letter.
IT IS UNTRUE that many scientists investigated the proper distance to stop canker. There was only one, Dr.Tom Gottwald, who conducted research in great secret, and announced the magic figure of 1900 feet. This was never proven, confirmed or repeated by anyone else on the entire globe.
IT IS UNTRUE that the 1900 feet radius stopped the disease. Every scientist knows that canker cannot be stopped. A bird, a bee or an angry homeowner can infect large areas of citrus groves.
Sorry, Governor, but you have been mislead:
IT IS UNTRUE that Food and Agriculture Sciences at the University of Florida are conducting research on citrus canker resistant trees. It is only Dr.Dean W.Garbriel who is involved in this project, and not for the Department, but according to his own admission, for his own commercial company, expecting a profitable business for himself.
I did not mention in my letter any chemical treatments.
You brought up this matter, and it is definitely UNTRUE that its overuse can result in heavy metal contamination of groundwater and create environmental problems. Copper spray (Bordeaux mixture) was used in European vineyards for near 100 years without any health hazard. (Not even fertilizers and other chemicals spread directly to the ground).
These are only environmental scare tactics, part of the Department's propaganda.
It is also UNTRUE that citrus canker may result in a loss of 500 million dollars annually if the fresh fruit growing section of the industry (10% in total) will not produce. How can such a thing happen, if the total output of the fresh fruit growing section is not more than 110 million dollars annually?
You conclude your automated letter with a frequently repeated patriotic appeal. Appealing for sacrifice to preserve the healthy economy of the state.
Many people believe that the real reason this program is in place is to keep the industry happy enough to contribute in time of re-election. But please, be sure that not such a contribution but the votes of hundreds of thousands of homeowner voters may decide the outcome of such an election.
Sincerely, Dr.Peter Harsany (posted 11/2/01)
top
Vocational Rehabilitation
Privatization:
Higher costs, less service and $1 million no
bid contract
In 1999, the clients, the workers and even some
providers cried out against the privatization of vocational
rehabilitation, arguing that it would increase costs and hurt services.
Now,
the disabled community is saying a sad "we told you so."
A legislative watchdog agency found that administrative costs have
skyrocketed by 179 percent and the number of clients has declined.
Furthermore, the privatization agency is paying
$343,000 in rent for a building it doesn't use and paid $830,000 last year
for services it could not show were ``reasonable or necessary.''
Then there is the $1 million no bid contract given
to the employer of former Sen. George Kirkpatrick, who sponsored the bill
to privatize vocational rehabilitation and sits on the privatization
commission's board of directors. This was too much even for Education
Commissioner Charlie Crist who killed the contract.
In response, the director of the privatization
commission has been transferred. And the the privatization commission
itself could be disbanded under bills being worked on by several
legislators and the Department of Education.
The functions of the Occupational Access and
Opportunity Commission, a two-year-old board with a troubled history,
would be turned over to the Department of Education, under bills being
written by Rep. Sandra Murman, R-Tampa, Sen. Richard Mitchell, D-Jasper
and Sen. Jim Sebesta, R-St. Petersburg.
The board was created by the 1999 Legislature to
privatize job training for the state's estimated 100,000 disabled
residents.
But legislative investigators found that costs
increased as much as 179 percent in the three pilot projects that were
privatized April 1. In all, the cost of providing services doubled from
$1.5 million in 1999-2000 to an estimated $3.1 million in the fiscal year
that will end June 30, 2002.
Meanwhile, statewide administrative costs nearly
doubled from $249,667 in 1998-99 to $496,090 in 2000-01, after peaking at
$658,238 in 1999-2000. Also, the board did not have a long-term plan, did
not conduct feasibility studies and paid providers large startup costs
with little analysis of the validity of those costs, legislative
investigators said.
Services have deteriorated on five key measures over
the past year and have not met the standards for 2000-01, the
investigators said. Investigators looked at how many clients were reviewed
for eligibility, the percent of eligibility determinations that were made
within 60 days as required by federal law, the number of significantly
disabled and all other clients gainfully employed and the type of
employment they obtained.
"Privatization doesn't work either for those
receiving the services or for the public paying for them," said
Council 79 President Jeanette D, Wynn. "For the sake of the disabled
community, we're glad that legislators are seeing the error of their
ways."
.... from AFSCME
website
(Top) (Home)
