Bill McCollum Wins Endorsement

As long as we're visiting the psych ward known as the Florida Republican Party, we may as well record the report of journalist Joy Reid who today says that G.O.P. gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum has won the endorsement of "Stormfront... the white supremacist crowd." Stormfront.org is headed by the former Grand Dragon of the KKK, Don Black of West Palm Beach. We didn't bother to follow Reid's link. According to her, however, Black and his fellow mental cases applaud "McCollum’s opposition to the MLK holiday."

Charlie Crist's Deadline

'The absence of party affiliation is no guarantee of the absence of ugly politicking. If anything, the reverse is true.'

The Pensacola News Journal on Sunday editorially urged Florida governor Charlie Crist to run for Florida's vacant U.S. Senate seat as an independent. Noting that he faces an April 30 deadline to withdraw from the G.O.P. primary the newspaper argues "for the good of the state, shouldn't Crist and [Marco] Rubio have a chance to face off in November — the state's political Super Bowl date — instead of in preseason?"

In Florida's closed-primary system, registered Democrats and independent voters do not have the chance to vote for or against Crist. Yet Crist and Rubio are the political heavyweights, and they should meet in the finals.

Once again, weak sports metaphors are invoked to distort political reality by making it resemble a horse race (or a football game, or a boxing match) without regard to the long-term policy consequences. The PNJ's proposal is tantamount to advocating the defeat of Democratic senatorial candidate Kendrick Meek even before he's had a chance to introduce himself to the voters.

As the News Journal must know, recent polls suggest Crist has a realistic chance of winning the general election only if he draws a boatload of votes from the Democratic candidate. This is because it looks like he'll get almost none from Republicans:

Even in a three-way match-up with Crist running as an independent, Meek comes in second with 25% of the vote. Rubio leads with 45% support, while Crist earns 22%.

To be sure, other journalists also are applauding the idea. Take Broward County's Sun Sentinel columnist Michael Mayo, for example. He hauls the PNJ's "it-would-be- good- for- Florida-voters" theme one step farther by imagining a Crist win in November:

If he wins as an independent, Crist could find himself the most powerful senator in the country.

Democrats now have a 57-41 edge over Republicans in the Senate, and there are two independents who align with the Democrats, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

With 36 Senate seats up for grabs in November, Democrats and Republicans could end up virtually deadlocked for the majority.

Could you imagine if there was a 49-48 split and Crist were one of three independents?

Anything Florida wanted, Florida would get.

Almost immediately, however, Mayo ruins his own fantasy by impliedly having 'independent' U.S. Senator Crist sell off the sand on Pensacola Beach to the oil corporations:

How about this idea: Our junior senator could broker a deal where all Florida homeowners get affordable windstorm coverage through national catastrophe insurance. In exchange, we allow expanded oil drilling off Florida's shores.

Mayo's wet dream offers an unintentional caution about the naive fantasy of an "independent" politician. The absence of party affiliation is no guarantee of the absence of ugly politicking. If anything, the reverse is true. A senator without affiliation with one of the two major parties is like Edward Everett Hale's "Man Without a Country." Joe Lieberman's deceitful run as an "Independent" is a useful template. It has made him, to be charitable, "a little crazy."

The reality is that every "independent" in the U.S. Senate is impelled by the circumstance of Senate rules and traditions to caucus with one or the other of the two major parties. Even if Crist were to win the senate race as an Independent, he'd have to huddle either with the Republican or the Democratic Party. As with Lieberman, that means either being completely marginalized (much as has happened to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a more reliable Democratic vote than most other Democratic senators) or forever living on the edge of betraying one party by flirting with the other.

That might be entertaining. It might sell more newspapers. But if Crist takes advice from the likes of Michael Mayo and the Pensacola News Journal, it would be terrible for the nation as well as Pensacola Beach.

Democratic senate candidate Kendrick Meek is a fine legislator and a courageous man. However, as Stuart Rothenberg says, he was "handed the Democratic nomination without a fight largely because Crist looked invincible when the race was taking shape."

He's been doing better than expected in the fund raising derby. He even polls fairly well, only 6 points behind, in a 2-man race against Rubio -- and most Floridians hardly know him yet. Even in today's over-heated partisan atmosphere he has a legitimate chance to win.

A Crist independent candidacy, however, would doom Meek's chances. Meek and Crist would split the sane vote while Rubio cleans up among the chronically angry old farts, demented paranoids, racists, and those who want to protect Wall Street bankers so they can continue schtupping main street America with toxic investments and paying themselves outrageous bonuses.

In the loopy political atmosphere we see all around us today, the only honest thing for Charlie Crist to do is to think inside the box -- one or the other box. Either run as the moderate Republican he's always been -- or switch parties and run for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.
minor edit 4-19 am

Dept. of Further Amplification

4-19 pm

Marcos Moulitsas, writing as Kos, has his "fingers crossed," hoping for Crist to make "an independent bid." Presumably, for different reasons than those expressed by the News Journal.

Politicians High On Plastic

Republican Talk: "The GOP long known to be the party of millionaires and suckers, now seems -- Well, it seems that every week, it seems to be becoming the party of a staff and its leaders, who live large, high on the hog, and a party for suckers." More here.

Florida Teachers Beware: 'Son of S.B. 6' Coming Soon

John Koenig, who holds out against the internet savages at FloridaThinks.com ("The forum for civil debate") is warning public school teachers that Charlie "Crist's Veto May Only Delay the Inevitable."

The advocates of Senate Bill 6 – the Legislature’s Republican leadership, former Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida’s major business organizations – are not going away. They will continue to fight for merit pay and an end to teacher tenure long after Crist is out of office.

That is no doubt true. As Koenig admits almost everyone on the planet is "advocating greater accountability from schools and teachers." Yesterday's veto, he says, "only buys teachers a bit of time to come up with their own accountability proposals."

Along the way, he shares an interesting anecdote:

[E]ven for the private sector, performance-incentive programs are tricky. Basing them on too few variables or the wrong variables can lead to counterproductive results.

Consider this story from Fast Company magazine. Ken O’Brien was an NFL quarterback in the 1980s and ‘90s who threw a lot of interceptions. In an attempt to improve his performance, the owners of the team on which he played put a clause into his contract docking his paycheck for each interception. The next year, O’Brien threw fewer inceptions. But that was because he threw the ball hardly at all. The net effect: The team did no better.

The article Koenig refers to has more "incentive pay" horror stories. As if we needed them after Wall Street's investment bank geniuses brought the world to the brink just so they could snag their multimillion dollar "performance bonuses."

For example, there's Ma Bell, who "tried to encourage productivity by paying programmers based on the number of lines of code they produced. The result: programs of Proustian length." There's Merrill Lynch (R.I.P.) whose pay program so deeply discouraged a young novice from getting sage advice from his seniors that he wound up writing a scorching best-selling expose whose title tells it all: "Riding the Bull: My Year in the Madness at Merrill Lynch."

All this talk about incentive pay for public school teachers draws on the supposed lessons of the private business sector. That misses a couple of very big points.

First, of course, is the fact that the tax payers and politicians, perversely, refuse to pay elementary and secondary school teachers -- who are the most important front in educating our children to read, calculate and think -- anywhere near what the private sector forks over to CEOs, corporate executives, fraud artists, scammers, cheats, quacks, stupid celebrities, and assorted mountebanks and desk-warmers whom they hire to turn a buck. As a society, if we really valued what teachers do we'd pay them accordingly. Instead, we pay Corporate America like royalty but expect teachers to work for love of the job.

Second, where do the parents fit into this picture? Sad to say, over the decades we've heaped more and more responsibilities onto the schools while parents -- many forced to become two-earner families because of the growing gap from top to bottom in private sector employment -- abandon their responsibilities to give vital educational support in the home.

All that said, the political reality is that Koenig is right. "Son of S.B. 6" is coming soon to a legislature near you. Florida teachers need to come up with their own detailed, rational answer to it. Call it a "pay-incentive" plan, if you have to, but make it as real as possible.

Then challenge the legislators to fund it.

Dept. of Related Blogistry

Governor Crist Does 'The Right Thing'
April 15, 2010
Florida's 'Disappear the Teachers' Bill
April 9, 2010
The Christian Student Veto Bill
March 19, 2010
Lying to Our Kids
March 2, 2010
Teacher of the Year
January 30, 2010
Crazy People and School Administrators
Sept. 8, 2009
The One and Only Faith
Aug. 5, 2009
Suffer the Little Children...
Feb. 21, 2009
School Super 'Censured'
Jan. 28, 2008
Florida Fraud Files
Dec. 2, 2007
Minor edit 4-16 am

Florida Coast Drilling Postponed

We told you this was likely. The lunatic Republican initiative to allow oil drilling within three miles of the Florida coast failed to pass the state senate yesterday.

But don't think for a moment the proposal is dead, or even asleep. The only way to kill this insane proposal is to throw out of office every single legislator, Republican and Democrat, who voted to put our coasts and tourist industry at risk.

Among others, this means you, Dave Murzin (R-Pensacola), Greg Evers (R-Baker), Ray Sansom (R-Out on Bail), and Clay Ford (R-Gulf Breeze).

Florida Oil Mystery

We've been traveling, and so didn't get a chance to see Wednesday's PNJ editorial opposing the Republican effort in Tallahasee to throw open Florida's beaches to off-shore oil drilling as close as three miles from shore. The PNJ writes it short and bitter. We can make it a bit shorter:

Conscientious state leaders have long opposed offshore drilling not just for
environmental motivations but for economic reasons. They recognize what clean
beaches mean to the state's economy.
* * *
Even as the demand for energy increased, the goal in anti-drilling efforts has been to keep rigs in the Gulf of Mexico at least 100 miles off the coast of Florida, from the Panhandle to the Keys.

There is no reason to reverse the state's long-held opposition to offshore drilling.

Gov. Crist should take a stand and veto any measure that threatens Florida's coastlines.

It is beyond comprehension why the Republican majority in the Florida statehouse planted this roadside political bomb along the road to adjournment in the waning days of the legislative session. Are they trying to commit political suicide? Do they seriously expect Florida voters to thank them for a sneak attack on Florida's 2,200-plus miles of tidal shoreline?

How can Republicans explain, next year when running for reelection, an eleventh-hour proposal so manifestly engineered to discourage and evade public debate and deliberation? Can they seriously believe, here in Florida of all places, that we don't know the magnitude of the threat that would be posed by tropical storms if oil drills and pipelines were allowed so close to our beaches? Are they blind to the fact that this proposal is the biggest anti-small business bill in state history?

The drilling proposal, thankfully, is unlikely to pass the state senate. Even if it did so, Governor Crist almost surely would veto it, unless he plans to run for president in 2012 as the Candidate of Big Oil.

So, why the kari-kari act by Florida House Republicans? There'$ only one an$wer we can think of, and it i$n't pretty.

Oily Florida Lawmakers Trash Earth Day: "Drill, Baby, Drill"

Benedict Arnold? Typhoid Mary? Move over. You've got company.

Gannett reporter Jim Ash, from Tallahassee:

Catching opponents off guard in the waning days of the session, House Republicans unveiled a dramatic proposal Tuesday to lift Florida's offshore drilling ban.

An amendment (HB 1219) by Rep. Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, passed the House Policy Council with less than 11 days left in the session. It would give the governor and the Cabinet the power to grant oil- and gas-drilling leases as close as 3 miles from shore.

"I just want to start a dialogue," Cannon said.

Dialogue? That's a hoot. Not only was the proposal filed just the night before the vote, but according to reporter Ash the "drill, baby, drill" coalition has been "working quietly behind the scenes with the legislative sponsors for months."

They even showed up for the abbreviated committee session with "a half-hour presentation and glossy handouts for committee members and reporters." Apparently, Florida Republicans want the "dialogue" to take place somewhere around 3 am, preferably while the public is sleeping.

Among the traitors to the Florida coastal environment are Northwest Florida's own Dave Murzin (R-Pensacola) and Greg Evers (R-Baker). You might think that they, more than most, would understand how oil drilling within three miles of the coast threatens both the environment and the economy of places like, say, Pensacola Beach and Perdido Key.

You also might think that Murzin and Evers, whatever their ideology, at least would know that among their own coastal constituents are quite a number of highly educated and articulate citizens, business owners, and tourism offciials who, over the past several decades, have acquired so much expertise about the pros and cons of oil drilling off the Florida coast that Congress invites them to share their knowledge in Washington D.C..

Why didn't Murzin and Evers insist that their own constituents be included in the "dialogue"?

It's depressing enough to see legislators, caught in an ideologoical time warp, advancing outmoded and dangerous answers to the energy needs of the nation and the fiscal needs of the state. It's downright alarming when they secretly plot to shut out well informed voices in their own districts from participating in the debate.

Northwest Florida Leaders Indicted

Northwest Florida kingpins Ray Sansom (R-Destin) and Okaloosa-Walton County college president Bob Richburg were indicted Friday on felony "public corruption" charges. Richburg also faces a second charge of perjury.

Sansom, R-Destin, was booked into the Leon County Jail on Friday afternoon and released on his own recognizance. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison on the felony charge.
* * *
State Attorney Willie Meggs said Richburg unconvincingly told the grand jurors that building an aircraft hangar and emergency-management complex 15 miles from the Niceville campus was a "multiuse educational facility."
* * *
Meggs said Sansom's charge, a third-degree felony, reflects the then-House budget chief's creation of a false and fraudulent budget item that described the hangar project as a college building.

The full 10-page grand jury indictment can be read here. From the narrative "presentment" that follows the actual indictment, it's clear that the grand jury more or less considered Northwest Florida developer Jay Odom an unindicted co-conspirator. As Gannett Publishing Co.'s Tallahassee reporter puts it --

Odom, who contributed more than $1 million to the state GOP and Sansom's political causes, was not accused of any legal violation, but the grand jury said back-scratching among corporate honchos and politicians is a symptom of a deeply rooted malady.

At the root of this back-scratch was Odom's persistent efforts to find "other people's money" to finance a $6 million airplane hangar for one of his companies, Destin Jet, which he promotes as a state-of-the-art luxury private jet service. When Okaloosa County emergency managemnt personnel expressed no interest in misusing public money for Odom's company, the grand jury's narrative suggests, Odom used college president Richburg to be his cat's paw, in order to claw the $6 million out of Florida's state education appropriation:

During 2OO7 and 2008 airport officials learned about the appropriation to NWFSC [Northwest Florida State college] and the requirement by the Legislature that the college facility would be built at the Destin Airport. The college was to use a development order previously prepared by Destin Jet. The Destin Airport is located fifteen miles away from the NWFSC campus in Niceville. * * * During this meeting the NWFSC officials discussed how the building would be used. The college would have classroom space and the college could sub-lease the storage area to Destin Jet. The building essentially was the same design as Destin Jet's 2004 design, and is still an aircraft hanger. The second floor drawing now includes classrooms as opposed to office space and the first floor is now called a staging area.

The kicker is, "NWFSC does not have an aviation component in its curriculum" and "the vice-president of NWFSC responsible for construction of structures, Dr. Yancy, was not aware of the hanger project until he leamed that The Legislature had appropriated funds for it."

Your Grand Jurors have determined that the funding for this hanger can be attributed directly and solely to Speaker Designate Ray Sansom. No member of The Legislature ever saw this appropriation until it was inserted into the appropriation bill during conference between the Appropriation Chair Ray Sansom, and his senate counterpart senator, Lisa C arlton. The hanger project for a community college was the sole work of Ray Sansom, Jay Odom and Bob Richburg.

Jaded Northwest Floridians, by now, fully expect to be ripped off by developers like Jay Odom. Cronyism, corruption, and cupidity run so deep and wide among politicians at every level in the Florida panhandle that the only surprise is there's someone left still honest and courageous enough to try catching them.

But a corrupt college president -- and one who allegedly perjured himself, too? That still surprises.

It probably shouldn't. The reality of higher education is that some time ago it ceased to resemble the idyllic vision of berobed scholars, books in arm, thoughtfully wandering the tree-studded groves of academe.

The "Commercialization of Higher Education," as Derek Bok explains in a book by the same title, inevitably has compromised values "that are essential to the continued confidence and loyalty of faculty, students, alumni, and even the general public." When college presidents, in the scramble to acquire more and more money, climb into bed with developers and politicians, it's to be expected many will wake up indicted.

State Farm Ain't Here

"Like a good neighbor/ State Farm is there."
-- Ad jingle lyrics

Although it was profitable even in the hurricane-studded period of 2005-05, State Farm has been threatening to dump its Florida property insurance customers for the past four years.

Among other ridiculous shenanigans the company first talked the Florida legislature, back in '98, into letting it build a firewall between its Florida subsidiary and the parent corporation, so State Farm wouldn't have to disclose how much it really profits off all of its insurance businesses. Then, it started seeking out- of -sight premium hikes while overcharging its own Florida subsidiary for reinsurance.

Now, they claim they're finally going to do it. The largest insurer doing business in Florida has announced plans to drop an estimated 1.2 million Florida property insurance customers. Or, as one wag puts it, "State Farm is pulling out, because the house is no longer guaranteed its traditional winnings at blackjack."

Except it's not leaving right away. No, State Farm's spokeman says they will be 'phasing in' the plan to drop property insurance customers over two years. Moreover, any withdrawal plan also needs the approval of Florida regulators.

Bloomberg reports the company announced its plans "after state regulators denied a request to raise prices." Blackjack gone? Not really. The company still expects to be ripping off 2.8 million Floridians for auto, life, and health insurance. And it wants to continue having fun by "playing hardball" even with minor car-crash claims.

Legislation already has been introduced in the Florida state legislature to prohibit bad insurance neighbors like State Farm from "cherry picking." Under a bill being pushed by state senator Mike Fasano (R-New Port Richey) a company would have to offer "all the types of insurance it markets if it wants to do business at all in Florida."

Equally interesting is State Farm has announced "it intends to remain active in coastal Alabama." Why? Because Alabama regulators roll over every time the company asks for a rate increase without showing evidence of real need.

It's obvious State Farm is just playing the regulators. The company makes tons of money on property insurance, alone, even in Florida and even when we get hit by hurricanes. Indeed, according to a leaked draft of State Farm of Florida's withdrawal plan, "the 2004-2005 hurricanes put the company on the path to insolvency."

As the Orlando Sentinel, hardly a hotbed of anti-corporate radicalism, points out today, it won't be "the end of the world" if State Farm leaves Florida. Indeed, governor Charlie Crist says, "Floridians will be much better off without them."

State Farm not here? Thank goodness!

Governor Extends Early Voting

Florida Governor Charlie Crist today used his powers to issue an executive order extending early voting throughout the state. Here's the nub of it, after a lot of whereas's and wherefore's:

I order the Supervisors of Elections to open early voting sites from 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. through October 31, 2008 and open early voting sites for a total of twelve (12) hours between 7 a.m. November 1, 2008 and 7 p.m. November 2, 2008.

For the western-most two counties in the Florida panhandle, this represents a considerable expansion of early voting. Until today, to comply with the restrictive legislation passed by the Republican-dominated legislature in 2005, local election officials were forced to keep banker's hours and were not planning on being open at all this coming Sunday.

Dept. of Amplification and Clarification
10-29 am

According to Wednesday's PNJ, both Escambia and Santa Rosa election officials "will use all of their weekend hours on Saturday, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m." There will be no early voting on Sunday in the greater Pensacola area, at all.

Locally, then, the net effect of Governor Crists' order is to extend early voting hours an additional four hours each day through Saturday, only, for a total of 16 additional hours. If the last week's past is prologue, Saturday November 1 will see the heaviest turn-out of early voters.

Early Voting Florida Snaufs

"I don't have time to complain about the rules," a harried county election worker snapped back. "I just follow them."

Early voting across Florida is bringing record turnouts. But it's also exposed, as the Miami Herald points out today, how Florida's Republican-dominated legislature two years ago "made it harder, not easier, for Floridians to vote."

The legislature mandated a cut-back in early-voting hours and limited the number of early voting polling places a local election supervisor can establish. Supposedly, the legislature acted "to save money." As a result, now, there are only four early voting locations in Escambia County and just two in Santa Rosa County.

Escambia County Early Voting Sites

Supervisor of Elections Main Office
213 Palafox Place, 2nd floor
Pensacola (downtown)

Supervisor of Elections Branch office
292 Muscogee Road
Cantonment

Lucia M. Tryon Branch Library
5740 North 9th Avenue
Pensacola

Southwest Branch Library
12248 Gulf Beach Highway

Santa Rosa County Early Voting Sites

The Elections Office
6495 Caroline St, Suite “F”
Milton

South Service Center
5841 Hwy 98
Gulf Breeze

All locations will be open today (Sunday) from 11:30 am to 3:30 pm. Tomorrow (Monday through Saturday, early voting locations in the two counties will be open from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm.

The scant locations and limited hours are causing long lines in both counties. While we were standing in line over an hour yesterday, we overheard another voter complaining about the long wait, the abbreviated hours, and the gas it took to drive to the distant early voting polling place.

"Can't you do something about this?" he demanded.

"I don't have time to complain about the rules," a harried county election worker snapped back. "I just follow them."

Elsewhere in Florida, it's a "nightmare", as Mike Madden reports for Salon.com. Still, early voting as allowed in some 32 states is bringing record turn-outs, according to the Los Angeles Times. One million have already voted in North Carolina and over 900,000 in Georgia. That's "double the pace" in both states compared with the 2004 election, AFP News service reports.

In Oregon, which blazed the trail in the 1980's with its innovative vote-by-mail system, state officials reported 281,781 returned ballots as of October 23.

Interestingly, Oregon's experience with mail-in ballots has led to a substantial reduction in annual election expenses. While "counties have seen their post costs increase... the overall cost of running a mail election is far lower than a poll election." For example, in the largest county in the state:

At one time, Multnomah County had 2,000 people working at hundreds of polling places. This election, there will be 200 to 300 people working at a single office, said elections director Tim Scott.

Moreover, voter turn-out in Oregon has been around 80 percent of all eligible voters, an order of magnitude or two greater than the best participation rates in the other 49 states.

It makes you wonder, doesn't it? Did the Florida legislature's sudden interest in saving money on elections have more to do with voter suppression and its fundamental distrust of democracy than with economic efficiency?

Ten Questions for Peacock

Someone claiming to be John Peacock, a board member of the Santa Rosa Island Authority, has found his way to yesterday's article on this web site about the SRIA meeting that wasn't. "Please feel free to contact me," he writes, "if you want to really set the record straight." Then, he issues us instructions on how to do that privately.

We accept Mr. Peacock's generous invitation to "set the record straight." But in the interests of keeping things in the Sunshine, rather than do it privately we'd like to give him the opportunity to answer ten simple questions right here, for everyone to see.

Just use the message function, Mr. Peacock. You know how it works.

TEN QUESTIONS

1. Were you the decision-maker in calling a “special” SRIA board meeting for August 6 at 5 pm? If not, who was?

2. The Notice of Meeting bears the date of July 5 for a meeting scheduled for July 6. What day and time was the Notice of Meeting actually published?

3. Did you direct Jayne Bell to publish the Notice of Meeting; if not, who did?

4. How, when, and by whom was the decision made that “John Peacock will be acting chairman” as stated in the notice of meeting?

5. Did you or any other board member decide to make you, John Peacock, “acting chairman” of this "special meeting" before the notice was published; if so, when, where, why, and by whom was that decision made?

6. What was the agenda business to be considered at that “special meeting”?

7. It has been claimed on the Independent News web site blog that “the issue was an attempt by Mr. Peacock... to...squelch the investigation of the manager by numerous complaints of numerous ex-employees.” To your knowledge, is there an ongoing internal investigation of complaints from employees or ex-employees about Buck Lee? What is the specific nature of those complaints?

8. When you and other members of the board met on August 6, did SRIA attorney Stebbins advise that the meeting was improperly noticed to the public and might well violate the Sunshine Law?

9. On the Independent News' "Rick's Blog" a message by “robertonlamar” claims News Journal reporter Michael Stewart sent a letter to SRIA officials asking for comments and information about employee or ex-employee complaints. Is there such a letter and, if so, when does the SRIA intend to respond?

10. As an appointed SRIA board member, are you in favor or opposed to Mike Whitehead’s oft-expressed desire to abolish the SRIA and have county officials take over its functions?

Mystery of the Agenda that Didn't Bark

On his personal blog, Independent News publisher Rick Outzen broke the mysterious news story that a surprise meeting of the Santa Rosa Island Authority late yesterday was cut short by Dr. Thomas Campanella's fast thinking. Campanella is the only one of six board members who is not a political appointee of an Escambia County commissioner. He's elected by island residents and currently is chairman of the SRIA's governing board.

Reports Outzen:

The special meeting set for the Santa Rosa Island Authority yesterday was stopped before it began. Chairman Tom Campanella, vice chair John Peacock, Ed Guernsey and Vernon Prather were in attendance. Fred Gant was in route.

Peacock had called the meeting. Campenella struck the gavel and immediately asked Board attorney Mike Stebbins if the meeting had been properly noticed. Stebbins advised that the meeting - even though it was a special one - had to be noticed 48 hours prior.

According to what we've been able to piece together from multiple sources, the episode almost looks like an attempted coup. Perhaps less than 48 hours beforehand, we're told, someone at the SRIA authorized lower level staff to publish the "special meeting" notice which we have reproduced above. You can view it yourself on-line right here [pdf warning].

Who dunnit? We can't be sure, but our sources say the shadow of suspicion falls heavily over Buck Lee, John Peacock, and Mike Whitehead.

Lee is what used to be known as the "general manager" of the Island Authority, now retitled "executive director." He has close ties to county commissioner Mike Whitehead, as we've previously observed. Peacock is an SRIA board member. He was appointed by Whitehead and is widely regarded as the commissioner's personal sock puppet.

The curious thing is the meeting notice included this odd prediction:

"For the purpose of this meeting John Peacock will be acting as chairman and Fred Gant will be acting as vice-chairman."

That, apparently, was news to current SRIA board chairman Campanella and his board colleague, Vernon Prather. (Two other commissioners were either out of town or on the road.)

There was a brief but unsuccessful effort to get to the bottom of the mysteries -- Who called the supposed "special" meeting? and How is it Peacock was determined in advance to be the "acting chair"? Then, Island Authority attorney Mike Stebbins warned the remaining board members that the meeting notice was likely in violation of Florida's Sunshine in Government Act.

Chairman Campanella dutifully declared the meeting adjourned and he and Prather walked out.

You'd think Whitehead and his hand-picked buddy, Peacock, would be more sensitive to Sunshine Act violations than this. After all, a number of Whitehead's former colleagues lost their jobs, faced jail, and incurred stiff fines for violating that same law back in 2002.

The mystery of the meeting notice, however, is wrapped inside a larger enigma: What was the substance of this abortive meeting supposed to involve? Outzen says on his blog, "Campenalla has had Stebbins investigate complaints about SRIA manager Buck Lee without informing his fellow board members. " And a following comment posted under the screen name "robertonlamar" adds:

the issues are outlined in a letter from the penscola [sic] news journal which is a public record for anyone to see in the SRIA office.

That letter, it turns out, is from investigative reporter Michael Stewart. (Stewart is all over the place these days, isn't he?) What he's probing are employee complaints of abusive management practices by none other than Buck Lee himself.

Some time ago, Whitehead announced his intention to engineer a county take over of the SRIA and ample evidence suggested Lee was behind him. Now, Whitehead's own appointee has been caught trying to muscle in on SRIA board meeting schedules to run the show and bury the employee complaints about Buck Lee.

Campanella, Prather, and Stebbins deserve praise for stopping the SRIA board coup in its tracks and, in effect, insisting that personnel complaints proceed in a systematic and balanced manner. For that matter, Peacock owes thanks to Campanella for keeping him off the criminal court docket.

But you know we haven't heard the last of the matter. Not as long as Buck Lee is where he is and Whitehead remains a county commissioner.

Further Amplification Dept.

Ten Questions for Peacock
SRIA board member John Peacock has offered in the comment below to "set the record straight." He's invited to answer ten simple questions, right here on this blog for everyone to see.

Climbing Aboard McBush's Flip-Flop Express

Florida governor Charlie Crist is hitching his caboose to the McBush Flip-Flop Express. It is a terrible move. If Crist persists in it, that is likely to haunt him for the rest of his days in politics.

Two years ago, as Pensacola area experts pointed out to Congress here and here and here, there were no good reasons to let loose the drilling rigs in near-shore areas of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico. While we cannot say there will never be a reason to drill there -- never say never, after all -- the recent spike in the price of gas at the pump cannot be a reason to justify the terrible risk to Florida's environment.

First of all, near-shore Gulf drilling yields predominantly natural gas and not oil. Any impact on the price of crude would be greatly attenuated at best.

Second, as Sen. Bill Nelson says, "There isn't enough oil in the U.S. to make even the smallest dent in world oil prices, which largely are being run-up by unregulated traders and speculators, including the oil companies." Our thirst for oil has become so severe all that we have in the ground or under the sea can no longer slake it.

Third, even if it were otherwise the oil industry itself admits it would take at least ten years before it could begin drilling new wells -- even if it wanted to.

Finally, oil companies don't want to drill more themselves, at the moment. They aren't fully exploiting what they have now. As the Tampa Tribune reported recently, "thousands of permits for drilling on federal lands and waters have been issued but have not yet been used."

The hard truth is, as Pensacola's own Enid Siskin has said so cogently, "We cannot drill our way to energy independence. It’s only through conservation, increased efficiency, and use of a combination of alternative, renewable energy sources that we’ll ever be self sufficient."

Any politician who says otherwise either is a fool -- or thinks you are.

Short Film Review: "Recount"

Having suffered through HBO's fictional re-run of the 2000 presidential election, which Alessandra Stanley correctly describes as an "astute and deliciously engrossing film," here's what we think:

You're in a Bully's Hands with Allstate

"[C]laims organization... revolve[s] around two axes -- standardizing claims awards across the board; and stopping policyholders from hiring lawyers."

-- Allstate Insurance Co., PowerPoint training slide

The highly respected reporter Paige St. John, in Sunday's Sarasota Herald Tribune, boils down some 12,000 pages of previously-secret documents from the vaults of Allstate Insurance Co. to discover "how the nation's second-largest insurer systematically cut payments" to those covered by insurance "as a way to boost profits."

First, the company eliminated much of the discretion of on-site adjusters.

Second, using its own adaptations of computer software known as "Colossus" the company lowered authorized "average payouts for bodily injuries" by "more than 20 percent." This, we are told, was "a big step" toward reaching a consultant company's stated "goal of establishing a new fair market value" for injuries.

Third, Allstate pressured claimants "to accept quick settlements without the help of lawyers." If a policyholder was so bold as to hire a lawyer or hold out for more, Allstate would coach its own lawyers "to refuse to negotiate and to drag out litigation."

Allstate, here, is talking about hurting its own customers who have been paying premiums to the company for auto and property insurance, including hurricane wind insurance. As one lawyer with extensive knowledge of Allstate's abusive policies explains:

"When you look at it from the policyholders' point of view, here you are, your home is flattened. They come to you and offer [a low settlement] to you within the first 180 days.... [when they know] that financial pressure in that first 180 days would be at its greatest." * * *

"They won't walk away happy. They'll just walk away. A lot of them won't understand how badly they've been abused."

Internal company documents also make it clear that Florida was an early and profitable testing ground for Allstate's new strategy:

"Florida East and Florida West are getting phenomenal, never-seen-before results in terms of loss/cost management," a 1997 Allstate newsletter declared. Allstate today pays less than most other auto insurers in Florida for accident injuries, averaging $16,884 per claim in early 2007 compared with an $18,105 average for the industry.

There's no real surprise here for anyone who has ever had a close look into the small, dark heart of Allstate Insurance Company. What is surprising is how blatant the company and its industry consultant, McKinsey & Co., can be when they think no one is looking:

In PowerPoint presentations and discussion papers drawn up for Allstate executives, McKinsey used "boxing gloves" to characterize how Allstate should treat policyholders who balk at settlements. For customers who hired lawyers, McKinsey urged, "align alligators," adding these instructions: "sit and wait."
* * *
PowerPoint slides show the McKinsey consultants also advised Allstate to convince policyholders they did not need lawyers, and then to target those who disregarded that advice for denials, delays and litigation.

In effect, says former Allstate lawyer Robert Healy, who's now in private practice in Tampa, Allstate has become "a bully in the market." That would be the market for justice.

To be sure, "Allstate has been sanctioned by regulators in at least two states." And some policyholders have won "bad faith" claims "forcing it into confidential settlements and large jury verdicts."

However, explains St. John, courts too often have generously ordered verdicts to be cut to a fraction of what juries awarded. By that means, Allstate has managed to keep the lion's share of its gains from bullying customers.

Allstate's incentives to keep the system have proven larger.

Since changing the way it regards claims, the company has reported the largest profits of its 77-year history. It had a record profit of $4.9 billion in 2006. In 2007, it reported a $4.6 billion profit.

The insurance company's trove of secret documents became publicly available only after a Florida appeals court ruled that "state regulators have the right to ban Allstate from writing new policies" if it doesn't turn over evidence of internal policy-making demanded by "state investigators."

What do you want to bet that even now a few hundred million dollars of those skyrocketing profits are being used to buy lobbyists and legislators in Tallahassee, to be sure that Allstate never again is compelled to wash its dirty linen in public? Keep your eye on the current legislative session.

Dept. of Amplification

"All State Insurance Co.'s Behavior "Potentially Criminal'"

Find that Preposition - Quickly!

Quote of the Week:

"If you are part of Meals on Wheels and don’t have dentures to eat, one of the major things that happens to you is that you become malnourished."

-- Florida State Representative Joyce Cusack

Tort Story

Florida playwright and novelist Bobby Cramer, who blogs at Bark Bark Woof Woof, apparently ran into "an elderly gentleman in a 2007 Infiniti" when the old man "made a left turn directly in front of me at an intersection." Bobby's okay. The elderly man is okay, too. But the Mustang is in critical condition.

Bobby writes:

Fortunately it happened in the middle of downtown Coral Gables and within five minutes there were three police cruisers and fire rescue on the scene.

That little detail brings to mind the story of a Yankee friend of ours who had a similar accident a few years ago. He was in New Orleans on business, driving a rental car.

Unfamiliar with the streets and signs, he suddenly found himself in the center of town, going the wrong way on a one-way street in heavy noontime traffic. Frantically looking all around, he tried to inch into the intersection so he could angle onto a two-way street, but in the process he "T-boned" another car -- in slow motion.

Our friend says he stopped immediately. Inexplicably, a large crowd gathered around both vehicles immediately. Our friend quickly exited his rental car and tried to make his way through the gaggle of gawkers to the other car, hoping to find the other driver wasn't hurt (he wasn't). As he pushed his way through the bystanders, one after another stopped him.

"I can get you a good lawyer," one fellow told him urgently.

"Me too, " said another. "I know where you can buy the best lawyer in town."

A third man grabbed our friend's elbow. "Hey, buddy," he said. "I can buy you a judge."

Candidate for President of 9 /11

The candidate for President of 9/11 is coming to Pensacola this week. If he can afford the bus fare.

"Sure, he has no foreign or national policy experience, and both his personal life and political career are riddled with scandal," said Hammond. "But in the key area of having been on TV on 9/11, the other candidates simply cannot match him. And as we saw in 2004, that's what matters most to voters in this post-9/11 world."
* * *
"Letting 9/11 fall into the hands of the Democrats in 2008 would be nothing short of a national tragedy," Giuliani said. "Ever since 9/11 was founded that fateful day on 9/11, 9/11 has stood for one thing: 9/11."

He will speak on this topic: "Subject, Verb, 9/11."

Florida Carrion for Sale

40 cents on the dollar:

"South Florida is our principal focus,'' said Arsenault, 60. "If you're a vulture, Florida has more carrion. This stuff is lying on the ground. It's lost life. * * *

Arsenault said he and his three partners may buy a block of about 50 new, unsold condominiums in Orlando, Florida. They have a price in mind and they're willing to wait until they get it: 40 cents on the dollar.
* * *
Companies such as Miami-based Lennar, the biggest U.S. homebuilder by revenue, need to generate cash to make up for slowing home sales, especially this time of year, said Vicki Bryan, a Friendswood, Texas-based senior high-yield debt analyst for Gimme Credit LLC.

"They sold land at 40 cents on the dollar and they're happy to get it,'' Bryan said. "The value of land is eroding by the minute.''