McCollum won't support raising oil damage cap he voted for

As the oil continues to spill into the Gulf of Mexico, the talk in Washington involves the federal $75 million liability cap on damages, which was approved by Congress in 1990. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson wants to raise the ceiling to $10 billion.

It's worth noting that then-Congressman Bill McCollum voted for the cap as a part of the Oil Pollution Prevention, Response, Liability, and Compensation Act, which won unanimous approval.

The vote puts McCollum, now the attorney general and a candidate for governor, in a precarious spot as the clean up is sure to linger throughout the campaign season. His rival, CFO Alex Sink, was quick to notice.

So does McCollum support raising the federal cap he voted for? His campaign wouldn't say. A campaign spokeswoman said it's a potential legal matter for the state.

The strange life of a life insurance bill

UPDATED: The bill with the strangest ride through the legislative process this session is likely HB885 titled "Life Insurance" by Rep. John Tobia, a first-term Republican from Satellite Beach.

It changed dramatically earlier this month when House GOP leaders added language pertaining to the federal health care reform and Attorney General Bill McCollum's lawsuit against President Barack Obama.

The McCollum language was stripped off and put in a separate bill (House PCB 7235) last week. And now lawmakers wanted to add a firebrand amendment Tuesday, though it was later withdrawn. Sponsored by Reps. Matt Gaetz, Chris Dorworth and Scott Plakon, the amendment appears to forbid any state-regulated health insurance plan or hospital from paying for an abortion.

The amendments are not likely to survive the germanity rules that require it to relate to the original bill. For this reason, the amendments were withdrawn before the bill came to the floor

(It's interesting to note the unintended consequences of the McCollum language, which changed the bill title to a broad "insurance bill," attracted a swarm of lobbyists who wanted to tack on their cause. So the GOP leadership likely changed course to prevent a further feeding frenzy.)

Abortion bill appears dead; supporters blame Gardiner's 'cowardice'

A controversial bill to expand parental notification for abortion appears dead this session after the Senate Health Regulation Committee failed to consider the measure Monday. It is still moving in the House, so critics are careful not to celebrate yet.

But it's the legislation's supporters who are throwing in the towel -- and blaming bill sponsor Sen. Andy Gardiner.

In an e-mail titled "UNBELIEVABLE," the Christian Family Coalition said Gardiner "ran out on his bill" and "lost all credibility" with supporters. He left the room before it was considered and asked committee Chairman Don Gaetz to postpone it. The committee won't meet again this session.

"This is the biggest act of COWARDICE that I have seen a public official display in all of my years in statewide politics, he didn't even have the decency to stay in the committee hearing room and postpone his own bill," said Anthony Verdugo, the founder of Christian Family Coalition in a statement. "Someone needs to get the message to Gardiner that politics is a contact sport and NOT for the faint at heart!"

GOP plan to prevent federal health care reforms now in trouble

UPDATED: A proposed effort to block the implementation of federal health care reforms hit its own roadblock Thursday. Rules Committee Chairman Bill Galvano attempted to effectively neuter the bill on legal grounds with a last minute amendment. But his fellow GOP leaders -- Adam Hasner and Sandy Adams -- temporarily postponed his amendment and then the entire bill, a proposed constitutional amendment (HJR37).

Galvano told bill sponsor Rep. Scott Plakon the Florida Constitution is no place to tell the federal government what it can and cannot do -- particularly because of the federal supremacy clause. The amendment would have prohibited only Florida from mandating health care coverage -- not the federal government. (Later, Galvano said he supported Attorney General Bill McCollum's lawsuit against the federal government -- calling it the appropriate avenue to challenge the federal law.)

Plakon reluctantly accepted Galvano's change but other Republicans on the committee weren't so quick. It's unclear whether the bill surface again, if the disagreement can't get reconciled. The original version already passed its Senate committees.

Report on Florida's 'cash register justice' evokes Dickensian comparison

Florida's penchant for charging anyone entering the criminal justice system hefty fines, regardless of their ability to pay, has earned the system a new name: cash register justice.

That is just one of the conclusions of a report by the Brennan Center for Justice, a non-partisan research institute based at the New York University School of Law. The report concludes that since 1996, Florida has added more than 20 new categories of fees to the court system while eliminating all of the exemptions for the indigent and others who are the least able to pay.

In the last two years alone and legislators have scrambled to balance the budget, they have raised court fees to pay for things outside of the court system, the report concluded, and imposed new fees or raised existing ones on anyone convicted of crimes, using a public defender, or who failed to pay a fine within 90 days.

The result: a vicious cycle. "What this debt does is, it poses another barrier for them to get back on their feet,'' said Rebekah Diller, author of the report. In many counties when people can't pay, they are arrested, sit in jail and cost government more than they would have collected had the fees been paid. 

The report was commissioned by the Florida Bar Foundation and received legal help from former FSU president and former School of Law Dean Sandy D’Alemberte and his wife, Patsy Palmer. D'Alemberte said an afternoon spent watching Leon County's Collections Court reminded him of Charles Dickens whose father was arrested and sent to debtors prison -- an embarrassment the British author later said affected him the rest of his life. 

"We have a court system being run on the back of people who could least afford to pay...We thought we had eliminated debtors prison in the United States,'' D'Alemberte said. "I believe it raises very signficant constitutional questions and moral questions.''

McCollum under fire for health care lawsuit, 'sweetheart' deal

CFO Alex Sink blasted Attorney General Bill McCollum on Monday for using Florida tax dollars to file a lawsuit against the health care legislation.

"He seems to be obsessed by Washington politics and not really acting in the best interest of Floridians," said Sink, a Democrat. "It's unfortunate that he's using taxpayer money to file a suite on behalf of the people of the state of Florida when in fact this legislation is going to provide help for many, many Floridians."

Sink contended McCollum, her GOP gubernatorial rival, was "playing party politics" and objected to his questionable contract with his former business partner, David Rivkin and Lee Casey with Baker and Hostetler. She suggested he should have opened the contract bidding to other law firms, as his legislative priority concerning contingency fee contracts would mandate.

"Certainly that's not appropriate in a situation like this," she said. He should have sought proposals "as opposed to providing sweetheart contract to someone he is very close with."

McCollum dismissed the suggestion.

"We hired the best constitutional lawyer possible in David Rivkin," McCollum said. "I have known David Rivkin for a long time. He is an excellent constitutional lawyer."

A spokeswoman for McCollum's office said Florida is paying Rivkin part of a fee split among the dozen attorneys general who filed suit. The fee is $250 an hour but Florida's portion is still undetermined. Here's the contract, which puts a cap of $50,000 on the bill.

Jenne fights to keep his pension

Lawyers for former Broward County Sheriff Ken Jenne were in court Tuesday trying to save Jenne’s $134,500-a-year pension.

Convicted of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and income tax evasion in 2007, Jenne is arguing that the federal crimes he admitted do not constitute grounds for the forfeiture of the pension he earned during his days as a state legislator, prosecutor, lawyer and sheriff.
 
The State Division of Retirement ordered Jenne to forfeit all retirement benefits when he resigned shortly before pleading guilty to federal felonies. A state hearing officer upheld the decision last year.
 
Now Jenne is asking the First District Court of Appeal to overturn the hearing officer and follows a 1981 decision involving former Department of Natural Resources Director Harmon Shields who tried to keep his pension after being convicted of a federal conspiracy. Shields was convicted of trying to extort $235,000 from a real estate agent involved in state land purchases.
 
The federal crimes Jenne admitted do not include a breach of the public trust that would lead to the loss of his pension, argued lawyer Tom Findley as he compared Jenne’s legal problems with other public officials who have been allowed to keep their pensions. A three-judge panel sharply questioned Findley but did not immediately issue a decision.

-- Lucy Morgan

Capitol gadly Brian Pitts gets served at Capitol

Capitol gadfly Brian Pitts got served in a House committee Wednesday. Not in the Urban Dictionary sense, but in the legal sense. The Capitol Police served "Justice2Jesus" with court papers ordering him to report to the Pinellas County jail. He's under fire from the Florida Supreme Court for practicing law without a license. He is appealing.

Pitts, a St. Petersburg native, avoided getting noticed of the recent ruling because the Pinellas County sheriff couldn't find him. But as session started, law enforcement officials knew where to find him. (We also might have -- inadvertently -- helped.) Capitol Police delivered the papers in House Insurance, Banking and Financial Affairs Policy Committee.

Pitts said the timing of the court decision is suspicious, considering he is the subject of a claims bill before the Legislature this year. In this way, he says, he is a witness. So the Supreme Court is guilty of tampering with a witness, he alleges.

His presence is being greeted with amusement (and loathing) by lawmakers, who we're fairly certain were looking forward to shorter committee meetings.

Democrats: McCollum's role in RPOF tainted, special prosecutor needed

Given Attorney General Bill McCollum's close ties to the GOP controversy, Democrats are now calling on Gov. Charlie Crist to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the secret contracts and accusations of misused money.

"Exactly what did Bill McCollum know about Jim Greer's secret sweet-heart deal to leave this job and precisely when didn't McCollum know it?" asked Democratic Party Chairman Karen Thurman in statement.

Thurman suggests McCollum has a conflict of interest that questions his "motivation not to investigator or get all the facts out on the table. Only an independent investigation by a special prosecutor can legitimately determine if crimes were committed by Republican politicians and officials."

Greer's term as head of the Republican Party of Florida officially ends Saturday when party activists will select a new chairman. But questions about party spending and contracts persist.

See full release below.

With no money, House Speaker limits claims bills

In a memo signed Tuesday, House Speaker Larry Cretul set guidelines to limit the number of claims bills this session given the state's budget crunch. "In light of the state's budgetary circumstances, there may be claim bills that have or will be filed which cannot possibly be funded this year," he wrote.

The criteria recommends restricting claims in the House to those settled at the local level that local governments can afford to pay and state claims less than $500,000 that agencies can pay from trust funds without any additional money in the budget.

Only five bills fit these criteria. Read below for more details.