Senator vows to try again on ALF reform

The head of the Senate committee in charge of elder affairs vowed Tuesday to revive efforts to toughen the rules for assisted living facilities — and close the most dangerous ALFs.

As the state Legislature met Tuesday for the first time in 2013, Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, chair of the Committee on Children, Families and Elder Affairs, said she planned to bring back legislation that sank at the end of last year’s session.

At the hearing, resident advocates and ALF operators tried to sway lawmakers through passionate testimony. Elder advocates called for more oversight and tougher punishment for rogue facilities while industry leaders warned that more regulations could put the homes out of business.

Many people in the packed committee room held copies of The Miami Herald’s 2011 Neglected to Death series, distributed by Senate staff before the meeting. The Herald’s two-year series revealed that at least one ALF resident is killed per month from starvation, beatings or neglect at little-regulated homes in Florida.

“There’s so much information out there and so much that needs to be done, and we can’t drop the ball on this,” Sobel said. “This is a very very important issue, and this committee is going to get it done.”

The Agency for Healthcare Administration, which oversees ALFs, recommended proposals similar to those scrapped by the Legislature last year, from increased education requirements for administrators to a state website that would allow potential residents to shop facilities and rate them.

Several witnesses asked for more unannounced visits to facilities. Under current law, inspectors visit the state’s 6,000 facilities only once every two years, said Jim Crochet, Florida’s long-term care ombudsman.

Read more here. 

Three out of four $$ this election cycle went to no-limits committee accounts

Florida’s sputtering economy did not stop interest groups and donors from spending $306 million this election cycle on state political campaigns, according to final election year tallies released Friday.

The number is lower than the $550 million reported in the 2010 election cycle and does not include the massive amount of federal cash spent in the presidential race. But it points to a new trend: more dollars are going to campaign committees rather than individual candidates.

Three out of every four dollars were unlimited checks to political committees, while the rest went into the campaign accounts of individuals, which are capped at $500 a check.

The shift is a sign that Florida’s $500 limit is outdated and dysfunctional — and ripe for reform, said Dan Krassner, executive director of Integrity Florida, which did the analysis of the campaign finance data released by the Florida Division of Elections.

“Candidate accounts have become nearly irrelevant,’’ said Krassner. The current system allows corporations to write unlimited checks to political committees with loose affiliations to candidates but require them to give no more than $1000 to individual candidates for both the primary and general election. The result is, he said, “the public cannot easy follow the money.’’

House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, who has called for an overhaul of the state’s campaign finance reforms said Friday the numbers prove his point that the political committees – known as Committees of Continuous Existence, or CCEs – have gotten out of hand. Story here.

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After Digital Domain failure, FSU grapples with next step for film school

Florida State University is struggling to figure out the next step for its acclaimed film school in light of the failure of Digital Domain Media Group, the government-subsidized animation company that filed for bankruptcy in September.

The university's Board of Trustees gave FSU President Eric Barron permission Friday to move FSU's West Palm Beach film studio to Tallahassee if he thinks it would be in the best interest of the school. Barron will also discuss his options when he meets with the Board of Governors, which oversees the state's university system, on Jan. 16-17. 

FSU got into hot water after it launched a South Florida campus this fall with failed film company Digital Domain.

ACLU touts court victories while state GOP attacks group

As the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida touted its courtroom victories against Gov. Rick Scott's administration Thursday, the Republican Party of Florida made a scathing rebuttal.

The party accused the civil rights group of ignoring the will of voters, inflating its successes and filing frivolous lawsuits that cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars.

"The ACLU has largely failed Florida taxpayers, who voted for and support many of the initiatives that the ACLU opposes," wrote Republican Party spokesman Brian Burgess, in response to a report released by the group Thursday.

The public skirmish is only the latest between the state GOP and the civil rights group since a Republican supermajority swept into the Legislature and Scott took office in 2011.

Read more here. 

Movers & Shakers: Changes at AIF, DEO

Big changes at DEO

As Jessie Panuccio takes over as head of Florida's Department of Economic Opportunity this week, DEO will see some other interesting changes. 

On Jan. 8, Chad Poppell will begin as the chief of staff and Monica Russell will begin as chief communications officer, according to a news release.

Poppell most recently was director of employee services at the municipally owned electric and water utility in Jacksonville and before that worked as chief of human resources for the city of Jacksonville. Russell was previously a partner at North Public Relations. She worked previously worked at DEO’s predecessor, the Agency for Workforce Innovation. 

Critics, supporters weigh in on red-light camera report

After the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles reported that accidents were down at intersections with red-light cameras, the Florida League of Cities and State Rep. Daphne Cambell, D-Miami, offered their opposing views.

The report emphasizes that traffic accidents are down at intersections with red lights. But it also states that crashes have decreased overall.

The study does not detail the extent to which accidents have decreased at intersections with or without the red-light cameras.

Here is the statement from the League of Cities.

State report: Crashes down at intersections with red-light cameras

Crashes are down across Florida at intersections equipped with red-light cameras, according to a new state report.

A report of accidents compiled by the state from 73 different law enforcement agencies found that more than half of Florida agencies, 41, say accidents are less frequent at intersections using red-light camera technology. Crashes were more frequent in just 11 of the 73 jurisdictions while the rest saw no change or didn't have enough information.

The five-page report from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles contains data from Hillsborough County, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Fort Lauderdale and Miami and includes accidents between July of 2011 and June of 2012.

Tampa has issued 52,760 violations and St. Petersburg has issued 27,086. Accidents at intersections with cameras are down in Tampa but up in St. Petersburg. The cities were not asked by the state to detail how much accidents are up or down.

Most agencies also reported that traffic safety had improved throughout their jurisdictions "as drivers were more cautious when approaching all intersections."

The statistics have been delivered to the Legislature, and are likely to influence debate on whether red-light cameras are in Florida to stay. Lawmakers have tried to outlaw the cameras in years past.

Read more here. 

Four employees ousted at Blind Services over sweetheart deal

Thousands of state workers haven't received pay raises in years, but Division of Blind Services worker Caroline McManus was due for a $97,000 boost overnight.

The plan: To quit her $59,000 computer programming position and return the next day as a $156,000 contractor.

All the managers approved it. Same job, same desk, more than double the pay.

While that sounds like a great deal for the employee, it also violates a rule that bans workers from leaving state jobs and returning within two years for more money.

After learning about the ploy from an audit released this week, officials with the Department of Education halted it and fired two employees, suspended two others without pay, and forced two more to resign. One of those forced to resign was the division's director, Joyce Hildreth, who had approved the pay raise for McManus.

This is only the latest sign of turmoil at the Division of Blind Services. Last month, a Times/Herald story revealed Hildreth, a former contractor, farmed out no-bid contracts to her former coworkers that were so loosely worded the groups could charge $58 dollars per hour for driving to a blind person's house or more than $2,000 for a brief phone call.

Read more here. 

Florida releases results of license tag contest

Florida voters have selected their next license tag.

The green-rimmed, leafed-orange winner in a poll of about 50,000 online voters could be released as soon as 2014. It is scheduled to be phased in over two years on Florida's 15 million vehicles.

"Sunshine State" is at the plate's bottom edge, and the center is stamped with seven characters instead of the traditional six, to keep Florida from running out of character combinations.

"The online poll represents one part of the process to select the new plate design," says a news release from the Department of Highway and Motor Vehicles. "Before the design is manufactured, the public's vote will be factored in with input from the Governor, Cabinet and policy makers.

Read more here.

Delegates cast official votes for Obama

The votes that really count have been cast. 

Florida delegates, with their sought-after 29 electoral college votes, submitted their ballots for President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden during a ceremony in Tallahassee's Senate chamber Monday.

State law doesn't require delegates to cast their ballots in accordance with the popular vote. But the delegates had sworn allegiance to the Democratic Party, and Obama and Biden were the only names on the ballot.