Note: After reviewing the bills again, I missed a bill that Andrade had passed by both chambers and the laid on the table was done to replace it with the Senate version that passed. The correct record is 10-24.
The 2024 Session wasn’t kind to our local delegation when it came to the bills they filed. Representatives Michelle Salzman, Alex Andrade and Joel Rudman sponsored 34 bills, and only 10 passed.
District 1: Michele Salzman (R-Cantonment)
She filed 10 bills, and three passed. The two bills concerned compensation for the Dozier School survivors. Another bill allowed motor vehicle registrations to include information about a diagnosis of certain disabilities or disorders of the applicant or a legal guardian’s child or ward.
Bills on county commission term limits, gaming control and Health Care Provider Accountability died on the second hearing calendar.
Bills regarding state recognition for the Santa Rosa Band of the Lower Muscogee, a Florida Veterans History Program, adding filters on children’s tablets and smartphones, and compensation for advising or assisting in veteran’s benefits died in various committees.
District 2: Alex Andrade (R-Pensacola)
Five of his bills passed both chambers—three concerned the Midway, Pace and Avalon Beach fire districts, and the other two dealt with towing and storage of vehicles and vessels and providers of cardiovascular services.
His bill providing exemptions from public records and meeting requirements for specified health-related compact commissions and committees was laid on the table because the House took up the Senate version. We consider that win, too.
He sponsored some of the session’s most controversial bills. Five bills died in committee. They covered:
- allowing municipalities to ask for schools to be converted to charter schools,
- prohibition of live venues from selling tickets through just one company and arenas and concert halls from selling or transferring passes at prices higher than originally listed,
- restrictions on panhandlers asking for cash,
- prohibition of selling, delivering, bartering, furnishing, or giving kratom products to individuals under 21 years of age, and
- revising the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund.
His defamation bill and another to compensate Marcus Button for harms and losses due to the negligence of a Pasco County School Board employee died on second reading.
A bill prohibiting officials from soliciting or accepting anything of value from foreign countries of concern died on the third reading.
District 3: Joel Rudman (R-Navarre)
He won passage of Cassie Carli Law,” requiring a court to designate authorized locations for child custody exchanges “unless otherwise agreed to by both parents in writing.” Rudman named the bill after Carli who was allegedly kidnapped during a custody exchange and later found dead two years ago.
His other nine bills didn’t fare as well. Eight bills died in committee. They covered:
- invalid restrictive covenants with physicians,
- prohibition of an entertainment venue from canceling a contract because of the performer’s use of social media or political affiliation,
- allowing the mandatory waiting period for gun purchase to expire,
- mandating businesses accept cash payments,
- disallowing vaccines to be included as treatment during a public health emergency,
- establishing a Florida State Psychiatric Hospital,
- requiring research facilities to offer dogs and cats for adoption before euthanizing them,
- and the creation of North Santa Rosa County Utilities Authority.
A bill providing exemptions from public records requirements for identification and location information of certain current and former military personnel, their spouses and dependents was laid on the table.
Featured Photo by vuk burgic on Unsplash
Well, at least Andrade wins at losing. And for all the black humor in that, it really isn’t funny for his constituents and the greater Pensacola area.
What amazes me is that he continues to find TIME to fail so epically in the House, while dividing his attention between his duties as Milton City Attorney (the biggest of which seems to be to conjure drama), and, to the best of my understanding, litigating for a private firm. It might lead one to wonder whether there’s an apparatus in the background helping him to push forward so many lost culture war battles at once.
In some ways, it’s analogous to the truly disastrous campaign of the Clerk of Court, with the throughline between the two quixotic personalities their willingness to value raucous grandstanding and power-tripping for their own self-promotion, the hell with the good of the constituency they represent.
The loss of taxpayer time and money on the 401a suit is irrecoverable, not to mention collegiality between the BCC and the Clerk’s office damaged fatally and any mutual problem-solving or process-building ground to a halt. And all because our local newspaper was happy to valorize a whipping girl to continue their vendetta against the BCC in the eternal struggle to get a combined charter with Downtown at the helm. They knew who they were pitching to: a percentage of the populace who for the first time–amazingly–learned how ridiculously lucrative legal executive compensation really is. (That problem is hardly centered in Escambia County, or the State of Florida, but is my opinion crippling our economy nationwide.)
Imagine if all this time and energy spent on tilting at windmills would have been spent towards addressing that very real issue. Or even if the Clerk would have agreed simply to submit it to the AG with the County and abide by the opinion. But that wouldn’t have made Pam a folk heroine for people who truly don’t understand the bigger picture, would it? It’s a lot easier to focus animus on individuals rather than recognize, let alone tackle, the bigger issue–which I agree is grossly unfair executive compensation that has sadly been baked into the rotting American apple pie for a long time.
There is no “winning” that case now for either side, regardless of what the judge or the Appeals court that Mr. Fleming is so anxious to kick this up to rule. Because instead of actual problem solving and striving for equity, the public got this mess instead. The following is taken from Mr. Cash’s common sense exposition in his final argument (and note that on the Clerk’s page, it’s “THE COUNTY’S CLOSING BRIEF” versus “CLOSING ARGUMENTS OF DEFENDANT, PAM CHILDERS, CLERK OF THE CIRCUIT COURT & COMPTROLLER FOR ESCAMBIA COUNTY,” just one small example of the constant politicking that takes place on our court dockets).
How I would love to have Mr. Cash’s description of Andrade’s lofty scrabbling around for his own image rather than the good of the taxpayers:
“The evidence here showed that the Clerk has been on a remarkable drive against the Commissioners’ retirement benefits since the day she said she heard the Local Plan includes elected officials. After two rousing public meetings, the Clerk reached out to two newspapermen, and an editorial board; hired at least three law firms— (her in-house counsel, her trial counsel, and Mr. Dannheisser) — paying hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars in fees; lobbied the FRS to change its checkboxes; contacted the Florida Association of Court Clerks to survey their members and to solicit an amicus brief; engaged in several back-and-forth pre suit exchanges with County lawyers; filed her own countersuit against the County; appealed the dismissal; and then dismissed the appeal. All this to put an end to something she herself and her predecessor had done for years. One would have to ask whether the Clerk has the time to do anything else. It is a credit to her that she has pursued this case about as ardently as her counsel. What motivated the Clerk to pursue this campaign?” (21-22)
Grandstanding and power tripping, in both cases. That’s what.