Capitol watchers were given a glimpse this week of the next chapter in the showdown between the governor and Cabinet members over department-head appointments.
Aides to Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam acted to cut off Gov. Rick Scott’s apparent rush to find replacements for Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty, Department of Revenue chief Marshall Stranburg and Financial Regulation Commissioner Drew Breakspear.
Monica Russell, Scott’s director of Cabinet affairs, laid out for consideration at a Cabinet meeting next week a series of new performance measures for Cabinet agency heads. But one of Russell’s counterparts, Atwater aide Robert Tornillo, said not so fast.
The Cabinet, which will meet Tuesday, must first formally approve the concept of establishing performance standards, Tornillo explained.
When Scott and the Cabinet met last month in Tampa, they only informally agreed to establish the criteria, said Tornillo, whose boss Atwater has publicly defended McCarty.
“Before we look at a stack of performance measures that one of us has put together, I think we need to have meetings with each agency,” Tornillo said. “There are companies that make a living doing this type of stuff, and we’re trying to do it on the fly.”
Parting ways with the governor’s aide, other Cabinet aides wanted to give the agencies a month to review the proposed standards and give the agency heads a chance to weigh in at an April 14 meeting.
One item that remains on next week’s agenda but which aides did not discuss Wednesday is a proposal that would require Cabinet staff to undergo Sunshine Law training and keep minutes of their meetings. And the reason for the silence? An aide for Attorney General Pam Bondi — whose office serves as the watchdog for the state’s open government laws — said it was best not to discuss the matter in public because of a pending lawsuit dealing with the ouster of former Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald Bailey.
Media organizations and other plaintiffs allege that the Sunshine Law was violated because Scott and Cabinet members used aides as “conduits” to communicate about the Bailey ouster. Cabinet decisions are supposed to be made in public.
Scott’s office has denied that discussions about Bailey violated the Sunshine Law.
–source: The News Service of Florida