TALLAHASSEE
Should Ron Book, the mega lobbyist and lawyer who represented the sexual harassment victim whose testimony led to the resignation of Sen. Jack Latvala, be banned from lobbying the Legislature?
[FAC COMMENT: YES, YES, YES!!! PLEASE END THIS CORRUPTION]That was the effect of the amendment before the House Public Integrity and Ethics Committee Thursday on a bill that would impose broad, new penalties for sexual harassment. The committee voted no, but the bill became a vehicle for a disgruntled lawmaker, Rep. Kathleen Peters, R-Treasure Island, to air her grievances.
Peters, whose running feud with House Speaker Richard Corcoran cost her a committee chairmanship, filed the amendment to HB 7007 that would prohibit family members of legislators from lobbying the Legislature.
“This Jack Latvala-proposed amendment is geared at one person,” said Book as he stood before the committee. His daughter, Lauren Book, is a state senator from Plantation.
“He’s right here with a target on his chest,” he said, dramatically drawing an imaginary circle on his chest.
Then, raising his voice, he added: “There’s a target and the target is called retaliatory conduct. Retaliatory conduct because I was willing to step forward and represent several women involved in the Latvala investigation.”
Book is the lawyer for Laura McLeod, the former lobbyist who was subpoenaed by the judge conducting the Senate investigation of Latvala. He also represented two other lobbyists who agreed to testify as part of the probe.
Peters, who has announced she is running for a seat on the Pinellas County Commission in 2018, said she “takes exception” to Book’s claim the amendment was Latvala’s idea.
“Sen. Latvala is not in the Legislature anymore,” she said, adding that she proposed the idea last year after Corcoran spoke to members on the floor of the House during the so-called “whiskey and Wheaties” debate.
That bill to allow big box grocers to sell liquor passed the House and Senate but was vetoed by the governor. Corcoran’s brother was a lobbyist for Wal-Mart, which supported the bill, and Peters and others said they believed the speaker attempted to pressure members to support it. Corcoran denied it.
Several members of the committee criticized the amendment as too broad and that it could potentially undermine the citizen legislature.
Rep. Jason Brodeur, a Seminole County Republican whose wife is Department of Juvenile Justice Secretary Christina K. Daly, said he met his wife while serving in the Legislature, and she is a registered lobbyist for her agency. If Peters’ amendment was law, he said, “my wife may not be my wife.”
“You are changing public policy for 20 million people for an incident that affects two individuals,” Brodeur said. By that logic, he suggested, the state should prohibit people from becoming police officers because they have had a family member in jail.
But Peters rejected that analogy and wouldn’t back down. She said her amendment — which she also filed before session as a bill — “may not have gone far enough.” She said she would have preferred if it also banned a lobbyist from seeking an appropriation for an organization on which the lobbyist is a board member, or if the “family member happens to be a CEO” of the same organization.
The reference was to Lauren Book, founder and director of Lauren’s Kids, a non-profit whose mission is to raise awareness about child sexual abuse. The organization has received more than $10 million in state funds for its educational and instructional programs and both Ron Book and his daughter serve on the board of directors.
In the end, Peters was the only vote in support of the amendment. Rep. Tom Leek, an Ormond Beach Republican, called the amendment an attempt at “political gymnastics.” The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Jennifer Sullivan, R-Mount Dora, said the amendment was “taking away from what we are trying to do to end sexual harassment here.”
Sullivan and House leaders had engaged in some creative maneuvering to get the new sexual harassment rules added to the House ethics bill. That bill, HB 7007 had already passed the full chamber on the first week of session so House leaders pulled Sullivan’s bill back into committee and grafted the new sexual harassment language onto it.
In addition to making sexual harassment a violation of state law, enforceable by the Florida Commission on Ethics, the bill prohibits false reporting and retaliation, requires agencies to make victim advocates available to victims, mandates sexual harassment training of all state and legislative employees, and requires agencies to adopt polices restricting consensual dating relationships between a supervisor and a subordinate.
The original bill includes imposing a six-year ban on retired legislators returning to lobby the Legislature, and attempts to end the revolving door between industry and regulators by prohibiting legislators and agency heads from soliciting contracts for employment with the very people they regulate.
The committee also rejected a second Peters amendment that would have banned legislators from working for law firms that lobby the legislature.
Sullivan raised questions about the timing of the proposals, noting that Peters did not offer them when the bill originally came before the committee — before Latvala resigned.
Book, the senator, said she was disappointed by the drama in the House.
“Retaliation goes both ways,” she said. “We’re working really hard to create a product in the Senate that works to address the culture issue that we all know exists here and that honors the journey of individuals who have been victimized. I’m not going to let small roadblocks or barbs deter us or distract us.”
“You are changing public policy for 20 million people for an incident that affects two individuals,”
Funny how this guy doesn’t apply that logic to SO legislation.
As long as Rick Scott and Pam Bondi are in office they will fight the Constitution to the last breath to save their power…facts be ‘damned’. I have been a life long Republican but I can no longer exercise the same thought process that many of the leaders exhibit. I now consider myself a “Constitutionalist” and look at a candidate’s character and policies rather than ‘blindly’ looking at the candidate’s party.
To the best of my knowledge, Bondi is not completely unsympathetic to our plight like Scott. He is freaking Dr. No when it comes to anything about giving RSO’s relief of any kind, even if the laws in question are of dubious legality and effectiveness.
Ron Crook wants to talk about retaliation??
Am I the only one who sees the irony of Ron Book complaining about retaliation?
No surprise here with the Florida Legislature it’s money and politics over common sense and ethics 10 out of 10 times
This statement is not true.
He may still travel about, (outside the USA)
Yes he should, first it is a direct conflict due to his daughter being a Senator, he has direct influence over her. Second his campaign to alienate and seek vengeance on all he deems as unfit to be a part of his world. Third with his back ground of on-going corruption he should not be allowed to hold such power. Fourth he is also in direct conflict when it comes to his position over the housing situation in Miami-Dade. If they want to “Drain the Swamp”, they should include the lobbyist with it.
So is this lady’s problem with Ron Book or with Richard Corcoran? While Book Is an easy target remember that Mr. Corcoran’s brother is also a lobbyist. As much as I would like to see Ron Book neutered, We have to think about who is going to be running this state for the next few years once Rick Scott is gone. IMO, Adam Putnam Would be the preferred Republican candidate this November but Corcoran is a legitimate candidate.
https://philiplevine2018.com/
Agreed. Republicans, by and large, favor more repressive, regressive, and draconian laws.
As for the Bookends, textBook examples of hypocrisy. The fact that the legislature continually sides with them shows there will never be change in Floriduh.
Yeah, that’s all good and fine, but isn’t he a Democrat from the same area as Ron Book, who is apparently about the only big Democrat lobbyist who still has any juice in Tallahassee after 25 years of Republican control of the government ? Who are his friends? Who is raising money for The former mayor of Miami Beach, which, lest we forget, was the first city pass one of those draconian 2500 foot restrictions back in 2005? He had four years of seeing people living under bridges and alongside railroad tracks and yet I don’t think he ever made a big effort to repeal or modify his own city’s draconian sex offender residency restrictions.
Point being that you need to know who has the war of these candidates. I can tell you that from what I do know that Putnam is most likely the lesser of how many ever evils are going to be running for that job this fall.
One…or maybe both of the Books…need to leave government. They appear to be there for themselves and not for the people. The ‘swamp’ is not limited to DC.