Minutes for May 15, 2025 FAC Legislative Call

Update on Email Campaign:  

 

There are 60 people who are participating in our Email Campaign that will carry us through February of 2026.  Progress is being made on reaching out to legislators on filing a bill that would allow courts to consider medically documented dementia in all aspects of the criminal justice system: offense/defense, probation, and registration.

 

People are now focusing on educating legislators about the inability for persons forced to register to be accepted into Florida long- and short-term healthcare facilities and the concurrent financial liability faced by our hospitals.

 

Because we have more than the necessary 52 people required to finish out our Email Campaign, we are now using two people to send out emails during some weeks.  So, rather than have 160 pings per week, there are sometimes 320 pings.

 

We are looking for more volunteers to help in this project so that we can continue to increase the number of pings.  Read more information here.

 

Update on finding sponsors for both bills:  

 

Ann and Sarah will be reaching out to the Florida Healthcare Association and Florida hospital organizations to determine a course of action to help registrant acceptance into long- and short-term care facilities.  With a path that is reasonable and that can be backed by these organizations, Ann will reach out to legislators to find a Senate and a House bill sponsor.

 

Sarah will be meeting May 22 with her state senator’s legislative aide, asking for support in sponsoring a bill to allow courts to consider dementia in all aspects of the criminal justice process.  She already has a representative and FAC-recommended attorney who have said they will help draft a bill.  The first draft will be created by FAC volunteers, including Bruce who has helped in the past draft FAC proposed bills as well as professionally drafted zoning laws for years when he was an employee for the city.  Other FAC volunteers will be included in this bill drafting that have experience with this type of document.  

 

Update on delegation meetings for 2026 session:

 

The delegation meetings will be held in Sept/Oct/Nov 2025.  We will begin coordinating with the volunteer speakers in July and will draft 3 speeches from which our volunteers can choose (or give their own speech).

 

Update on bills in Tallahassee:

 

Jerry filled us in with the following information:

Legislators are back in session, but only for the state budget and property tax relief efforts. All five bills Jerry was tracking made it to the finish line and are awaiting presentation to and signature from the governor. Interestingly, the House bills were all chosen over their poorly written Senate companion bills. Please refer to the latest bill matrix at the FAC website and all final analyses, which Jerry sent out, for how the bills will affect our current and future population.