OPINION

Corruption bill meets capitol critics

Matt Reed
Gannett Florida

TALLAHASSEE — I had never before been lobbied against.

The first time was stomach-churning.

But I had asked for it. My Gannett news colleagues and I spearheaded a campaign to get an anti-corruption bill introduced in the Legislature — and succeeded.

Now proposed in the House by Rep. Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne, bill 16-05 came before the Rules & Ethics Committee he chairs for its first official, public vetting Nov. 17.

Quick to object were the road contractors. They don’t want to be added to the definition of “public servant” in Florida statutes on bribery. Their lobbyist attacked that part and a column I had written, ultimately raising a reasonable (but fixable) concern.

But even quicker to object were a handful of representatives who seemed much more concerned about the impact on businesses in their districts than about corruption itself or the taxpayers who absorb its costs.

A few were offended by the thought of our bill forcing contractors to open up more of their company records to activists who hate business. Where they got that thought is anyone’s guess — the bill text they were given plainly states it doesn’t apply to anything but the statutes on bribery, bid-tampering and official misconduct.

But they left believing it did. And I left knowing that passing this bill — nearly two years in the making — will require more than zesty editorials back home.

“I don’t think you’re going to hear from anyone who’s against putting bad actors and wrong-doers behind bars,” said Brad Burleson, a lobbyist for the Florida Transportation Builders Association.

But he asked: What if a subcontractor takes a prime contractor out for a nice dinner, buys a bottle of wine and says he wants to be part of a big highway project?

“That’s a bribe,” Burleson told the committee, speculating on what the anti-corruption bill could do. “If I’m the prime contractor and I win a $100-million Department of Transportation project, I’m on the hook for getting that project done for $100 million. I need to rely on whoever I need to rely on to get that project done.”

A bribe? Would our bill turn everyday business networking into corruption? Brevard-Seminole State Attorney Phil Archer — who also spoke in favor of it — didn’t think so.

But Archer, Workman and I later told the road-builders’ lobbyist and president that we’d support any tweak that ensured it wouldn’t.

Tougher to digest Tuesday was criticism led by Rep. Frank Artiles, R-Miami, a general contractor with a campaign fund loaded with money from businesses and corporate PACs.

Requiring contractors to obey the same public-records laws as city councils (which, as written, Workman’s bill could not do) will cost them tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees and document costs, Artiles predicted.

“You’re now opening the entire state of Florida to shakedown artists and abusers,” Artiles said of the bill and, apparently, my Gannett colleagues and me.

Actually, I thought, Florida is already wide-open to people like that. They’re scattered in government offices from Key West to Pensacola. The cost of their bid-rigging, fraud and kickbacks is so pervasive here, a statewide grand jury dubbed it Florida’s “corruption tax.”

With minutes remaining in the hearing, I did something journalists almost never do. I took the microphone and spoke out on behalf of the millions who pay the corruption tax.

Fired-up and a little nervous, I cited examples of the law letting shady school officials, crime-hotline managers, and contractor–co-conspirators off the hook because today’s law stymies prosecutors. I urged committee members to tackle a problem that has become a national embarrassment.

Afterward, an irked Rep. Marlene O’Toole, R-Lady Lake, approached and scolded me for momentarily mixing up Lake and Polk counties in the hotline example. I apologized. She gave me the stink-eye as she walked away.

Workman tried to be reassuring.

Fortunately, no one had even questioned the second of the bill’s two provisions. It would end the unusual burden on state prosecutors to prove not only that defendants took bribes or illegally steered contracts to pals, but did so with corrupt thoughts or intent.

Still, passing a nonpartisan bill that deters an expensive, universally recognized problem in Florida will be a harder job in the capital than we journalists expected.

Contact Matt Reed at 321-242-3631 or mreed@floridatoday.com.