An Okaloosa County commissioner and local tea party leader wonder if language added recently to a state Senate ethics bill essentially neuters what has been called groundbreaking legislation.
“The answer to that question is no, hell no,” said state Senate President Don Gaetz.
Gaetz, R-Niceville, and other state lawmakers have touted Senate Bill 2 as the strongest effort to reform state government in years. It passed out of the Senate Rules Committee last week by a 13-0 vote, and should win the approval from the full Senate soon after the legislative session begins next week.
As originally written, S.B. 2 prohibits “a former member of the Legislature from associating with any firm for the purpose of working on matters that will come before the Legislature” — in other words, lobbying his or her former colleagues.
The intent of the language is to end what has become known as “the revolving door,” a practice so common that last year’s Senate President Mike Haridopolos and House Speaker Dean Cannon will work this year as lobbyists.
County Commissioner Dave Parisot contends that the Senate Rules Committee quietly amended the bill Feb. 19 to allow legislators still in office, such as Gaetz, to do as their predecessors and move into a lucrative life of lobbying after they complete their term in office.
The paragraph added to the bill that Parisot questions states: “amendments made to paragraph 9(a) of section 112.313 of Florida Statutes by Section 3 of (S.B.2) apply to members of the Legislature who begin a new term of office after the effective date of this act.”
Paragraph 9(a) dictates “postemployment” restrictions for legislators and legislative employees.
“With this amendment, the revolving door rules will not apply to the current crop of senators and representatives in the state Legislature,” Parisot wrote to the Northwest Florida Daily News. “This includes the main proponent of ethics reform, Senate President Don Gaetz, and all other legislators who will term limit or otherwise leave the Senate or House this term.”
Henry Kelley, a tea party member who keeps a close eye on Tallahassee, also took exception to the amendment.
“If the rules are good enough for the next Legislature, why aren’t they good enough for the present one?” he asked.
Gaetz, who has four years left in office, insists he wants the revolving door slammed shut.
“I think it is unethical to trade political influence for private gain,” Gaetz said. “I think the revolving door is unethical and we’re going to make it illegal.”
Gaetz said S.B. 2 will force lawmakers leaving office to wait two years before they can work as a lobbyist. The amendment added by the Rules Committee, he said, only tightens revolving door reform.
“This bill has actually gotten better as it has moved through committee,” he said.
He said “any suggestion that (the bill) is meant to exempt any current member of the Legislature from any provision of the ethics bill is simply not true.”
“The only way the revolving door wouldn’t pertain to a legislator currently in office is if that legislator resigned,” Gaetz said.
Parisot said he saw no way the amendment could be construed as anything but a loophole created for current legislators. He called Gaetz’s defense of the amended bill “ridiculous.”
“Let (S.B. 2) apply to everybody in there now and you have a strong bill,” Parisot said. “All that amendment says is ‘this doesn’t apply to you.’
“I think that it is utterly ridiculous what Gaetz said, that that amendment strengthens the bill,” he said.
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Tom McLaughlin at 850-315-4435 or tmclaughlin@nwfdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomMnwfdn.