You know how in some Game of Thrones episodes Daenerys Targaryen asks the villagers her army conquers to come before her to air their grievances and ask for things?
Legislative delegation meetings are like that. Only no dragons.
Each Florida county has an assortment of lawmakers elected to the state House and Senate. Ahead of the spring legislative session, these lawmakers hold audiences with residents to hear what they want to talk about — be it a school superintendent asking for state dollars or someone who'd like more gun control laws. The delegation doesn't have to do anything beyond smiling and nodding.
Pinellas County held its gathering today in Seminole, and Hillsborough will have one tomorrow morning at Hillsborough Community College's Dale Mabry Campus at 9:30.
The Pinellas panel consisted of State Sens. Jeff Brandes and Jack Latvala as well as State Reps. Larry Ahern, Dwight Dudley (the only Democrat on the panel), Chris Latvala and Chris Sprowls (the latter two barely a month on the job). State Rep. Kathleen Peters was there initially but left to attend to family issues. Sen. Arthenia Joyner and Rep. Darryl Rouson were also absent.
(State Rep. Jamie Grant, whose district includes a tiny portion of north Pinellas, would have been there, but he's awaiting a special election. A judge stripped him and opponent Miriam Steinberg from the ballot because a write-in candidate may have been falsely kept off the ballot. The special election to determine the seat is Apr. 21.)
Speakers from across the county weighed in on a slew of issues.
More than one called for increased funding for mental health programs, saying the state is shooting itself in the foot by paying little attention to individuals with mental illness unless they're accused of a crime.
“They go untreated," said Gulfport City Councilwoman Yolanda Roman. "They're in the general population and they're just subject to abuse.”
USF-St. Petersburg Regional Chancellor Sophie Wisniewska asked the panel to continue supporting the campus's business school, which would add to the $20 million the state has given to help the school build the Kate Tiedemann College of Business.
“It is already the home and the hub of one of the best colleges of business,” she said.
At times, Florida's polarized political climate colored the debate.
Former House candidate Shawn Vercher, who lost in the Democratic primary for the HD 67 seat Republican Chris Latvala ultimately won, told the lawmakers to reconsider their positions on Medicaid expansion in the state via federal dollars available through the Affordable Care Act. A majority of state Senators approved accepting that money last year, but the House did not. Vercher urged the panel to take it up again this year, something incoming House Speaker Steve Crisafulli has said would not be part of the chamber's agenda.
“I'm not here to ask you to pay for that health care," she said. "I'm here to advocate for the fact that I believe we already are paying for that healthcare, we just don't realize it…We've already paid for our federal tax dollars and we're not receiving a full benefit.”
Diane Guthrie of Citizens for Gun Control asked the lawmakers to let cities have greater control over their own gun laws (thanks to a law the legislature passed in 2011, local governments can't make any laws restricting guns).
“This is a hot subject and I know that,” she said. “I want you to listen to me and respect me..as much as you would an NRA member. I don't care whether you're a Republican or Democrat.”
While the latter two speakers' legislative wishes will probably — if not definitely — go unfulfilled with a Republican supermajority (however polite the delegation was to the speakers), a couple of local bills have a shot.
One, which Lealman Fire District Chief Jim Millican presented, would pull control of Emergency Management Services out of the Pinellas County Commission's direct purview (the commission currently makes up the EMS board as well), and would create a panel of stakeholders from the county, cities and fire district. The details of that bill are still being hammered out.
The panel will hold another public meeting in a month to discuss the status of this and other local bills and hear more comments from the public.
Alas, there probably won't be dragons at that one, either.
This article appears in Dec 4-10, 2014.