The move sparks criticism and reveals a split with fellow Republican Cabinet member Tom Gallagher.
By STEVE BOUSQUET
Published August 27, 2003
TALLAHASSEE - Gov. Jeb Bush cast the pivotal vote Tuesday as the Cabinet appointed his victim services coordinator to the state parole board and rejected a black finalist for the job.
Bush's choice was Tena Pate, who has more than two decades of criminal justice experience. She has advised three governors on clemency cases and comforted families of crime victims during the lengthy execution process.
Pate, 45, succeeds Jimmie Henry on the three-member board, which decides thousands of parole and clemency cases every year. Henry, who resigned in May during an investigation that led to felony charges last week, was the board's only black member. The position pays $85,355 a year and requires confirmation by the state Senate.
Pate's selection revealed a split between Bush and Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher, a fellow Republican who said finalist Robert Woody was more qualified.
Gallagher pointed out that a majority of prisoners are black and said Woody's selection would acknowledge that "disparity." Otherwise, Gallagher said, "We would be lacking for the first time in many, many years, African-American representation on the Parole Commission, and that, I think, would be a mistake."
Woody, 50, runs a victim assistance program at the Department of Corrections and has been a parole officer and probation supervisor. He also was one of Florida's 25 presidential electors for George W. Bush in 2000. None of that swayed the governor.
"We've never had someone who has had a track record of focusing on victims and 100 percent of the crimes committed in this state have a victim attached to them," Bush said in support of Pate. "I think it's more than appropriate to have that expertise."
Bush pointed with pride to his record of racial and gender diversity on state boards and judgeships since he enacted the controversial One Florida initiative in 1999, replacing affirmative action in state government.
"I don't think you need to have an African-American parole commissioner to be able to be sensitive to the needs of people that are seeking some redress from the state," Bush told reporters.
Gallagher's office prepared a spreadsheet listing each candidates' qualifications side-by-side, which left blank spaces under Pate's name.
The spreadsheet also noted that Woody received a master's degree in criminal justice from Rollins College in 1979 while Pate got her bachelor's degree in criminology at Florida State last summer.
Some subtle political dynamics also were at work.
Attorney General Charlie Crist and Gallagher are considered possible candidates for governor in 2006, when Bush's second term ends. Crist lined up behind Bush, while Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson favored Woody. A tie vote is decided in favor of the side the governor takes.
The Tallahassee NAACP urged Woody's appointment and called diversity on the parole board "of utmost importance" because some 53 percent of prisoners are black.
State Sen. Mandy Dawson, D-Fort Lauderdale, said Pate's appointment was a setback for African-Americans in Florida. "It's frightening to me to think we may be going backwards," Dawson said. "I guess we're back on the plantation."
