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Letter to the editor

At DCF, push for privatization has degenerated into cronyism

By LUCY MORGAN
Published July 17, 2004

You might say we are reaping the benefits of privatizing state government.

For more than a decade state officials have repeatedly talked about the value of hiring private businesses for work previously handled by state employees.

More efficient, says Gov. Jeb Bush, who has even suggested we empty some state office buildings. But did he mean to make more room for vendors to get no-bid contracts?

This week's 600-plus-page report from Chief Inspector General Derry Harper gives us rare insight into how Tallahassee works.

Some familiar names surface. Names like Jim Bax, Don Yeager and Greg Coler, all relics of the past who have arisen to haunt the halls of government.

Come stay at my little $3-million gulf-front house on Longboat Key and we'll roast a pig, coos Jim Bax to Jerry Regier, the man in charge of the Department of Children and Families. And while the pig is roasting, we'll hear some Caribbean drums and guitar playing.

Come, let me give a birthday party for you, Bax tells Regier.

Stay in posh hotels and do have a massage or two, says a vendor anxious to get a contract with the State Department of Children and Families. The massages, at an exorbitant $163.20 each, were provided to two high-ranking DCF employees who resigned in disgrace Thursday.

Go with us to Australia, a free trip from a vendor for the two disgraced DCF officials in return for their participation in a 30-minute panel discussion.

And let's do all these things while we are considering contracts for millions of taxpayer dollars with these vendors.

Tragic that the agency charged with helping those who need help the most would lose its way in the forest of lobbyists and vendors.

Social events after DCF meetings included one lavish affair at the home of Rep. Sandy Murman, R-Tampa. Lobbyists and vendors were present for the affair. Some DCF employees paid $15 apiece for the event, but records of payments no longer exist.

Regier even tried to schedule a staff retreat at Bax's house on Longboat Key last year but abandoned the idea when staffers objected.

Bax is no stranger to most of us. But he usually shows up somewhere close to Tom Gallagher, the state's chief finance officer.

Bax, 68, entered state government in the 1960s after then-Gov. Claude Kirk appointed him head of the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, the agency that later became the Department of Children and Families. The state tends to change the name of any agency that manages to repeatedly disgrace itself.

This time Bax was working for Florida State University and a private company. Both had contracts with Regier's agency. DCF employees told investigators Bax was around the agency and attended meetings with other staffers.

FSU officials say Bax resigned from his job at the Institute for Health and Human Services Research in March. That's about the same time an unidentified whistle blower started yelling about the cozy relationships between Regier and his staff and vendors.

FSU officials promise to investigate. So will the Ethics Commission.

Don Yeager, a lobbyist with close ties to outgoing Senate President Jim King, provided tickets to Elton John and Cher concerts and other events for DCF officials. They paid him, officials say.

Greg Coler, who headed HRS under former Gov. Bob Martinez, turns up partying with the DCF crew. Regier had to return his birthday bottle of wine, given while Coler was trying to get a contract for a client. Witnesses said it was from Coler's "personal vineyard."

All very cozy. Regier explains that his wife and Bax's wife attend Bible study together.

Perhaps they also should study the governor's code of ethics: take nothing from a vendor or a lobbyist.

[Last modified July 17, 2004, 01:00:37]