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Lee renews push to close loophole lobbyists used

He wants to make it harder to camouflage trips like one lawmakers took to Canada.

By STEVE BOUSQUET
Published November 23, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - A gambling company's free trip to Canada for four legislators, disguised as a Republican Party fundraiser, is adding momentum to the idea of fuller disclosure of lobbying.

Senate President Tom Lee failed in the spring to win House support for new rules that would have forced lobbyists to disclose how much they spend entertaining individual lawmakers.

Now Lee wants lawmakers to consider a revised bill in a five-day special session next month. The new proposals include a tighter definition of who can accept in-kind donations of services to political parties, the loophole used to camouflage the Canada trip.

"I would love to get that behind us and tighten that up because there's an ambiguity in there that's just unnecessary," Lee said.

The Legislature will meet the week of Dec. 5 to finalize details of a pilot program to move some Medicaid patients into managed care. Lawmakers also are expected to resolve a dispute over how to regulate slot machines in Broward County, which voters there approved in March.

The trip to Toronto in July was sponsored by Magna Entertainment Corp., which owns a South Florida thoroughbred track, Gulfstream Park, and is eager for lawmakers to set the rules that will allow slot machines at Broward's four parimutuels.

The lawmakers on the trip were Sen. Dennis Jones, R-Treasure Island; Rep. Frank Farkas, R-St. Petersburg; Sen. Jim King, R-Jacksonville; and Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton. The lawmakers who took the trip said no fundraising occurred in Canada and that they toured Magna's operations and learned of the firm's expansion plans in Florida.

It is illegal for legislators to accept gifts from lobbyists worth more than $100. The $48,000 cost of the charter jet flight and accommodations in Toronto later appeared as an in-kind contribution to the Republican Party of Florida. When the trip came to light last month, controversy erupted.

House Speaker Allan Bense is uneasy about rushing through sensitive legislation in the compressed time frame of a short session. But Bense, known as a stickler for decorum, said some Panama City constituents have stopped him to complain about the trip.

"My instincts tell me, because of the feedback I've received from members and the public, that we will have to do something to clean that up," Bense said. "To the general public it just wasn't a pretty sight."

Both political parties have commonly reported as in-kind donations such services as air travel for legislators to attend political fundraisers. But the two-day Canada trip had not been arranged through the GOP as a money-raising event.

Lee ordered Senate general counsel Steve Kahn to investigate the involvement of the three senators in the Magna trip. Kahn's review is continuing, and is expected to be complete before the start of the regular 2006 session next March.

A lobbyist for Gulfstream Park, Marc Dunbar, who went on the trip, described it in an Aug. 11 letter as a fundraiser for the GOP and the Senate Republican majority, an informal group headed in part by Lee. But Lee said he had no knowledge of the trip.

After the trip was revealed, the Republican Party of Florida wrote Magna a check for $48,180.86 to cover the expenses the four lawmakers incurred for their travel.

But that check is not yet in Magna's hands.

At Lee's request, the party gave him the check, and it is still in Lee's Capitol office.

"I want to express to them my concern about this kind of thing, and I like doing that stuff face-to-face," said Lee, a vocal critic of what he views as excessive influence by lobbyists.

Another Gulfstream lobbyist on the trip, John Culbreath, wrote Lee a letter last month. He had just received a note from Lee thanking the lobbyist for his contribution to a Senate Majority fundraiser at The Villages, a Central Florida retirement community.

Culbreath got his thank-you note from Lee on Oct. 19, the same day he was questioned by Kahn about his role in the trip. He took issue with the inquiry in his note back to Lee.

"I value my reputation and integrity very highly and at this age I certainly do not intend to do anything that will tarnish that image," wrote Culbreath, 79, a House member from 1966-78.

Yet, in that note Culbreath called the Magna trip a fundraiser, which Lee still disputes.

"Were it that clear cut, there would be no need for an inquiry into the matter," Lee wrote back. "Sadly, the allegations have cast a doubt on the integrity of the legislative process."

Steve Bousquet can be reached at bousquet@sptimes.com or 850 224-7263.

[Last modified November 23, 2005, 00:44:19]