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Much ado over what's now taboo for legislators

State Senate and House lawyers are busy helping lawmakers navigate a thorny gift ban law.

By STEVE BOUSQUET
Published January 10, 2006

TALLAHASSEE - When the Florida Legislature passes a law, the public is usually left to sort out what it means and to live with the consequences.

Not this time.

Now, the people who write the laws are scratching their heads over how they altered their own lives when they banned lobbyists and their clients from making "any expenditure" to lawmakers. It turns out that a bold statement of ethical clarity, passed in the rush of a four-day special session last month, is a lot more complicated.

That's because the public lives of legislators and lobbyists are so closely intertwined.

Some legislators get rent-free offices from cities and counties that employ lobbyists. They park free in county-owned airports that hire lobbyists. When they go to a state agency to tour its operations, they get a free lunch from the agency, which has a lobbyist on its payroll.

All three situations would appear to be taboo under a new blanket ban on gifts from lobbyists, but House and Senate lawyers are working on rules that lawmakers can use to guide them through the thicket of daily interactions that can involve the mundane, and now illegal, exchange of food and drink.

The rules are sure to add layers of nuance to a gift ban that Sen. Jim Sebesta, R-St. Petersburg, defined simply as "Dutch treat or don't eat."

The House's 120 members will gather today for a gift-ban training session, while lawyers for the House and Senate labor over a list of dos and don'ts and formal rules that are meant to guide future political behavior.

Rep. Dudley Goodlette, a Naples Republican and one of the authors of the gift ban, said his first objective is to advise members what the "letter and spirit" of the law is, and to strictly adhere to it.

"My other goal is to not throw common sense totally out the window," Goodlette said.

Goodlette, who pays $1 a year for legislative office space in a Collier County government building, said that perk is for the convenience of the public and is a gift to "the institution of the House," not to him.

Goodlette, a lawyer, also said a state agency's offer of a lunch and transportation as part of a tour is part of a legislator's official state business.

"I think we want members to be educated," Goodlette said. "I don't think we had any intention in this undertaking ... for this to adversely affect or impact the members' ability to learn as much as they can about the public policy issues we're called upon to address."

The state ethics law includes an exemption from the definition of a gift for the use of public property that has a "public benefit," an exemption lawyers for the Legislature are considering adding to the gift-ban rules.

But some longtime lobbyists strongly challenged Goodlette's interpretation.

"That's nice, but how do you do that when the law doesn't allow you to do that?" said lobbyist Ken Plante.

Plante, a former senator, is a member of the Florida Association of Professional Lobbyists, a group pondering legal action to block the new law if it can raise enough money to cover legal fees. FAPL members are not protesting the gift ban - rather, they dislike a provision in the law requiring them for the first time to disclose their income.

"I see it as nothing but an invasion of my privacy, and it has no bearing on the process," Plante said.

Now that lobbyists are forbidden from wining and dining legislators, he argued, how much a lobbyist earns is irrelevant. "What difference does it make?" Plante asked.

Florida became the fourth state to enact a ban on gifts from lobbyists to legislators, joining Massachusetts, North Carolina and Wisconsin, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Since legislators passed the law Dec. 8, dozens of them have peppered lawyers with questions about how the ban affects everything from birthday cards from lobbyists to Chamber of Commerce dinners.

"If I have had a longtime personal relationship with a friend who is employed by a municipality with a lobbyist, may I accept a dinner invitation either to his or her home or a restaurant if they are paying the bill?" asked Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach, in an e-mail to Senate counsel Steve Kahn.

No legislator wants to be the first to get trapped in a gift-ban violation, especially in an election year. Some lawmakers are frustrated that the answers to their questions are slow in coming.

"There's a lot of frustration from members and the lobby corps. They don't know where to go for answers," said Rep. Loranne Ausley, D-Tallahassee, a member of a team of House members seeking to clarify the many questions.

Gov. Jeb Bush said he hopes the House and Senate can agree on the dos and don'ts, because the gift ban also affects executive branch employees who work for the governor.

"We want to make sure that we're all on the same page about the rules that are established to meet the intent of the law," he said. "I don't know if there's a convergence of agreement with the House and the Senate. ... If we could all get on the same page, it would be better, because it is complicated. There's no question about it."

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

Lawyers for the Florida House and Senate have been inundated with questions from lawmakers and lobbyists about how to deal with the new gift ban. Here's a sampling:

Can the House Women's Caucus hold lunches and reimburse a lobbyist for the cost of bringing the food to the members? - Rep. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood

Can lobbyists contribute to a teaching scholarship in a senator's name, set up by a community college foundation? - Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach

Can a senator accept free travel to speak at a conference in Washington sponsored by People for the American Way Foundation (which has had a lobbyist)? - Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres

Can a senator host an annual "mayor's round table" where city officials can meet with state agency directors at a breakfast paid for by lobbyists? - Sen. Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach

Does a senator have to pay to eat at a dinner of the local Chamber of Commerce? - Staff of Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton

Can a state agency, which employs a lobbyist, hold an open house and tour of its facilities and provide free food and transportation for senators? - Senate President Tom Lee's staff

If it is made clear in an invitation that legislators must either not eat or drink at an event or pay for their food, and a legislator does eat, who's at fault, and should the sponsor report a legislator for violating the ban? - Bill Bell, Florida Hospital Association

Source: Florida Legislature

[Last modified January 10, 2006, 06:22:02]