Even elected officials hire lobbyists
More and more, the people you pick to represent you are paying people to represent them in Tallahassee.
By LUCY MORGAN
Published April 30, 2006
TALLAHASSEE - What started as a trickle has become a flood: More and more, the local officials that taxpayers elect are turning around and spending millions of tax dollars to hire lobbyists to represent them in Tallahassee.
Ten years ago, 24 Florida counties hired a total of 118 lobbyists; this year, 43 counties hired 478 lobbyists. Ten years ago, 34 cities hired 64 lobbyists; this year 126 cities hired 322 lobbyists.
Pinellas County governments will spend almost $800,000 this year, a pittance compared to the millions Miami-Dade county and cities are spending.
Advocating for counties, cities and school boards has become big business. Lobbyist Ronnie Book rakes in more than $2-million a year from 27 local government agencies.
Local officials say it's money well spent in an arena where the only way to survive is to get the support of the legislative leaders who control the state budget and the lawmaking process.
Pinellas County Commissioner Susan Latvala said lobbyists frequently can reach legislative leaders from other areas of the state. "It makes a huge difference," Latvala said.
But some lawmakers question why elected officials need lobbyists to do their work for them.
"Local officials should be able to talk to the Legislature," said Rep. Rich Glorioso, R-Plant City, a former city commissioner in his hometown. "I don't think they ought to use their tax money to hire lobbyists."
* * *The Miami-Dade Expressway Authority raised tolls and authorized new toll booths, much to the dismay of local legislators. The lawmakers reacted by crafting a bill that would reduce the number of authority members and change the way they are appointed.
The Expressway Authority, which does not rely on tax revenue, hired nine lobbyists to fight the bill this year. (Authority officials ignored repeated requests to provide the amount the authority paid the lobbyists.)
To retaliate against the Expressway Authority for hiring the lobbyists, lawmakers inserted a clause into a bill this year that would prohibit the authority from hiring lobbyists.
"Why should the Expressway Authority hire an army of people to fight us off?" said Rep. Juan Zapata, R-Miami. "One of two things will happen next: The board will be restructured, or we'll be back next year, and we won't have lobbyists to fight off."
One of the new lobbyists the Expressway Authority hired is Al Cardenas, former chairman of the state Republican Party. He expects the amendment that would ban outside lobbyists will backfire on the Miami-Dade legislators, because legislative leaders don't like lawmakers to micromanage local issues.
But Zapata said it's wrong for lobbyists to try to get legislators from other areas of the state to kill a measure that Miami-Dade legislators agree on.
"We have too many lobbyists," Zapata said. "What ends up happening is you've got to find work for these guys. One of the things lobbyists like to do is complicate things so they can come and fix it."
Without lobbyists, Zapata said, the Expressway Authority members would have to meet with lawmakers and, yes, discuss their problems.
* * *Lobbyist Ronnie Book represents 42 private clients, including BellSouth, Florida Power & Light and United Healthcare. He also has a list of public clients so long that he farms out some of his work to other lobbyists.
Book represents Miami-Dade County's schools and county commissioners, Pinellas and Broward counties, Pinellas Park, West Palm Beach and 17 smaller cities. His fees range from $30,000 paid by some small cities to $270,000 paid by Miami.
His success stems in part from the fractious relationship between Broward County and its 31 cities. Twenty-four of the cities have hired a total of 81 lobbyists. In Miami-Dade, 35 cities have hired 57 lobbyists.
The Miami-Dade County Commission has 34 lobbyists, including Book. The lobbyists work for fees totaling $500,000 plus $225,000 in expenses. The city of Miami spends an additional $440,000 for eight lobbyists.
Book is best known in South Florida, but Pinellas County and the city of Pinellas Park also have hired him. Pinellas Park decided to get a lobbyist to help get money for road projects.
"We're happy to say we did get about $3-million since hiring him," noted Tim Caddell, media and public events director for Pinellas Park. The city pays Book about $50,000 a year plus $3,000 in expenses.
Book started in state government as an aide to Gov. Bob Graham, a Democrat. He has worked to overcome his partisan roots with campaign donations and fundraising for Republicans as well as Democrats. As Republicans gained control of the Legislature, Book changed his voter registration to no party affiliation.
In Tallahassee, Book has a reputation for taking the seemingly impossible issue and getting it passed.
"Governments deserve as good a representation as private, wealthy clients get," Book said. "When nobody would represent local governments, I did it, now it's become fashionable."
Pinellas County and Clearwater rely heavily on two former state legislators who once served the county: lobbyists Peter Dunbar and Sandy Safley. Both are familiar with issues, including water, that are dear to the city and county. They also represent the Tampa Bay Water Authority and subcontract with Book for help on some Pinellas County issues.
Pinellas pays Dunbar's firm $100,000, and he gets an additional $78,000 from the Tampa Bay Water Authority. Clearwater pays the firm $40,000.
Dunbar has taken the lead this year in a battle between the state's 19 charter counties and the cities in each county. The Florida League of Cities wants to pass a bill that would free cities to make their own land use decisions. Dunbar is fighting it.
Working for public agencies is different, Dunbar notes. There are no big expense accounts to wine and dine the Tallahassee crowd and no campaign contributions to curry favor with lawmakers.
The city of St. Petersburg relies on Mayor Rick Baker and a single in-house lobbyist.
Pinellas and Hillsborough counties and cities rely in part on full-time staffers who lobby and handle other duties, but they also have outside lobbyists helping out.
Hillsborough County retains the firm of Tallahassee lobbyist Matt Bryan for $77,000 a year. Hillsborough schools retain the Carlton Fields law firm for $35,000, so they can use former Gov. Bob Martinez to help when needed.
Tampa Bay Water - an agency that oversees water use in Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties - spends about $106,000 for five lobbyists, including Dunbar and two of his partners. The Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority spends about $80,000 a year on three lobbyists. Pasco County spends about $120,000 for four lobbyists.
Tampa spends $95,000 on three outside lobbyists.
Brian Ballard, who represents multiple cities and counties, said he spends a lot of time fighting mandates that would force local governments to raise taxes to cover expenses for services state lawmakers order.
Ballard collects a total of about $270,000 a year representing the cities of Palm Beach, Pembroke Pines and Boca Raton, and Charlotte and Martin counties. He said his rates, $40,000 to $65,000, are lower than what he charges 63 private clients, including Verizon, the Tampa Bay Lightning and the New York Yankees.
Ballard said even the best-connected mayor or county commissioner cannot handle the full-time job that lobbying legislators has become. "You can't get your finger on the pulse by coming up here a couple of days at a time," Ballard said.
Several local officials who make frequent trips to the Capitol are former lawmakers, including Pinellas County Commissioner John Morroni and Broward County Commissioners Jim Scott and Ben Graber. Scott is a former Senate president and Graber is a former House member now running for the Senate.
"I can get in to see everybody," Morroni said. "But I don't know how many opinions we actually change. The hardest part of it is being on the other side begging, "Please can I have some more,' or "Please don't give it to me.' "
It's impossible to tell how many local officials spend time in Tallahassee because lawmakers do not require elected officials to register as lobbyists.
It would seem that no city is too small to hire a lobbyist. Bradenton Beach, population 1,513, has three lobbyists registered. All are members of the same law firm that also serves as city attorney. David Ramba, one of the lobbyists, said the city wants to pass a local bill that will help police local waterways.