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Lawmaker singles out traffic school's contract

The company has exclusive rights to sell ads in Florida's official driver safety handbook.

By STEVE BOUSQUET
Published April 24, 2007

TALLAHASSEE - A contract that allows a vendor the exclusive right to sell ads in the state's official driver safety handbook has drawn the ire of lawmakers, who plan to end the practice in July.

A little-noticed provision in the state budget was inserted by state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, chairman of the budget committee with oversight of the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

Fasano is a long-running critic of the state's contract with the National Safety Commission, a Ponte Vedra Beach company owned by entrepreneur Kenneth Underwood, who used the handbook to promote his online traffic safety course.

"It was too cozy a deal," Fasano said. "Government should not be preferring one company over another."

Underwood's contract was the subject of a state audit last year that said the public should have known that the lobbyist representing Underwood's company, Sherry Dickinson, was the wife of the then-agency head, Fred Dickinson.

In addition, Underwood's competitors for traffic school business have aggressively lobbied legislators to short-circuit his deal.

Fasano's former legislative aide, Shawn Foster, used to lobby for a traffic school that is one of Underwood's rivals. The senator discounted that as a factor in his actions.

"I was interested in this issue long before Shawn was involved," Fasano said.

Fasano stressed that he had no problem with Underwood, whom he called a successful businessman. His complaint is with the highway safety agency, he said.

The move by Fasano illustrates how one lawmaker in a powerful position can alter a multimillion-dollar contract by writing some words into the budget.

Underwood employs four lobbyists and a public relations firm, Ron Sachs Communications, which issued a statement on the businessman's behalf. The statement noted that Underwood won the contract in 2005 on a competitive bid; that rival firms did not compete; that he has saved taxpayers $2-million so far; and that he offered competitors free ads in the handbook beginning in 2007.

More than 2-million handbooks were distributed in Florida in the past nine months, at a cost of $6.95 by mail.

The budget language crafted by Fasano has been public for weeks. But the contract, and Underwood's profit margin, were not discussed in a legislative meeting, meaning he never had a chance to defend himself in a public forum. Approval of the budget language was formalized at a meeting early Monday morning.

In a last-ditch effort to head off legislative action, Underwood has run an online ad on the Sayfie Review, a media Web site popular with legislators.

The ad noted that the contract was praised by Florida TaxWatch and said of Fasano's budget provision: "This language was crafted specifically to benefit special interests - not the public good."

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

[Last modified April 24, 2007, 01:20:48]