Frankly, he was just doing his duty

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By HOWARD TROXLER

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 11, 2001

I am in receipt of a letter from my state representative, Frank Farkas, R-St. Petersburg. Farkas is taking umbrage. He probably should have left it untaken.

"Frankly" (as some colleagues call him, referring to his campaign slogan) is upset over bad publicity he got for doing a favor for a lobbyist.

Here was the deal: The lobbyist's son is a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy, which of course is a very good thing. But the son was not accepted to medical school at the University of Florida. The lobbyist-father thought this was unfair.

Now, when YOU think something in life is unfair and call your legislator, you might get a nice form letter. But in this case, powerful members of the Senate and House rushed to change state law.

Farkas was the House water carrier for the enterprise. Now he seeks to put it in a better light. Not only was he not being sneaky, he explains -- why, he was being a patriot.

"This bill is not about a lobbyist's son and his inability to enter into a medical school," Farkas writes.

"It is about our responsibility to provide the best medical education to future physicians who will be looking after our sons and daughters in the armed forces. This is not only about good public policy, but about our duty."

Do you see now? Farkas was not doing a sneaky deed at a lobbyist's bidding, not at all! He was doing his PATRIOTIC DUTY! In fact, it's probably unpatriotic even to question it!

I called him.

"Did you actually write this letter?" I asked. Farkas allowed that he had.

We sparred for a while over his claim that no admissions standards were being waived. I kept asking why the actual words say such applicants "shall be admitted," period.

Long pause. "Well. If that's what it says, then we have to fix that."

Does Farkas think it's right that a Tallahassee lobbyist can get state law changed so easily?

"He wasn't getting state laws changed. He was asking us to look at an issue."

Doesn't he see how this looks, especially since everyday citizens don't have that kind of clout?

"We would do that for any citizen of Florida, for any specific profession."

Really, I asked? You would pay the same deference to any local citizen?

"More so," Farkas said. "Because they vote for me."

Then how come, I wondered, dozens or even hundreds of voters begged Farkas in this past session to vote against pumping untreated surface water into Florida's aquifer, yet he voted for it anyway -- because the governor, his party leaders and everybody else in Tallahassee told him to?

Farkas told me that he talked to as many citizens as possible, "explaining" that issue to them (in other words, telling them why he wasn't going to listen).

"You know that I love you," I told Farkas, "but I am not with you on this." (The older you get, the easier it is to say stuff like that.)

I promised Farkas that out of fairness, I would say that he voted AGAINST this same lobbyist on some of the toughest fights of the session, such as Farkas' vote to open up the market for more generic drugs. Good for him, too.

But the underlying fact is that the personal complaint of a power broker in Tallahassee can get state law changed in a snap, while the clear, passionate voice of the citizens of Florida on many other issues cannot. The fact that my state representative does not understand why that is wrong is, frankly, funny.

- You can reach Howard Troxler at (727) 893-8505 or at troxler@sptimes.com.

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