State: Bush reassigns official in first agency move

TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush on Tuesday reassigned one of the most controversial members of his administration, top business regulator Cynthia Henderson.

In the first shuffling of his agencies since he took office, Bush moved Henderson, who has been secretary of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, to head another, lesser-known and smaller state agency, the Department of Management Services. That agency oversees state purchasing, state buildings and state workers.

Kim Binkley-Seyer, a shopping center developer and real estate broker from Sarasota, will replace Henderson as DBPR secretary.

The DBPR secretary is Florida's top business regulator, overseeing bars and restaurants, tobacco sales, land sales, condominiums, mobile homes, parimutuel wagering and a variety of professions.

Henderson's tenure at DBPR has been rocky from the beginning, and Bush has had to deflect criticism that she was too cozy with the businesses she was supposed to regulate.

In May 1999, she and her boyfriend, Tampa developer Bing Kearney, took a trip to the Kentucky Derby on a private plane owned by Outback Steakhouse Inc., a Tampa-based restaurant chain regulated by the DBPR. Their hotel tab was picked up by the head of an association of state racing regulators and race tracks. Henderson and Kearney reimbursed all costs of the trip, but she was publicly admonished by the Bush administration and told the Associated Press: "I didn't use my best judgment."

Questions also arose about Henderson's handling of the state's professional regulatory boards, a case against a North Florida builder and a tax case involving Malio's Steak House restaurant in Tampa, a longtime hangout for the city's elite.

"I think the original criticism (of Henderson) was unjustified," Bush said. "There was never any thought in my mind of forcing anybody out."

Also Tuesday, 45 top managers at the DBPR submitted resignations, an action that DBPR spokesman Judd Bagley said was a courtesy to the incoming secretary.

"That's kind of how it works when a new secretary takes over," Bagley said. "Secretary Henderson, as a perfunctory matter, said everybody should submit their letters of resignation so that the new secretary, in the course of putting together her management team, could accept or reject them. It's likely that few of these resignations will be accepted."

The incoming DBPR secretary, Binkley-Seyer, said, "Secretary Henderson has left the agency in great shape. My job is to pick up where Secretary Henderson has left off."

On Tuesday, Bush praised Henderson for doing an "extraordinary job" as DBPR secretary and said her leadership is needed at the Department of Management Services, where much of the governor's new initiatives in technology and public services will play out. Bush wants each state agency to come up with plans to cut 25 percent of its work force in the next five years.

"If we're going to have fewer state employees and better services ... there needs to be innovative leadership at the top," Bush said.

Henderson said she wants to begin reforms that will help state workers do their jobs better. "We really have good people who are trapped by bad procedures," she said.

Henderson's salary will stay the same: $108,355, her spokesman said.

Back to State news

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright

Special Links

Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk