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Attorney decision upsets agency
By TERESA BURNEY © St. Petersburg Times, published September 8, 2000 A few weeks before Gov. Jeb Bush reassigned Cynthia Henderson to run a smaller state agency, the state's top business regulator made a decision that has some real estate brokers angry and worried. In a move that she calls financial and others call personal, the secretary of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation decided to fire the State Attorney General's office, which has provided legal advice to the Florida Real Estate Commission and the state's Appraisal Board since the 1970s. Members of the Real Estate Commission, which regulates and disciplines real estate agents and brokers, are incensed that Henderson would fire their longtime counsel without consulting them first. They worry that a legal hotline that real estate agents and the public consult will suffer. And they say that Henderson's plan to replace the Attorney General's office's role with part-time legal help isn't good enough. Kim Binkley-Seyer, named this week as Henderson's replacement, couldn't be reached for comment on whether she intends to continue with the plan. But DBPR officials say the decision was made to save the taxpayers money. The plan is to hire private attorneys on an hourly basis to advise the board, while other legal matters will be handled through DBPR's real estate division. "It was determined that we could save the taxpayers $200,000 a year without decreasing the services to our licensees or the public, and we decided that is exactly what we would do," said Judd Bagley, the department spokesman, who said Henderson herself was too busy to discuss the issue. That argument rings hollow, said Jim Mitchell, who had served as general counsel to the Real Estate Commission for more than 12 years before Henderson made the move to switch services. The Real Estate Commission pays its counsel with money generated by license fees, and that money has been so plentiful that the license fees charged to agents have been cut in half. The contract with the Attorney General's office has cost the commission $340,000 a year, which equals about $1.50 for every licensee. "And these are not taxpayer dollars," Mitchell said. Some say Henderson wanted Mitchell fired after he disagreed with her on a matter of law during a Real Estate Commission meeting in June 1999. "In hindsight, I think she probably deserved a higher level of respect than I gave her at that moment" during the meeting, Mitchell said. "She obviously walked away from there not being very fond of me. . . . I think that may have been the beginning of the end of the short relationship we have had." Henderson wasn't available for comment on the matter, but DBPR spokesman Bagley says the decision was for financial, not personal reasons. This is only the latest in a string of controversial moves by Henderson: Gov. Bush has had to deflect repeated criticisms that she was too cozy with the businesses she was supposed to regulate. In May 1999, she and her boyfriend took a trip to the Kentucky Derby on a private plane owned by Outback Steakhouse Inc., while their hotel tab was picked up by the head of an association of state racing regulators and race tracks. After the issue surfaced, she paid back the money. Questions also arose about Henderson's handling of the state's professional regulatory boards, including a case against a North Florida builder and a tax case involving Malio's Steak House restaurant in Tampa. A former employee is also suing Henderson, accusing her of choking him because she was angry with the way he was handling a case. Henderson has denied the charge. Hiring private attorneys to provide legal advice to the real estate commission is a step backwards for consumers, Mitchell said. Since the Attorney General's office is charged with helping to protect consumers, as is the real estate commission and the appraisal board, working together was a natural fit, he said. "I would like to believe that we play a bit of the watchdog function, not just to the real estate community but to the public," Mitchell said. Dean Saunders, a real estate broker from Lakeland and vice chairman of the Real Estate Commission, said he is worried about what will happen with the Real Estate Commission's legal hotline, a number for real estate agents and the public. Under the plan, those calls will be transferred to a general customer service care center for the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. "That is something that we are going to be able to do on a much larger scale and much better than we think is currently being provided," Bagley said. Saunders is skeptical, first that the department will have attorneys answering the questions, and second because of what he thinks is a conflict of interest. Since DBPR actually prosecutes cases against real estate agents accused of wrongdoing, while the real estate commission acts as a judge, he doesn't think the department should be answering legal questions. Saunders also thinks that the real estate commission itself will suffer by hiring part-time legal help rather than the current situation where six people -- three attorneys, a paralegal and two office assistants -- are available. "We are the real estate commission for the fourth-largest state in the union, with 15-million people," Saunders said. "I think we deserve a full-time legal counsel."
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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From the Times Business report
From the AP
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