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Regular opinion release from the Florida Supreme Court

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Filings for the Florida Supreme Court
May 17, 2018

SC14-1639 – Fraternal Order of Police, Miami Lodge 20 v. City of Miami, et al.

SC16-448 – Jason Dirk Walton v. State of Florida & SC17-1083 Jason Dirk Walton v. Julie L. Jones, etc.

SC16-1474 – Donna Koppel v. Laura Ochoa, et al.

SC17-82 – Sierra Club v. Julie Imanuel Brown, etc., et al.

SC17-499 – Pressley Bernard Alston v. State of Florida & SC17-983 Pressley Bernard Alston v. Julie L. Jones, etc. (Substituted opinion)

SC17-1034 – U’dreka Andrews v. State of Florida

Economic Study Says Amendment 4 to Add $365 Million to Florida’s Economy Annually

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Second Chances would result in positive economic impacts to Florida

A new economic study conducted by The Washington Economics Group (WEG) affirms that restoring the eligibility to vote for Floridians who have made past mistakes would result in positive economic impacts to Florida taxpayers totaling: 

  • An annual economic impact of $365 million
  • Approximately 3,800 jobs annually
  • An increase in annual household income of $151 million for Florida residents

Amendment 4—the Voting Restoration Amendment—is on the ballot this November. Amendment 4 gives Floridians who have made past mistakes the eligibility to vote after they have paid their full debt to society. Business leaders and civic leaders from across the Sunshine State agree – Now is the time to vote YES on Amendment 4 in November.

Carlos Fernandez-Guzman, President & CEO of Pacific National Bank in South Florida and Past Chairman of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce said, “In addition to it being the right thing to do, the passage of Amendment 4 will make Florida a more competitive state.  Restoring the eligibility to vote for people who have made a mistake and paid their debt to society helps reintegrate them into the fabric of Florida’s civic and economic life, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of jobs annually.  That’s among the many reasons I am proud to join a growing number of business executives who back Amendment Four.”

Reverend Allison DeFoor of Jacksonville, former Monroe County Sheriff and former Vice-Chair of the Republican Party of Florida said, “Allowing citizens to earn back their eligibility to vote gives them a deeper stake in their community, making them less likely to reoffend. Passage of Amendment Four will make our communities safer and let us reduce spending on the criminal justice system.  This is a win-win for Florida taxpayers and for all those who believe in the power of redemption.”

Florida taxpayers will see economic benefits from the passage of Amendment 4 because returning citizens who have their eligibility to vote restored are far less likely to reoffend and re-enter the justice system according the studies by the Office of Offender Review and the Florida Parole Commission. Since fewer returning citizens will reoffend, Florida taxpayers will pay less for prison and court costs.

Additionally, restoring eligibility reduces the “employment penalty” that makes it difficult for returning citizens to find gainful employment. WEG estimates that the impact on reintegration as a result of the passage of Amendment 4 would increase potential employment and income for eligible individuals who have made past mistakes. Thus, returning citizens who have their eligibility restored will have increased earning power, and disposable income, to give back to Florida’s economy. 

To view the economic study, commissioned by the Alliance for Safety and Justice, CLICK HERE.

Michael Reale, Owner & Operator of Reale Investment Group LLC in Southwest Florida said, “Restoring a person’s eligibility to vote reduces the rate of recidivism. Over time, this decline would reduce the burden on taxpayers and result in a total annual economic impact of $365 million dollars. Amendment 4 promises to provide economic growth to Florida for many years to come.”

Dick Batchelor, CEO of Dick Batchelor Mangement Group in Central Florida said, “Citizens who have their eligibility to vote restored will have increased chances at finding gainful employment and disposable income to give back to Florida’s economy. Amendment 4 would do more than just re-enfranchise people who have earned eligibility—it would also reintegrate them into society and Florida’s economy.”

Seretha Tinsley, Past President of the Winter Haven Chamber of Commerce in Polk County said, “Returning citizens who vote are less likely to re-offend than those who don’t vote. Passing Amendment 4 would save thousands of taxpayer dollars and help people become responsible citizens with increased earning power—all factors that contribute to creating safer communities and a robust economy.”

The economic study comes on the heels of a new bipartisan poll conducted jointly by North Star Opinion Research and EMC Research shows that nearly three-quarters of Florida voters support Amendment 4 – regardless of party, gender, race, or region of the Sunshine State.

Amendment 4 restores the eligibility to vote of Floridians with felony convictions only after they complete all terms of their sentence and pay their full debt to society – including parole, probation, and restitution, if imposed by a judge. Those convicted of murder or felony sexual offenses will not be eligible under Amendment 4.

To learn more about the Second Chances Campaign, please visit SecondChancesFL.org.

About The Washington Economics Group
Founded in 1993 in the City of Coral Gables, The Washington Economics Group is a boutique economic consulting firm specializing in comprehensive economic solutions for businesses. For more information, visit weg.com.

About The Alliance for Safety and Justice
Alliance for Safety and Justice is a national criminal justice reform organization that works with crime survivors and aims to win new safety priorities in states across the country. For more information visit allianceforsafetyandjustice.org or @SafeandJustUSA.

Pd. pol. adv. paid for by Floridians for a Fair Democracy, Inc.

Florida Poly’s bookless library takes spotlight in Mexico

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Florida Poly’s 11,000 square foot library, located on the second floor of the Innovation, Science and Technology building, has a digital collection of over 150,000 full text e-book volumes that are a mixture of owned and licensed materials

Florida Polytechnic University’s bookless library was at the center of an international discussion in Mexico focused on the creation and development of university libraries around the world.

Dr. Kathryn Miller, vice provost of academic support services at Florida Poly, was a guest speaker at the first International Colloquium on Library Architecture and Environments, hosted by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) on early May, 2018.

Miller was invited to share how Florida Poly’s innovative digital library enhances the overall learning experience.

“Information access, storage and retrieval are skills students learn in a digital library,” said Miller. “If we can teach students how to work with digital information, they will have an advantage in the workplace because they will know when to seek information and understand how to find and validate it. As a result, they’ll make informed decisions.”

Miller added that digital libraries are the future for disciplines like STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and research institutions in countries like Mexico are taking notice of the model.

“I found great interest in the international collection of librarians gathered to understand how the Florida Polytechnic University Library functions. They were very curious about how our library staff engages campus interest without physical books and how the digital library has changed the librarians’ job functions,” said Miller. “The interest and acceptance of a digital library has become even stronger since Florida Poly first opened our campus with no books in 2014.”

Florida Poly’s 11,000 square foot library, located on the second floor of the Innovation, Science and Technology building, has a digital collection of over 150,000 full text e-book volumes that are a mixture of owned and licensed materials.

Since there is no physical stack area, Miller pointed out that one of the benefits of the bookless library is a more effective use of space.

“The Florida Polytechnic University Library would require 15,000 linear feet of stack area for shelving our books if they were not in digital format,” she explained.

The goal of the colloquium was to exchange knowledge and multidisciplinary experiences in the planning, design, construction and evaluation of physical and virtual spaces in university libraries in order to establish lines of action and policies for improvement in three environments: teaching-learning, research and reading.

UNAM is a UNESCO World Heritage site and shares high world academic rankings.

“They’re a significant research institution, and I was very impressed with Mexico’s commitment in projecting growth and ensuring utility with the university libraries,” said Miller.

Florida HIE Notification Service Delivers 7.5 Million Alerts, Expands to Include Hospital Subscribers

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The Agency for Health Care Administration (Agency) today announced that the Encounter Notification Service® (ENS®) operated by the Florida Health Information Exchange Services (Florida HIE) has delivered over 7.5 million notifications to facilitate patient care coordination since its inception in 2013. These notifications are generated by over 215 participating hospitals throughout the state and are currently being routed to 43 different subscribers, including health plans, Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), provider practices, and now hospitals. These subscribers use ENS to facilitate post-acute care coordination, avoiding unnecessary hospital utilization.

Agency Secretary Justin Senior said, “The continued growth of ENS brings benefits to patients, providers, hospitals, and health plans by sharing information about patient hospital encounters. I commend all of the health care stakeholders participating in this valuable service for their commitment to using health information technology as a means to providing better health care.”

Adventist Health System, in partnership with the Florida HIE, is the first hospital system in Florida to subscribe to ENS. This pilot partnership with Adventist Health System will place the system at the forefront of HIE adoption in the state. Going forward, Adventist will utilize these notifications to inform their clinically integrated network of their patients’ acute care encounters.

Adventist Health System’s Senior Director of Interoperability Jason Aspinwall said, “Through the use of the ENS alerting system, Adventist Health System’s Population Health Services Organization has been able to accurately monitor out-of-network admissions, better facilitate transfers where needed, and help with timely discharge planning and follow-up for our patients.”

Subsequent to Adventist Health System, four other hospital systems have contracted with the Florida HIE to deploy ENS subscriptions and two of those have fully implemented.

The Agency governs the Florida HIE in partnership with Audacious Inquiry (Ai), which provides operational infrastructure. The Florida HIE’s ENS platform facilitates improved care coordination. The ENS system also supports state and federal health care initiatives, including Statewide Medicaid Managed Care, the Medicare Shared Savings Program, and the Medicaid Electronic Health Records Incentive Program.

To date, the ENS platform is supported by Ai in 12 states and has delivered approximately 80 million notifications, benefiting over 32 million subscribed patients across the United States.

Ai’s Managing Partner, Chris Brandt said, “Effective care coordination facilitated by the Florida HIE and ENS will increasingly benefit Florida patients. We are honored to support Florida’s dedicated hospitals, physician practices, health plans, and ACOs in the shared pursuit of higher quality and more efficient care delivery.”

For more information on this and other Florida HIE services, please visit florida-hie.net.    

For more information about the health information exchange, please visit fhin.net or florida-hie.net.

Rutherford’s Protect and Serve Act of 2018 Passes House

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Lawmakers approve bipartisan bill to enhance
federal penalties for targeting law enforcement

H.R. 5698, the Protect and Serve Act of 2018, today passed the House by a vote of 382-35.  This bipartisan bill, which now goes to the Senate for consideration, would create federal penalties for individuals who deliberately target local, state, or federal law enforcement officers with violence.

Upon the House’s passage of this legislation, Congressman Rutherford released the following statement:

“As a career law enforcement officer and former sheriff of Jacksonville, I know what officers go through every day when they put on their uniform and head out to keep our communities safe,” said Rutherford. “This is why I am proud that the Protect and Serve Act was passed by the House today with overwhelming bipartisan support.

“Sadly, we have seen a recent increase in violence against officers, especially in ambush style attacks. This bill creates steep consequences for anyone who targets officers and intentionally tries to do them harm. During National Police Week, as we remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty, the Protect and Serve Act of 2018 shows law enforcement officers across the country that we in Congress support them in the important and dangerous work that they do each day.”

This year alone, 87 officers have been shot in the line of duty, 28 of whom lost their lives. This is 75 percent higher than this time last year. These numbers show a significant, growing trend of armed attacks on law enforcement officers, and todays passage of H.R. 5698 is the first step in preventing more of these tragedies.

The Protect and Serve Act was endorsed by the National Fraternal Order of Police, the National Association of Police Organizations, Major County Sheriffs, Sergeants Benevolent Association, and the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association. Congressman Rutherford’s floor remarks on the bill can be found here.

Mast Statement on Passage of VA MISSION Act

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U.S. Congressman Brian Mast (FL-18), the newest member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, released the following statement after the House of Representatives passed the VA MISSION Act with overwhelming bipartisan support, 347 to 70:

“Since opening the first-ever Congressional office inside a VA facility, we’ve met with hundreds of veterans and opened more than 100 cases to help veterans that are having issues with the VA.  As I’ve seen firsthand with my own healthcare from the VA, there are many great doctors who go above and beyond for our veterans, but it’s also clear that there are many areas where the VA needs to seriously step up its level of service.  The VA MISSION Act is great progress toward ensuring that veterans get more choice and the high level of care that they were promised when they put on a uniform in defense of our country becomes a reality for everybody.”

The legislation accomplishes five objectives:

  • Consolidates and strengthens the VA’s community care programs;
  • Funds the existing Veterans Choice program to ensure veterans continue to receive care through the Choice program until the new, consolidated Veterans Community Care Program takes effect;
  • Creates new flexibilities to aid the VA in managing its infrastructure portfolio through an Asset and Infrastructure (AIR) review process;
  • Expands the Caregivers program to include eligible veterans from all eras of service;
  • Strengthens the VA’s workforce.

BACKGROUND

Prior to his election to Congress, Rep. Mast followed in his father’s footsteps by serving in the U.S. Army for more than 12 years, earning medals including The Bronze Star Medal, The Army Commendation Medal for Valor, The Purple Heart Medal, and The Defense Meritorious Service Medal. While deployed in Afghanistan, he worked as a bomb disposal expert under the elite Joint Special Operations Command. The last improvised explosive device that he found resulted in catastrophic injuries, which included the loss of both of his legs. 

In Congress, Rep. Mast has emerged as a leader on veterans issues, and earlier today, he became the newest member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee.

Rep. Mast also opened the first-ever Congressional office inside a VA facility in January.  Through this office, veterans from around the area have improved access for assistance with any VA-related issues.  The office is located in room 1A-366 of the West Palm Beach VA.  Since the opening of the office, many other Members of Congress have asked Rep. Mast about the process to open his office so that they can replicate the service for veterans at their local VA facilities.  Unfortunately, opening the office took more than a year of navigating bureaucratic red tape.  That’s why he introduced the Improving Veterans Access to Congressional Services Act to cut down on this bureaucracy by requiring the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs to permit a Member of Congress to use a facility of the Department of Veterans Affairs for the purpose of meeting with constituents of the Member.  Rep. Mast testified before the VA committee on this bill earlier today.

He also introduced and got signed into law The Department of Veterans Affairs Expiring Authorities Act.  This bipartisan bill extended a number of expiring authorities impacting veterans’ benefits, health care, and homeless programs, including nursing home care, support services for caregivers, transportation, child care assistance, adaptive sports programs and housing and home loan services.

FDOT Hosting Public Meeting on Improvements at S.R. A1A and 520 Intersection

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The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT is holding a public information meeting regarding plans to improve the intersection of State Road (S.R.) A1A at S.R. 520 from Brevard Lane to north of S.R. 520 in Brevard County.

The proposed improvements include removing the free flow right turn lanes, realigning the east approach and extending the northbound dual left turn lanes. Also included in the project is the extension of the existing northbound left turn lane at the intersection of S.R. A1A and Canaveral Plaza Boulevard (Marion Lane), and various pedestrian safety improvements.

The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 22, at the Cocoa Beach Country Club, River Room, 5000 Tom Warriner Boulevard in Cocoa Beach. The meeting is an open house from 5-7 p.m., and includes a brief presentation at 5:30 p.m. The purpose of the meeting is to inform interested persons of the proposed improvements and receive their feedback.

Participants may provide comments during the meeting, by email or by mail. Written comments should be directed to Mr. Gene Varano, FDOT Project Manager, 719 S. Woodland Boulevard, MS 542, DeLand, FL 32720, or [email protected]. Comments mailed should be postmarked no later than Monday, June 4, 2018. All comments, written and oral, will become part of the project’s public record.

Persons with disabilities who require accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act or persons who require translation services (free of charge) should also contact Mr. Gene Varano. If you are hearing or speech impaired, please contact us by using the Florida Relay Service, 1-800-955-8771 (TDD), or 1-800-955-8770 (Voice).

Public participation is solicited without regard to race, color, national origin, age, sex, religion, disability or family status.  Persons wishing to express their concerns relative to FDOT compliance with Title VI may do so by contacting the FDOT District Five Title VI Coordinator, at [email protected].

Media inquiries should be directed to the FDOT Communications Office at 386-943-5479 or [email protected].

FDOT advises drivers to slow down and use extra caution in construction zones.

Gov. Scott Highlights Security Funding at Jewish Day Schools

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Governor Rick Scott and First Lady Ann Scott today visited the Torah Academy of Boca Raton and Chabad Naples Jewish Community Center to highlight the $2 million in security funding for Jewish Day Schools in this year’s Securing Florida’s Future budget.

The $2 million in security funding will help eligible Florida Jewish Day Schools provide security and counter-terrorism upgrades such as video cameras, fences, bullet-proof glass, alarm systems, and other safety equipment.

Senator Annette Taddeo Joins Call For A Special Legislative Session To Address Education Funding And School Safety

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“Tallahassee has failed our public school system by refusing to provide adequate funding for students and mishandling the protection of our students and teachers,” Senator Taddeo stated. “I join my colleagues in calling for a special legislative session to solve these education issues so that our students can learn in safe and nurturing schools. [Read more…] about Senator Annette Taddeo Joins Call For A Special Legislative Session To Address Education Funding And School Safety

Rutherford Appointed to House Appropriations Committee

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The House committee with responsibility over
the federal government’s spending priorities

Congressman Rutherford (R-FL) has been appointed to the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations, the standing committee responsible for all of the federal government’s spending priorities, which debates and sets specific amounts for all discretionary federal spending on all federal agencies and programs.

“I am honored to join the House Appropriations Committee and take on a greater role in ensuring that precious taxpayer dollars are spent wisely,” said Rutherford. “Responsibly prioritizing our nation’s spending is one of Congress’s most fundamental constitutional responsibilities, and I look forward to working to rebuild our national defense, properly care for our veterans, and promote efficiency and accountability within every federal agency and program. I extend my thanks to Chairman Frelinghuysen for the invitation to join this vital Committee.”

A first-term Member of Congress, Rutherford previously served on the House Committees on Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, and the Judiciary. Upon Rutherford’s appointment, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) stated:

“We are in the midst of a very aggressive and busy appropriations season. With the retirement of one of our great Subcommittee Chairmen, Charlie Dent, we needed to bring a new Member on board, and have made additional changes in Subcommittee leadership as well,” Chairman Frelinghuysen said. “We welcome Rep. John Rutherford to the Committee, and I look forward to working closely with him over the next weeks and months to complete all 12 Appropriations bills in the House, and to fulfill our fiscal commitments to the country and the American people.”