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UPDATE: U.S. District Court denies Defendants’ motion to stay in Hand v. Scott

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Florida’s Executive Clemency Board filed a notice of its intent to appeal the permanent injunction from U.S. District Court Judge Mark Walker, ordering the state to establish a new voting rights restoration process for former felons. Earlier this year the Court affirmed that the 1st Amendment protects the right to vote and concluded that the process by which Florida officials grant or deny former felons’ restoration of voting rights applications is unconstitutionally arbitrary.

UPDATE: The Court has denied Defendants’ motion to stay (or suspend) the injunction until the end of all appeals. Defendants will still have to present a new rights restoration plan by April 26 unless the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court orders otherwise.

The Fair Elections Legal Network (FELN) is a national, nonpartisan voting rights and legal support organization. Our mission is to eliminate barriers to voting and improve election administration across the United States. Working alongside other national and state groups, FELN works to make the processes of voter registration, voting, and election administration as accessible as possible for every American.

Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC is recognized as one of the premier law firms in the country handling major, complex plaintiff-side litigation. With more than 90 attorneys, Cohen Milstein has offices in Washington, D.C., Chicago, Ill., Denver, Colo., New York, N.Y., Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., Philadelphia, Pa., and Raleigh, N.C.  For additional information call 561.515.1400.

Attorney General Bondi to Kick Off 2018 Law Enforcement Torch Run

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MEDIA ADVISORY

Attorney General Pam Bondi will kick off the 2018 Law Enforcement Torch Run, benefitting Special Olympics Florida, tomorrow, April 05, 2018 at 11:00 a.m. in Tallahassee.

WHO: Attorney General Pam Bondi, State Director of the Law Enforcement Torch Run Dave Sklarek, Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil and Tallahassee Police Chief Michael DeLeo

WHAT: Law Enforcement Torch Run

WHEN: Thursday, April 05,11:00 a.m.

WHERE: Florida Capitol Courtyard
The Capitol
Tallahassee, Fla.

The run will begin at 10:15 a.m. in the parking lot of the Lake Ella Plaza, 1700 N. Monroe St, Tallahassee, Fla. 32303.

Nelson, Rubio call for investigation into Puerto Rico’s ongoing power woes

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More than a half-dozen U.S. Senators today called on leaders of the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee to investigate Puerto Rico’s ongoing power outages and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to begin reducing the number of utility repair workers on the island while thousands of residents still do not have power.

The request for an oversight hearing on the Corps’ actions was made in a letter led by U.S. Sens. Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Marco Rubio (R-FL and sent today to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate’s Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA).

“The Army Corps of Engineers is reportedly drawing down the number of utility repair workers on the island,” the senators wrote. “We would welcome an opportunity to discuss the Corps’ decision to begin reducing this workforce on the island while our fellow Americans in Vieques, Caguas, and elsewhere continue to struggle.”

In addition to Nelson and Rubio, the letter was signed by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Tom Carper (D-DE), Bob Casey (D-PA), Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

Nelson, who has been an outspoken leader in pushing the federal government to do more to help the people of Puerto Rico recover in the wake of Hurricane Maria, was in Kissimmee, Florida earlier today to meet with local Puerto Rican community leaders and discuss the island’s ongoing recovery efforts.

Yesterday, Nelson and Rep. Darren Soto (FL-09) sent a letter to President Trump urging his administration to do more to help the island. Nelson and Soto called the federal government’s response in Puerto Rico “slow, tepid and completely inadequate.”

Copy of the letter Nelson and Soto sent to the president yesterday is here.

A .PDF copy of the lawmakers’ letter today requesting a Senate Committee investigation is available here.

Background article on the issue can be found below.

Contractors Are Leaving Puerto Rico, Where Many Still Lack Power

By FRANCES ROBLES
Published: Feb. 26, 2018

SAN JUAN, P.R. — Though hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans remain in the dark five months after a devastating hurricane trampled the island’s power grid, the federal government has begun to scale back the number of contractors it has working to get the lights back on.

The United States Army Corps of Engineers is in charge of the federal effort to repair the power grid on the island, where a Category 4 storm last fall knocked out electricity to every home and business. The corps gave major contracts to two companies, Fluor Corporation and PowerSecure, and coordinates their work with the efforts of the island’s government-run power utility, which has also hired contractors and brought in crews from mainland utilities.

At one point, there were a total of 6,200 workers repairing transmission and distribution lines across the island, about half of them working for the corps. Now that power has been restored to more than 1.1 million people, by the utility’s count — about 86 percent of the island’s customers — the corps said it would begin a “responsible drawdown” of its work force.

Nearly 1,000 power workers have left the island in the past two weeks, according to Twitter messages posted by the corps. Fluor still had 1,600 people in Puerto Rico as of Sunday, but its contract period is “nearing the end,” and PowerSecure is scheduled to wrap up work by April 7, the corps said.

The decision to scale back was met with “indignation” across the island, said Jorge L. González Otero, the mayor of Jayuya, a town in the central part of the island, where about half the residents still lack power.

Fluor has already billed the maximum amount allowed under its $750 million contract, and its subcontractors were told last week to pack up.

“Fluor was among the first companies to get here, about a month and a half ago,” Mr. González Otero said, referring to Jayuya. “They said the contract was over, and they left everything half-done.”

“Imagine, I have people here without power for five months who are 80 years old, disabled, bedridden,” he added, “and they were just beginning to see people 50 meters away get their electricity back. They are growing desperate.”

Fluor’s crews would not be the first contractors to leave abruptly. After a scandal erupted over the Puerto Rico government’s award of its first power restoration contract, worth $300 million, to a small Montana firm, Whitefish Energy, the government canceled the deal.

Many people involved in power restoration said that officials overseeing the work were disappointed with the Army Corps of Engineers contractors. Fluor in particular was criticized for working sluggishly and using up the money available under its contract without accomplishing as much as expected.

Fluor is a Texas-based construction giant that has done more than $30 billion in government work over the past four decades, much of it for the Defense Department, federal records show.

“I understand that they were slow — super slow,” Mr. González Otero said. “Now we don’t have anyone, slow or at all. We have no one.”

Justo González, the interim executive director of the island’s government-owned utility, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, also was critical of Fluor’s performance.

“We compared, and saw better work from other companies,” Mr. González said in an interview.

Even so, he said, the corps’s decision to let the Fluor workers leave was worrisome.

“It concerns me,” he said. “It can affect our ability to energize. We wanted them to continue. What do I want? To energize as quickly as possible.”

A spokesman for Fluor denied that there had been any questions about its work.

“To date, we have restored power to 250,000 customers by fixing 7,500 poles, installing 462 miles of wire, more than 20,000 conductors, and repaired 170 transmission lines,” the company said. Under the limits set by the contract on the time and money to be expended, the company said, “we are reaching the end of both, and have been directed by the corps to begin transitioning people and equipment off of the island.”

The corps said that restoring power to some of the hardest-hit areas of Puerto Rico, including Arecibo and Caguas, would take a few more months. The “right number of restoration workers” were “actively engaged” in completing the job, the corps said in a statement.

“We will not rest until we have the lights back on for all of our fellow American citizens in Puerto Rico,” Col. Jason Kirk said in the statement.

Ahsha Tribble, who oversees power efforts for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Puerto Rico, said it was unfair to single out Fluor for leaving before restoration was complete, because other private companies that came to the island from New York and other states under mutual assistance agreements were also considering scaling back soon.

“At 86 percent restoration, we are starting to shave off people,” Ms. Tribble said. “In any normal course of restoration, you ramp up until you start getting your successes, and then you begin to start ramping down.”

Many of the remaining areas without power are in mountainous regions where it is not possible to squeeze in thousands of workers at once, she said.

Island residents, many of them still struggling to get basic services, were surprised by the corps’s announcement.

“We are so appreciative of everything these people have done — these workers risked their lives coming here, working in dangerous helicopters and all of that,” said Nydia Guzmán, 72, who spent Friday at one of the utility’s customer service offices, along with dozens of other customers who were disputing their bills.

“But they can’t leave now,” Ms. Guzmán said. “There’s too much left to be done.”

Tallahassee Highlighted for Solar Progress in New Report

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The City of Tallahassee is highlighted as a leading “Solar Star” in a new report, landing it among the nation’s leading cities for installing clean energy from the sun.

“Cities like Tallahassee are leading the way to a future powered by clean, renewable energy,” said Jennifer Rubiello, director of Environment Florida Research & Policy Center. “By tapping into more of our vast solar energy potential, we can benefit from cleaner air and fight climate change.”

Tallahassee ranked ahead of the 4 other Florida cities in the report, including Jacksonville, Tampa, Orlando, and Miami, for megawatts of solar energy per capita as of year-end 2017. Tallahassee’s rank is due in large part to the 28 MW solar farm contracted by the city. Through the Tallahassee Solar program, residents and businesses were allowed to enroll to purchase their electricity from the solar farm at a fixed rate for the next 20 years. The 2,000 slots for this program filled up so quickly that the city is continuing it for another solar farm it plans to build.

“Tallahassee stands out as an example for other cities to follow in Florida and throughout the South. The city is listening to local customers like me who want solar energy in their homes and their communities, and it’s giving different types of solar room to grow,” said Scott Thomasson, southeast director with Vote Solar.

The report, Shining Cities 2018: How Smart Local Policies Are Expanding Solar Power in America, shows that the top 20 solar cities, comprising just 0.1 percent of the country’s land mass, account for 4 percent of U.S. solar capacity.

“We are in a moment when progress on renewable energy will come from cities across the country,” said Rubiello. “More local leaders should step up and start plugging their communities into the clean and virtually limitless power of the sun.”

Last month, mayors from 18 cities in Florida from Tallahassee to Naples signed onto a bipartisan letter of 180 mayors across the U.S. resolving to make solar power a key element of their communities’ energy plans and calling on others to embrace clean energy from the sun.

Shining Cities is the fifth annual report from Environment Florida Research & Policy Center. Each year, the survey ranks nearly 70 of the nation’s major cities by megawatts of solar energy. This year, the report also ranks state capitols and smaller cities that are going big on solar energy.

Environment Florida Research & Policy Center is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to protecting Florida’s air, water and open spaces. We investigate problems, craft solutions, educate the public and decision-makers, and help people make their voices heard in local, state and national debates over the quality of our environment and our lives. 

Florida Speaker of the House Richard Corcoran Endorses Marsy’s Law

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Florida Speaker of the House Richard Corcoran announced his support for Constitution Revision Commission (CRC) Proposal 96 (also known as Marsy’s Law for Florida) in a letter to commissioners, calling on his appointees to support the proposal, which would provide crime victims and their families with clear, enforceable protections in the Florida Constitution.

“Florida should join the growing list of states that have enshrined these important protections in their state constitutions,” Speaker Richard Corcoran wrote in his letter. “As a member of the Commission, you have the tremendous opportunity to ensure that crime victims’ rights and interests are protected by law … This provision puts the constitutional rights of a crime victim on equal footing with the rights of the accused. Victims of crime deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.”

Last month, the full CRC voted in favor of Marsy’s Law for Florida. The measure will go before the full CRC again for a second vote and must receive a minimum of 22 votes in order to be placed on the 2018 General Election ballot. The proposal must be approved by 60 percent of voters to be placed in the Florida Constitution.

Speaker Corcoran’s endorsement comes just before National Crime Victims’ Rights Week, April 8-14, where communities across the country will come together to raise awareness for victims’ rights and encourage access to important protections for all crime victims.

About Marsy’s Law
Marsy’s Law is named after Marsalee “Marsy” Nicholas of California who was stalked and killed by her ex-boyfriend in 1983. Only one week after her death, Marsy’s mother and brother, Henry T. Nicholas, walked into a grocery store where they were confronted by the accused murderer. The family, who had just come from a visit to Marsy’s grave, was unaware that the accused had been released on bail.  In an effort to honor his sister, Dr. Nicholas, co-founder of Broadcom Corporation, has made it his mission to give victims and their families constitutional protections and equal rights. He formed Marsy’s Law for All in 2009, providing expertise and resources to victims’ rights organizations nationwide.

Gov. Scott: Florida Ranks No. 1 for Building Code Strength

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Governor Rick Scott today announced that the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) has released the new edition of its Rating the States report, ranking Florida No. 1 for strengthening residential building-code systems. The state-by-state assessment, previously issued in 2012 and 2015, ranks 18 states most vulnerable to catastrophic hurricanes along the Atlantic Coast and Gulf of Mexico. The report is intended to focus attention on the need for strong, statewide building codes and identify steps states can take to improve their building-codes.

Governor Scott said, “In Florida, we know how important it is to be prepared for hurricanes while doing everything possible to keep families safe. Florida’s building codes have consistently ranked among the strongest in the nation and I’m proud that we have now been ranked first for building code strength by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety.”

Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation Secretary Jonathan Zachem said, “As reflected in the IBHS report, the importance of effective, well-enforced building codes was demonstrated in our state during the 2017 hurricane season. I’m extremely pleased that the state of Florida was ranked first on this landmark report.”

IBHS CEO and President Julie Rochman said, “States with strong, updated codes saw stunning proof this year in Florida that updated, well-enforced building codes have led to the construction of homes and buildings that can stand up to fierce hurricane winds. It can’t be any clearer: these codes work.”

To view reports and learn more about the Rating the States study, click HERE.

Commissioner Adam Putnam’s Statement on Appeal in Clemency Case

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Commissioner of Agriculture Adam H. Putnam today issued the following statement regarding the appeal filed in the Clemency case:

“For the federal judge to interfere at this stage and say that this process, which has been in place since 1968, is now unconstitutional is extreme. We are always looking for ways to improve it, but, as a member of the Clemency Board, my top priority is to make sure the victims have a chance to be heard.”

Leslie Waters Endorses Blacklidge for Florida House

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The Seminole mayor and former state legislator
says Blacklidge is the right choice for District 69

The Ray Blacklidge Campaign today announced the endorsement of Mayor Leslie Waters of Seminole. Blacklidge, a Republican, is running to represent District 69 in the Florida House of Representatives.

“I’ve known Ray Blacklidge for more than 20 years. He will be a strong leader in Tallahassee, and he has my full support,” said Waters. “I know what it takes to be a successful legislator, and Ray’s business background and commitment to public service make him more than qualified. District 69 residents would be well represented by him in Tallahassee.”

Waters has served as mayor of Seminole since 2013. Prior to that, she was elected to the Seminole City Council in 2009, serving as Vice Mayor in 2010. From 1998 to 2006, she represented District 51 in the Florida House of Representatives, where she was Speaker Pro Tem from 2006 to 2008.

“Mayor Waters is a distinguished leader in our area at both the state and local levels, and I’m honored to have her endorsement,” said Blacklidge. “I look forward to following her example of public service and working together to strengthen Seminole and our entire community.”

Blacklidge has an extensive background as an entrepreneur with a record of protecting consumers and fighting fraud. He currently works as an insurance executive and attorney in the management of a Florida-based insurance company.

House District 69 covers the south Pinellas beach communities from Redington Shores to Fort DeSoto, as well as portions of St. Petersburg, Gulfport, Kenneth City, and Pinellas Park. With 36 percent of the district’s voter registration, Republicans maintain a slight lead over the Democrats’ 35 percent. Independents and minor parties make up 29 percent of the district.

Paid by Ray Blacklidge, Republican, for State Representative

Florida Executive Clemency Board seeks to appeal U.S. District Court decision rather than reform voting rights restoration process

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Florida’s Executive Clemency Board filed a notice of its intent to appeal the permanent injunction from U.S. District Court Judge Mark Walker, ordering the state to establish a new voting rights restoration process for former felons. Earlier this year the Court affirmed that the 1stAmendment protects the right to vote and concluded that the process by which Florida officials grant or deny former felons’ restoration of voting rights applications is unconstitutionally arbitrary.

The following quote can be attributed to the Hand v. Scott Plaintiffs’ litigation team:

In the year since Fair Elections Legal Network and Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC filed this lawsuit, Governor Scott and the rest of the Executive Clemency Board have had ample opportunity to reform the process to restore voting rights to former felons. Instead they have dug in their heels and defended an arbitrary and backlogged scheme that prevents people who have served their sentences from rejoining their community for years and decades. A federal judge has found the restoration scheme violates the U.S. Constitution, noting “[t]his should not be a close question,” and recently ordered Defendants to establish a new voting rights restoration process. Though it is the Board’s legal right to appeal, their continued resistance to adopting any uniform, non-arbitrary system for restoring voting rights betrays a brazen disregard, if not disdain, for basic principles that go to the heart of our democracy.

This case has given Florida state officials an opportunity to voluntarily change their ways, join the mainstream of America, and restore voting rights to former felons who have paid their debt to society or, at a minimum, create a non-arbitrary, expeditious rule-based system. Governor Scott and the other Defendants have rejected that opportunity, preferring to waste taxpayer dollars defending the indefensible, potentially up to the nation’s highest court. We will continue to fight for Florida ex-felons’ right to a lawful voting rights restoration system.

The Fair Elections Legal Network (FELN) is a national, nonpartisan voting rights and legal support organization. Our mission is to eliminate barriers to voting and improve election administration across the United States. Working alongside other national and state groups, FELN works to make the processes of voter registration, voting, and election administration as accessible as possible for every American.

Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC is recognized as one of the premier law firms in the country handling major, complex plaintiff-side litigation. With more than 90 attorneys, Cohen Milstein has offices in Washington, D.C., Chicago, Ill., Denver, Colo., New York, N.Y., Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., Philadelphia, Pa., and Raleigh, N.C.  For additional information call 561.515.1400.

Commissioner Adam Putnam Provides Update on Florida Wildfire Activity

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Commissioner of Agriculture Adam H. Putnam today announced that there are currently 29 active wildfires in Florida burning 33,973 acres.

Significant Wildfires in Florida:

  • Greenway, Collier County: 17,957 and 95 percent contained.
  • Firebreak, Gulf County: 8,080 acres and 85 percent contained.
  • Old Blade Line, Polk County: 450 acres and 60 percent contained.
  • Mud Dauber Road, Polk County: 200 acres and 95 percent contained. 

The Florida Forest Service is urging residents to be cautious with fire and heat sources and to remember the following:

  • Develop and implement a family wildfire action plan;
  • Call 911 or a local Florida Forest Service field unit office immediately in the event of a wildfire;
  • Obey Florida’s outdoor burning laws;
  • Never burn on windy days;
  • Always keep a water source and suppression tools on hand when burning yard debris;
  • Never leave an outdoor fire or hot grill unattended; and
  • Avoid parking vehicles on dry grass.

The Florida Forest Service, a division of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, manages more than 1 million acres of state forests and provides forest management assistance on more than 17 million acres of private and community forests. The Florida Forest Service is also responsible for protecting homes, forestland and natural resources from the devastating effects of wildfire on more than 26 million acres.