NEW PANAMA CITY AIRPORT MAY GROUND SOME CAPITAL FLIGHTS

By KEITH LAING
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

www.newsserviceflorida.com

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, Oct. 22, 2009……….The Panhandle’s controversial new international airport will provide Northwest Florida travelers more options when it opens in the spring of 2010, but some are worried the airport’s take off could also end up causing a rocky landing for air travel to the capital.

With flights into Tallahassee’s regional airport often a pricey premium, some capital air passengers already drive about two hours east to catch cheaper flights at the Jacksonville International Airport. But when the first flight takes off from the newly-named Northwest Florida – Panama City International Airport next May, those passengers will also have the option of driving about the same distance in the opposite direction in search of affordable airfare.

Exacerbating the fears of advocates of increasing flight service to the state capital, like state Rep. Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda, D-Tallahassee, low cost airline Southwest Airlines announced this week that it would fly eight flights a day from Panama City to Nashville and Baltimore-Washington International.

Vasilinda, who has proposed ending the 6.9 cents per gallon fuel tax on flights to Tallahassee as a way to spur flight options to the capital, told the News Service of Florida that she did not know for sure the Panama City airport would cause airlines that already are reticent to fly into Tallahassee to send their planes there instead. But she said she was concerned about the possibility.

“I’m looking into it,” said Vasilinda, D-Tallahassee. “I was hoping that the aviation fuel tax might have been able to lure Southwest here.”

Vasilinda’s fuel tax plan ran out of gas last year when local officials said it might negatively impact Tallahassee’s ability to contribute to a state aviation grant pool – as well as the amount of money the city can take out of the pool. But Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University College of Business Dean Daniel Petree said Vasilinda’s concern about the future relationship between the international airport in Panama City and the regional airport in Tallahassee was merited.

“It’s a perfectly legitimate question,” Petree said. But he quickly added, “I don’t think anyone can predict the impact with any kind of certainty.”

Petree said Southwest’s decision to fly into Panama City – the airline already flies from Jacksonville – was not necessarily a harbinger of airlines overlooking Tallahassee when they are looking for Panhandle destinations.

“I’m guessing they’re counting on seasonal travelers – the Spring Break kind of crowd,” he said. “I doubt other carriers will mimic that business model. Southwest is kind of an entity all to itself in the airline industry, so I wouldn’t necessarily say that Southwest deciding to fly in there means other carriers like Delta and Continental or some of their regional carriers will decide to.”

As an international airport, Panama City will be sure to have more flights coming in and out than a smaller regional airport like Tallahassee’s, but Petree also said that airport size alone did not determine the number of take-offs and landings.

“The timing matters in all these decisions,” he said. “The truth is that everybody is down. They’re down because commercial aviation has drastically cut back capacity because that’s the only way they can survive this trough in the economy.”

Petree added that was unlikely to change even as the economy begins to rebound, saying “I don’t see airlines adding a lot of capacity back fast.”

“They’ve got to build back up their capacity and discipline their business model, so it will remain competitive, particular for regional airports,” he said.

Tallahassee Airport assistant director Philip Inglese agreed that the capital airport, which averages between 720,000 and 750,000 passengers per year, would remain viable when Panama City’s facility opens. Inglese said the capital airport had studied the impact of larger facilities nearby often and found there were different clientele likely to utilize the two airports.

“Historically because we’re a business market and they’re a leisure market, there’s no impact,” Inglese said. “They’re bringing people in from other regions of the country for the beaches, whereas Tallahassee attracts people trying to get to the Capitol to do business or go from the Capitol. Some do, but business travelers are generally not looking to travel two to three hours to catch a flight.”

The Panama City airport’s relocation and expansion, which is expected to cost $330 million, has been in the works since the late 1990s and resulted from a successful effort from local environmentalists to block a proposed runaway expansion of the existing airport. Land conservation groups don’t like the planned new facility much either, but the airport says it will be the first new international airport in the U.S. since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks rocked the nation’s aviation industry.

Airport officials said last month that the new facility was 73 percent complete and hailed the development in a statement about the new name last week.

“With each milestone we pass, we move closer to the day the new airport will deliver on the goals this community established 10 years ago: better and more competitive air service and the establishment of an economic development engine for the region,” said airport authority Vice Chairman Bill Cramer in a statement. “We look forward to welcoming visitors to the region at the new Northwest Florida – Panama City International Airport in May 2010.”

-END-
10/23/09

CRIST NOT SURE TRI-RAIL WOULD ROLL IN RAIL SPECIAL SESSION

By KEITH LAING
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

www.newsserviceflorida.com

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, Oct. 20, 2009……….Backers of the existing South Florida commuter train Tri-Rail may be hoping a proposed special session to deal with rail issues will give them an opportunity to get financial assistance from the state for the beleaguered system, but Gov. Charlie Crist said Tuesday that he wasn’t sure the train would be included on such an agenda.

Tri-Rail supporters tried last year to amend legislation that would have allowed the Orlando SunRail commuter trail by tacking on a $2 rental car surcharge in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade Counties that would have gone to Tri-Rail. But as talk of a special session to once again try to approve SunRail intensifies, Crist said Tuesday that the Tri-Rail proposal may remain parked.

“That remains to be seen,” Crist said when asked whether the surcharge would be included in the possible special session. “Certainly we would want to look at all the possibilities to make this productive and useful.”

The special session talk this week centers on the state’s three applications for some of the $8 billion that is available in the federal economic stimulus package for high speed rail. Senate President Jeff Atwater said this week that the feds are looking for action on other rail projects in Florida before they consider approving the state’s $2.5 billion application for the first leg of the long proposed Tampa-Orlando-Miami bullet train.

The state also has stimulus applications in for $70 million for Atlantic Coast Amtrak passenger service between Jacksonville and Miami and $432 million for buying tracks for SunRail from CSX Corp. However, the SunRail deal may not go through without the Legislature’s approval of the plan’s liability agreement, which the freight rail company has tied to the sale of the tracks. The plan has been stymied in the Senate for two years.

A decision on the applications is expected by the end of the year, forcing lawmakers to consider reconvening early if they want to show the federal government the state is serious about rail.

But Tri-Rail was left out of the stimulus mix – and so far has been left out of the special session talk. Tri-Rail supporters have long argued that the only way for the system to become financially solvent is for it to have a recurring revenue source such as the rental car surcharge, which was projected to generate $180 million for the train.

The rental surcharge went down to defeat alongside SunRail during the 2009 session, so Tri-Rail is using funds normally reserved for building and maintaining tracks and stations for operations this year to keep its trains running at full capacity. The system had considered eliminating half its current 60 trains per day and cutting weekend or holiday service altogether, but threw the brakes on the plan because it would have caused the system to default on a $256 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration that was used for a double tracking project completed in 2006.

Bonnie Arnold, a spokeswoman for the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, which oversees Tri-Rail, told the News Service that the panel was watching the special session talk “very carefully,” but she did not predict whether or not the system would be an agenda item if a session is called.

“Our position right now is we’re in a holding pattern,” Arnold said. “We’re waiting for the call to be issued and we’re waiting to see what’s in it.”

However, the Senate sponsor of the rental car surcharge last year, Sen. Jeremy Ring, D-Margate, told the News Service of Florida Tuesday that he was confident Tri-Rail would be included in any special session to discuss rail, even if SunRail dominates the headlines.

“President Atwater clearly indicated that we would be looking at rail as a whole,” Ring said. “I know it’s been branded as SunRail, but it’s really rail initiatives for the whole state. The federal government has really put a stake in the ground and said that if the state wants high speed rail, it has to support commuter rail.”

Ring, who has said previously that he planned to introduce the rental surcharge as a standalone bill next year, predicted the proposal would fare better than it did last year when it was attached to the SunRail plan if lawmakers come back to Tallahassee early.

“If the state doesn’t support commuter rail, you won’t see any high speed rail money,” he said.

-END-
10/20/09

CRIST PSC PICK KLEMENT: ‘I’M QUALIFIED TO BE A GENERALIST’

By KEITH LAING
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

www.newsserviceflorida.com

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, Oct. 14, 2009…….Some observers of the Florida Public Service Commission have worried that Gov. Charlie Crist’s picks to replace two sitting members of the panel next year do not have obvious backgrounds in regulation or in the industries the panel oversees. But one commissioner-designate thinks that makes him ideal for the trying times at the PSC.

“In my background as a journalist and editorial writer, I looked at particular issues that impacted the public,” former journalist David Klement told the News Service Wednesday. “The Public Service Commission impacts many publics. I’m qualified to be a generalist. I thought they needed generalists who understand Florida.”

Klement, 69, will join former Escambia County Sheriff’s Department Chief Financial Officer Benjamin “Steve” Stevens on the PSC next January.

Crist earlier this month effectively fired PSC Chairman Matthew Carter and former Commissioner Katrina McMurrian, who were both in the running for second four-year terms on the panel. McMurrian has already left the commission, and Crist is seeking an interim member until January – though Klement and Stevens may be among the choices for the interim role.

Klement, who currently heads the University of South Florida’s Institute for Public Policy and Leadership, comes to the panel just as the state’s largest power company, Florida Power & Light, is nearing the end of a year-long rate case. Klement says he’s followed the rate increase request only through media coverage.

Klement said he tracked the story from afar, but never discussed it with Crist or the PSC nominating council.

“We didn’t get into those specifics and I wouldn’t have been comfortable getting into them,” he said. Klement insisted the governor – who has publicly slammed utility rate hike requests, including the current FPL request – didn’t ask him his position on the $1.3 billion issue.

Having commissioners who are unfamiliar with the intricacies of the case making the decision on what utilities charge for power was among the reasons a leading financial rating agency said recently that the politics that led to Klement’s ascension to the PSC could dim the power companies’ ability to get credit.

But tight deadlines don’t scare former journalists, Klement said as he eyes his next career as utility regulator.

“For 30 years, I had to look at what was on the agenda on any given day and I was tossed the most complex issues imaginable and I’d be expected to turn out thoughtful, provocative pieces by the end of the day,” he said. “I couldn’t have survived in that job for 30 years if I didn’t get up to speed quickly.”

Klement said he believes a recent flurry of bad boldface type about the PSC benefited outsider candidates like himself and Stevens.

“Each day I grabbed the three newspapers I read everyday and I looked for stories about the PSC and noticed that they had changed the momentum,” he said. The commission has been embroiled in questions about whether staff and commissioners have been too close to the industries the panel regulates. Questions have also arisen about how staff and commissioners communicate, with some PSC staffers having faced scrutiny for seeking to exchange instant text messages with utility officials, which could allow for secret communications.

Earlier this year, before conflict of interest allegations began flying so freely around the PSC, Crist quietly re-appointed another commissioner, Lisa Edgar, despite her being assailed by critics as being not consumer-friendly enough. Klement said when he applied for the PSC in June, he did not necessarily expect to be appointed, even if he always thought he would be good for the job.

“I thought I was a long-shot,” he said. “I thought in my heart that I had the ability, but I understood the politics of having two incumbents being re-appointed were pretty strong.”

Few winds shift as quickly as political ones however, so as Klement shifted from long shot PSC applicant to commissioner-designate, he sounded notes similar to those struck by Crist when he remade the panel earlier this month.

“I want to be as objective as I can possibly be,” he said. “One of things I emphasized (when applying for the PSC) is that being an editorial writer for 30 years, I’ve taken a lot of unpopular stands while keeping the respect of the community and those I write about.”

Klement added that contrary to those who argue for a more consumer friendly utility regulation or those who want the panel to be pro-business and rule in favor the utilities, the choices before the PSC are not binary.

“The PSC serves many constituencies,” he said. “Not just two.”

In light of the recent scandals, one choice the journalist-turned-utility regulator has already made is to be careful in who he talks to, especially electronically.

“You have to be very careful in how you use BlackBerrys and cell phones,” Klement said when asked if he’d learned anything from the firestorm.

That should be easy for now, he quickly added, because he doesn’t own a BlackBerry.

“I still rely on the old-fashioned pen and paper,” he said. “I carry index cards to write down important reminders.”

However, recognizing that life will be different as a member of the PSC, Klement said of his basic phone existence “I supposed that will have to change.”

Klement, who lives in East Manatee with his wife, Jo Anne, a realtor and former journalist herself, said he planned to visit the PSC’s Tallahassee headquarters next week.

-END-
10/14/09

MOODY’S: TAKE THE POLITICS OUT OF THE PSC

By KEITH LAING
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

www.newsserviceflorida.com

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, Oct. 7, 2009……..A leading financial rating agency said Wednesday that the highly-charged political environment at the Florida Public Service Commission could dim the credit future of the state’s largest electricity providers.

In the wake of Gov. Charlie Crist ousting two sitting commissioners and several senators seeking to change state law about how members of the PSC are selected, Moody’s Investors Service said that the increased involvement from elected officials could cause the plug to be pulled on credit lines for Florida utilities.

“Moody’s views the highly politicized atmosphere surrounding the base rate proceedings of Florida Power & Light Company and Progress Energy Florida, Inc. as negative to the credit quality of both utilities and an indication that the political and regulatory environment for investor-owned utilities in Florida may be deteriorating,” the company said in a statement. “Moody’s views political intervention in the utility regulatory process as detrimental to credit quality, sometimes resulting in adverse rate case outcomes.”

Citing similar situations in states such as Maryland and Illinois, the rating agency warned that “in some cases, this has led to multi-notch credit rating downgrades of utilities in states where this has occurred.”

Moody’s noted Crist’s decision not to re-appoint PSC chairman Matthew Carter and former Commissioner Katrina McMurrian, who resigned early this week. It also dinged the governor for leaning heavily on the commission to deny FPL and Progress Energy separate $1.3 billion and $500 million rate increase requests. The agency also noted that in its first major decision since Crist shook-up the panel, the PSC voted against a proposed $1.6 billion gas transmission pipeline FPL argued was necessary to keep up with future natural gas demand.

“Moody’s notes that such intervention is highly unusual for the state of Florida, which has traditionally been one of the more constructive utility regulatory jurisdictions in the nation, characterized by fair and balanced regulatory proceedings with little to no political interference or controversy,” the company said.

Moody’s also worried that Crist’s PSC appointees, former Escambia County Sheriff’s Department Chief Financial Officer Benjamin “Steve” Stevens and former journalist David Klement, had no obvious background in regulation or in the industries the panel oversees.

“The turnover…heightens the level of uncertainty surrounding utility rate proceedings because of the lack of an established track record, the limited experience of new commissioners, and the challenges that many new commissioners face in quickly coming up to speed on often complicated utility rate matters,” the company said. “The replacement of experienced and seasoned commissioners on the FPSC with newcomers well after the rate proceedings have begun and most hearings have been completed increases the possibility of a rate case outcome that is negative to utility credit quality.”

Perhaps stinging from Tuesday’s PSC vote against its pipeline plan, FPL said that it was not opposed to utility regulation, but echoed Moody’s warning that it could become overbearing.

“Over the years, utility regulation in Florida has been constructive, in turn helping keep our credit rating strong,” the company said in a statement. “Like other companies, we are entering one of the most significant construction cycles in our history. As we go to the market for our capital needs, debt and equity investors are keenly focused on the Florida regulatory environment. A perception of greater regulatory risk means capital will be more expensive.”

The company said that its good credit rating had allowed it to borrow money at reasonable rates, which helps it keep electric rates low.

The News Service learned of Moody’s opinion on Florida utility regulation late Wednesday afternoon and the governor’s office could not immediately be reached for comment. But a frequent Senate PSC critic said it was not a surprise that a credit rating agency with strong business ties would look negatively on more stringent regulation of utilities, though he said that should not be a factor in decisions on rate increases.

“Moody’s has a great relationship with these analysts on Wall Street. They have a great relationship with the executives of major companies,” Sen. Mike Fasano said. “We shouldn’t ignore what Moody’s says, but we want to also be aware of the close relationship of the utility companies and their executives who may be lobbying Moody’s.”

Fasano, R-New Port Richey, added that he thought Florida Power & Light and Progress Energy were credit worthy even if the PSC denies them their rate requests.

“These are two utility companies that are well-established, that are sound and solid, that are guaranteed a rate of return, no matter what happens,” he said. “Whatever the commission decides, they are going to guarantee there’s some sort of rate of return. We hope it’s not going to be that great, but they’re going to be guaranteed a profit. Now if Moody’s is going to downgrade them for that, what other company is guaranteed a profit, other than a monopoly?”

One of the elected officials most vocal about the PSC, Fasano has said he plans to file a bill to end appointments to the panel altogether in favor of statewide elections. He cheered the PSC vote against FPL’s pipeline project yesterday and said he hoped the Moody’s analysis would not cause the panel to be less likely to vote no on the rate increases.

“I think the Public Service Commission realizes that the customers cannot continue to pay for everything the utility company wants to do,” Fasano said. “It’s time for the stockholders — it’s time for the investors to pay for the projects that they want to build, not the customers. Customers can’t afford it.”

-END-
10/7/09

OUSTED PSC COMMISSIONER MCMURRIAN RESIGNS EARLY

By KEITH LAING
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

www.newsserviceflorida.com

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, Oct. 5, 2009…….Saying that she heard loudly and clearly the message sent by Gov. Charlie Crist when he appointed someone else to her seat on the Florida Public Service Commission instead of reappointing her, Public Service Commissioner Katrina McMurrian said Monday that she would resign immediately.

McMurrian, one of two commissioners ousted last week by Crist, sent a letter to Crist saying that her replacement should come earlier, rather than later, to start moving the commission in a different direction.

“The commission has been asked to delay our vote on major cases until the new commission is in place,” McMurrian said in a resignation letter sent to the governor Monday. “I respect this request and want to ensure that the new commission is positioned to set the course for the agency, one guided by different leadership.”

While Crist had already named a replacement to take her seat in January, officials in Crist’s office said Monday that state law requires appointing an interim commissioner and said they’d start searching for one.

Crist’s appointees to replace McMurrian and PSC chairman Matthew Carter, Escambia County Sheriff’s Office chief financial officer Benjamin “Steve” Stevens, 44, and David Klement, 69, a former journalist who heads the University of South Florida’s Institute for Public Policy and Leadership, are not scheduled to be sworn-in until January of next year. After effectively firing McMurrian and Carter, Crist urged the PSC to postpone action on to hold off on making final decisions on rate hikes requested by Florida Power & Light and Progress Energy until the two newly appointed commissioners join the panel.

The turnover in the PSC comes amid criticism about appearances that the panel is too close to the companies it regulates. The cloud has mostly been over staff interactions with company officials, though McMurrian did take some heat for attending a dinner with an FPL executive as the company was requesting its rate increase, and for speaking at a utility-sponsored conference.

She defended her actions but acknowledged the political reality of the firestorm that has engulfed the PSC in recent months.

“There are rules that govern all aspects of the commission process,” McMurrian said. “I know the rules, and I have followed them. But members of the public have spoken, and the governor has spoken. They want a new set of rules… and new leadership.”

Crist’s office asked the PSC nominating commission to compile a list of candidates to serve the remaining three months of McMurrian’s term.

“We respectfully request that the council provide Gov. Crist with a list of at least three nominees to complete the term of Florida Public Service Commissioner McMurrian as soon as possible so that there is no membership gap in representation on the commission,” Crist’s general counsel Robert Wheeler wrote Monday afternoon to the Senate lawyer who advises the nominating council.

Last week, in reaction to Crist’s decision to reshape the PSC, McMurrian appeared nostalgic about her long PSC career, which spanned work as a regulatory analyst, a commissioner’s aide and ultimately commissioner.

“I’ve been here since I graduated college,” McMurrian said. “I’ve enjoyed every bit of my public service here.”

But in the statement accompanying her early resignation Monday, McMurrian acknowledged the flipside of that history, which may have been her undoing this fall as Crist responded to the increasing scrutiny of the PSC by turning to a pair of applicants with no obvious background in regulatory work or the industries the panel oversees.

“No doubt, I am an insider,” she said. “I started out at the commission in 1994. I  grew up in this process.”

Elsewhere, a stringent Senate PSC critic who had urged Crist to appoint any of the other outside candidates to the commission said that he wanted a commissioner the governor re-appointed earlier this year to follow McMurrian’s lead. Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, said that Commissioner Lisa Edgar, who consumer advocates have said sides too frequently with utilities in rate cases, should do the “honorable thing” and resign as well.

“With Commissioner McMurrian’s decision to resign prior to the expiration of her term I believe the governor’s desire to clean house at the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) has begun in earnest,” Fasano wrote Monday in a letter to Edgar. “As a sitting commissioner who has been privy to the ongoing day-to-day operations of the PSC, you know better than anyone that the PSC lacks leadership in this time of turmoil and crisis. With the governor’s appointment of two new commissioners he has sent a clear signal that the time has come for a top-down rebuilding of the PSC.”

“The PSC and its mission is far more important than any single individual’s continued employment,” added Fasano, who opposed Edgar’s re-appointment this spring.

The unexpected early vacancy in McMurrian’s seat on the PSC means the panel will be a member short when it takes up a proposed $1.6 billion Florida Power & Light fuel transmission line on Tuesday morning. The PSC has already held an evidentiary hearing about the proposed 300 mile pipeline from Bradford County in northeast Florida to Martin and Palm Beach Counties, a third such portal for transmitting natural gas in the state, but the panel will meet Tuesday to determine if it is necessary.

The commission will also continue this month considering separate rate increases for the two largest power companies in the state – a $1.3 billion proposal from Florida Power & Light and a $500 million plan from Progress Energy. The first of the two votes on those rate increases is expected in December.

-END-
10/5/09

WEEKLY ROUNDUP – NATIONAL HEALTH SNARE

(Recap and analysis of the week in state government)

By KEITH LAING
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

www.newsserviceflorida.com

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, Oct. 2, 2009……..As he hopes to do in next year’s U.S. Senate race, Gov. Charlie Crist went national this week, taking to the cable airwaves to chat up his record in the Sunshine State and put down national Democratic efforts to involve the federal government in the U.S. health care system.

Looking to shore up his right flank against a hardline conservative challenge from former House Speaker Marco Rubio during the preview of Mr. Crist Goes to Washington, the normally middle-of-the-road governor this week was running against government involvement in health care as he seeks to replace his former campaign manager in the U.S. Senate.

But a successful state program that subsidizes health care for children that has been supported by Crist and other Republicans, became a bit of an awkward success story for the would-be senator this week.

Part of the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program initiative, KidCare has been broadly trumpeted as a successful program that has reduced the number of uninsured children in Florida. But as the national debate on health care hinges in part on what role the government should play in running and paying for health care, GOP supporters of existing government health care programs like KidCare are finding themselves having to explain why they support government health care for some, but not others.

It’s a tightrope Crist tried to walk this week as nationwide television audiences looked on. When Crist was asked by CNN’s John Roberts why he supports government health care for children in Florida, but is campaigning against allowing government paid health care elsewhere in the nation for adults, he said the government-run care for kids was “limited” and noted “it’s a program that I inherited. It’s a program that was already here.”

But while seeming to distance himself from the KidCare program during his national TV star turn this week, Crist has touted it in the past as helpful to families and was in the Senate in 1998 when the bill creating Florida’s program passed 39-0 with Crist voting for it.

Democrats criticized Crist for running from the success of a program they say members of both parties have generally been proud of. And one of the most prominent advocates working in Tallahassee to increase the reach and success of KidCare the last decade, Karen Woodall, said Crist has worked to make KidCare work better and should be proud of that.

“The inconsistency is very blatant,” Woodall said. “He’s been very supportive of KidCare and I think that’s a good thing. It’s not something to back away from.”

Perhaps recognizing he was tying himself in rhetorical knots, the governor changed the subject, launching into details of Cover Florida, a private sector health care program that he has also championed. The program was created by Crist’s administration as a way to decrease the number of uninsured by encouraging enrollment in cheaper private health insurance programs that are free of some state mandates.

Crist noted on TV that enrollment is now around 4,000, but his opponents, including fellow Republican Rubio, said that doesn’t put much of a dent in the state’s uninsured population, estimated at more than 3.6 million.

Continuing his national star turn, Crist also stood by his recent political prognostication during his interviews, saying on the cable shows as he said at a Republican event in Michigan that President Barack Obama was going to be a one-term commander-in-chief. But in a response straight out of an elementary school playground, Crist’s main opponents from the U.S. Senate next year tweaked the governor-turned-Senate candidate’s own electoral history.

“Charlie Crist’s prediction about President Obama being destined to be a one-term president is spot on,” a missive fired off by former House Speaker Marco Rubio’s campaign said. “As the consummate one-term elected official himself, Gov. Crist should know one when he sees one.”

Rubio spokesman Alex Burgos pointed out that Crist served single terms as education commissioner and attorney general and noted that the popular populist is the first Florida governor to not seek reelection since that’s been an option. The campaign also stoked speculation that the U.S. Senate would be a stepping stone for Crist to run for Obama’s current address.

Likely Democratic nominee Kendrick Meek also jabbed Crist about his presidential fortune-telling, saying “Gov. Crist is angling for the next race before he has secured a primary victory in this one.”

“He is a serial campaigner who prefers to run for office than sit in one and is using this Senate race to jumpstart his 2012 run,” Meek said. “Floridians don’t need perennial candidates who jump from office to office to represent them in the U.S. Senate.”

P-S-SEE YOU LATER

Gov. Crist was not just talking national politics during his busy week; he was also remaking the Florida Public Service Commission. Crist ditched two sitting PSC commissioners in favor of outsiders with no background in regulatory work or the industries the panel oversees, a move hailed by consumer advocates.

Crist gave the heave-ho to PSC Chairman Matthew Carter and Commissioner Katrina McMurrian, denying both a second four-year term on the panel by appointing Escambia County Sheriff’s Office chief financial officer Benjamin “Steve” Stevens, 44, and David Klement, 69, a former journalist who heads the University of South Florida’s Institute for Public Policy and Leadership to the commission instead.

Crist’s housecleaning at the PSC came as the panel considers sweeping proposed rate increases for the state’s two biggest power companies, and with the commission embroiled in a firestorm of allegations about potential conflicts of interest between commissioners and staffers and publicly-regulated utility representatives.

Carter and McMurrian, both appointed by former Gov. Jeb Bush in 2006, had applied to be reappointed and were in the running after being approved by the PSC’s nominating council.

But the outsiders’ lack of background in electricity, telecomm, or other regulated industries may have tipped the scales in Klement and Stevens’ favor with the PSC having come under fire for reports of staffers socializing with and exchanging cell phone messaging information with employees at the state’s largest power company, Florida Power & Light, allegations which emerged as the company was asking for a record rate increase.

Some observers said another factor in Klement and Stevens’ favor was the governor’s ongoing campaign for the U.S. Senate. The odd people out of the sweep of the PSC, Carter and McMurrian both told reporters this week that they were not surprised by the governor’s decision and Carter said it was politics as usual

“The governor did what governors do. He exercised his prerogative,” Carter said. “These things happen. This is the political season and political things happen during the political season.”

Another beneficiary of Crist shaking up the roster of the five-member PSC this week was Commissioner Nancy Argenziano, who is expected to become chairman of the panel next year with Carter and McMurrian gone. A former state senator, Argenziano has long cultivated a reputation as a firebrand and has drawn the ire of both members of the industries the PSC regulates and sometimes her fellow commissioners.

“I’m not sure I even want to be PSC chair,” Argenziano said earlier in the week. “I’m 55 years old and I’m not impressed by titles. But some people are squirming right now, and trying to smear me as best they can, and they happen to be utility lobbyists.”

Likely also squirming this week was Dr. Alan Mendelsohn, a Broward County ophthalmologist who has raised millions of dollars for Florida politicians. Mendelsohn was arrested in a case that will probably reverberate in Tallahassee this week as part of a federal corruption investigation. He was charged by a federal grand jury with orchestrating a fraudulent political fundraising and lobbying scheme “through which he secretly diverted to himself more than $350,000 from contributions to political organizations he controlled,” according to the Justice Department.

Mendelsohn, 51, of Hollywood, was also charged with concealing payments he allegedly had his lobbying clients make, including sending money to his children’s schools for their tuition, in an effort to get around the lobbying disclosure law that would have required him to disclose payments from the clients.

STORY OF THE WEEK: During a spate of national television appearances, Gov. Charlie Crist appeared reticent to admit the success of a government run health care program he and many other Republicans have supported as he campaigns. However, the governor did not hesitate to effectively fire two sitting PSC commissioners this week, choosing not to re-appoint them to the panel next year.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “I think he’s a very good politician. On some days, he’s very good on our issues. On other days, he’s with someone else on our issues,” Christian Coalition executive director Bill Stephens, about Crist generally, but in a way that summarizes a week when Gov. Charlie Crist appeared to be for government health care for kids in Florida before he was against it for adults elsewhere in the nation.

-END-
10/2/09

CRIST CHANGES PSC COURSE AS POLITICAL WINDS SHIFT

By KEITH LAING
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

www.newsserviceflorida.com

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, Oct. 2, 2009…..In choosing to remake the Public Service Commission this week by not re-appointing two sitting commissioners, Gov. Charlie Crist hewed to his populist tendencies and sided with consumer advocates who have said for months, if not years, that the PSC is too cozy with industries it regulates.

But earlier this year, before reports of staffers socializing with and exchanging cell phone messaging information with employees at the state’s largest power company made daily headlines, Crist quietly re-appointed a third commissioner, Lisa Edgar, who was assailed by critics during her contentious Senate confirmation hearings as being not consumer-friendly enough.

With the governor in an ongoing race for the U.S. Senate, it’d be easy to dismiss the difference in Crist’s PSC picks as politics as usual. And this week, at least one ousted commissioner did.

“This is the political season and political things happen during the political season,” PSC Chairman Matthew Carter told reporters who gathered during a sleepy rate hearing to ask his reaction to effectively being fired by the governor.

And with the benefit of a few hours of hindsight, political observers agreed there was likely some politicking in the governor’s PSC picks.

“A couple of months ago, no one was paying attention to the PSC,” former state Senate Democratic Leader Steve Geller said Friday. “A couple of months ago he didn’t have Marco Rubio nipping at his heels.”

Geller added that like most Capitol observers, he was not entirely surprised about Crist’s decision to appoint Escambia County Sheriff’s Office chief financial officer Benjamin “Steve” Stevens, 44, and David Klement, 69, a former journalist who heads the University of South Florida’s Institute for Public Policy and Leadership to the commission instead of returning Carter and Commissioner Katrina McMurrian to the panel.

“The governor has always been a populist and he always goes where the voters want him to be,” Geller said. “The PSC has been in the headlines lately and heading into an election, the governor wants to be seen as a person looking for out the little people.”

Asked if Crist let himself open to political attacks for re-appointing Edgar in the same year he appeared to want to turn over the PSC, Geller said “what would Rubio say? You appointed only two outsiders instead of three? I don’t think there’s anything there.”

Geller added that Crist had already raised the specter of the PSC appointments when he said he would basically only re-appoint Carter and McMurrian if they voted against a proposed $1.3 billion rate increase from the state’s largest power company. The PSC put off a vote until after Crist’s PSC designees will be sworn-in, a move some said was an attempt by Carter to force Crist’s hand on re-appointment, which had to be completed this week.

“He made it an issue when he said “I’m not going to re-appoint you if you vote to raise rates,’” Geller said. “He’d built it up to where he couldn’t back off.”

At least one consumer group that lobbies the PSC on electricity rate cases, Tampa-based Florida Consumer Action Network, urged Crist to consider the politics of the appointments before they were announced. FCAN executive director Bill Newton told the News Service of Florida that making Commissioner Nancy Argenziano PSC chair by dumping Carter and McMurrian would be a “a bold move” that would “cement his consumer bona fides.”

And a poll released Friday showed the optics of the PSC picks may work in Crist’s favor. A nationwide telephone survey of 1,000 likely voters conducted by Rasmussen Reports showed that for the first time in nearly two years, voters were more concerned about government ethics and corruption than the economy. Eighty-three percent of poll respondents said they view ethics as “very important,” while 82 percent cited the economy.

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10/2/09

CRIST DUMPS CARTER AND MCMURRIAN FROM PSC

By KEITH LAING
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

www.newsserviceflorida.com

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, Oct. 1, 2009……Gov. Charlie Crist remade the Public Service Commission on Thursday, ditching two sitting commissioners in favor of outsiders with no background in regulatory work or the industries the panel oversees, a move hailed by consumer advocates.

Neither PSC Chairman Matthew Carter nor Commissioner Katrina McMurrian will get a second four- year term on the panel with the appointments of Benjamin “Steve” Stevens and David Klement to the commission. They’ll start in January.

The housecleaning comes as the PSC considers proposed rate increases for the state’s two biggest power companies, and with the commission embroiled in a firestorm of allegations about potential conflicts of interest between commissioners and staffers and publicly-regulated utility representatives.

Carter and McMurrian, both appointed by former Gov. Jeb Bush in 2006, had applied to be reappointed and were in the running after being approved by the PSC’s nominating council.

But Crist instead went with the two outsiders, neither of whom has a background in electricity, telecomm, or other regulated industries.

Stevens, 44, is the chief financial officer in the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office and Klement, 69, is a former journalist who heads the Institute for Public Policy and Leadership at the University of South Florida’s Sarasota-Manatee campus.

Part of their appeal to Crist may be that outsider status – as the PSC has come under fire for reports of staffers socializing with and exchanging cell phone messaging information with employees at the state’s largest power company, Florida Power & Light, allegations which emerged as the company was asking for a record rate increase.

Announcing the picks in Kissimmee in a hastily scheduled press conference far away from a Capitol press corps that may have asked questions about the controversy surrounding the PSC this fall, Crist said both Klement and Stevens brought real world experience to the PSC that would guide their decision making.

“As a journalist, editor and community leader, (Klement) has been involved in seeking solutions to the needs of his community,” Crist said in a statement. Klement worked as editorial page editor, business editor and city editor for the Bradenton Herald newspaper for more than 20 years. “His extensive experience in a wide variety of issues will give him an appropriate perspective when considering business and consumer matters that come before the commission.”

“Steve has a strong track record of integrity in fiscal management and understands the importance of careful stewardship of taxpayer dollars,” Crist said of Stevens. “His ability to carefully evaluate financial reporting should be a strong asset to the utilities consumers of Florida.”

Both Stevens and Klement said they were honored by the appointment and pledged to look out for consumers.

And the move was quickly applauded by opponents of rate increases and environmentalists who push the PSC to enact tougher renewable energy rules for power companies.

“We believe it’s a strong statement for consumers, both residential and commercial,” said Rick McAllister, head of the Florida Retail Federation, which has opposed the current rate increase proposals by FPL and Progress Energy Florida.

Florida Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate Project director Gerald Karnas agreed, saying that he had known Klement since high school and the newest commissioner was “a man of the highest quality, character, ethics and judgment,” all areas the current PSC has been hammered in by critics lately.

“This is the perfect time for a pick like David, who is going to put the public interest first because he’s done that his entire life,” Karnas told the News Service of Florida. “The governor deserves kudos for reshaping the PSC.”

One leading Senate PSC critic, Sen. Mike Fasano, applauded the governor’s decision to turn to “fresh faces” Thursday. Fasano, R-New Port Richey, said in an interview that the appointments were “the beginning of a clean sweep at the Public Service Commission.”

The odd people out of that sweep of the PSC, Carter and McMurrian told reporters during a break in Thursday’s hearing for the Progress rate increase request that they were not surprised by the governor’s decision. Carter said that politics, accentuated by the governor’s ongoing campaign for the U.S. Senate, likely played a role in the decision.

“The governor did what governors do. He exercised his prerogative,” Carter said. “These things happen. This is the political season and political things happen during the political season.”

McMurrian agreed, saying she thought political calculations were likely “some sort of a factor.”

Neither outgoing commissioner had clear post-PSC plans in the immediate aftermath of Crist’s decision to give their seats to Klement and Stevens, and both said they were thankful for the four-years they had as members of the panel.

Not only did Crist shake up the roster of the five-member PSC, but his decision to not re-appointment Carter and McMurrian will elevate Commissioner Nancy Argenziano to chairman of the PSC next year. A former state senator, Argenziano has long cultivated a reputation as a firebrand and has drawn the ire of both members of the industries the PSC regulates and sometimes her fellow commissioners.

Contacted by the News Service earlier this week about that possibility, Argenziano said she was not necessarily eager to assume the PSC gavel, but quickly added that it would be a big change to the commission’s way of doing business because she was “fair.” Argenziano attributed opposition to her becoming PSC chair from members of the utility lobby to her “fairness.”

The news of Crist’s decision to effectively fire two sitting PSC commissioners became public while the panel was in the midst of deliberations of a $500 million rate increase request from Progress, on which a decision is expected before Klement and Stevens will be sworn-in to the PSC.

Hearings will continue later this month and again in January on the proposed FPL rate increase. The new commissioners will have to catch up on testimony that’s already been heard because they will be on the commission when that case comes to a vote.

Klement and Stevens will have be confirmed by two Senate committees.

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10/1/09