Recess Revisited

For once there’s an educational proposal coursing through the legislative channels that doesn’t seem like a zero-sum, partisan crusade. It has nothing to do with standardized testing, perversion of the word “accountability” or school grading. But it has everything to do with recognizing what kids really need more of these days: time to be kids.

So far, so good for HB 833, which would require schools to provide daily recess (20 minutes to run around and play)–in addition to PE instruction–for elementary students. Rep. Joseph Geller, D-Aventura, put it into its proper context. “We mandate a lot of things that need to be taught,” noted Geller, “and, increasingly, that list is longer and longer. That mandate is part of what’s driving recess out of our schools. … We have to let our kids be kids. We have to let them have the chance at a mental break.”

In the age of more standardized testing, increasingly organized group activities and the advent of helicopter parenting, there’s never been a better time for kid time. How old school.

Low-Caliber Vote

Speaking of schools, in this case the higher-ed variety, Rep. Geller was anything but enlightened and spot on, however, when it came to the issue of allowing concealed handguns on the campuses of this state’s public colleges and universities. He voted for it–by mistake. He hit the wrong button–for himself and fellow Democrat Randy Bracy from Orlando.

Some things you can’t make up, even in the Gunshine State.

Open Carry Not For Florida

Open carry opposition shouldn’t–and doesn’t–mean open season on the Second Amendment. But it’s the sort of partisan language we’ve come to expect. And, yes, that’s on you, National Rifle Association and your key legislative surrogates.

But if we must traffic in “open-season” rhetoric, how about open season on common-sense deficits? Or open season on disingenuous arguments?

Bob Buckhorn, Tampa’s gun-owning mayor, is focused on the real-world implications of open carry. He’s not the CEO of Fort Lonesome or Turkey Creek but of a major city that is increasingly a draw for visitors. He sees open carry as a direct threat to Tampa’s progress.

“It threatens public safety, tourism, economic development, job creation and our quality of life,” says Buckhorn. He conjures up scary scenarios of those biking the Riverwalk or walking Ybor’s Seventh Avenue–while openly packing heat.

And good luck in sleeping well, Santiago Corrada, if either open carry-permitting SB 300 or HB 163 passes this session. A family-friendly pitch would have a lot more than the prospect of expanded gambling to worry about for Visit Tampa Bay.

Moreover, legalized open carry hardly helps corporate recruiting beyond Shooters World. And landing conventions, Super Bowls and Final Fours would become much more problematic.

Buckhorn is hardly alone in his managerial opposition to open carry. Tampa’s cut-to-the-chase police chief, Eric Ward, has called it a “bad idea.” Arguably, he knows even more about public safety than NRA patron saint Marion Hammer.

But there are concerns, point out the NRA and its acolytes, that law-abiding, concealed-carry permit holders–and there are 1.5 million of them in Florida–might be subject to arrest for accidentally displaying a weapon. Wind gusts happen. Wouldn’t be fair. So an open carry law takes care of that.

But only if a self-serving, simplistic argument is allowed to carry the rhetorical day.

The Florida Sheriff’s Association has proposed a common-sense compromise. The FSA favors formal immunity to concealed-carry permit holders when their weapons are accidentally revealed. Thus, no need for open carry overcorrection.

And Hillsborough County State Attorney Mark Ober has labeled accidental display a “red herring.” That’s because Florida already has an improper display statute on the books–and it wouldn’t result in someone being arrested for having their gun exposed by accident.

State Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, who sponsored the open carry House bill, is typical of the rhetorical embroidery this subject continues to invite. Here’s what he told the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee: “It will enhance the liberty interests  of our citizens, and it will ensure that we have safe communities.” Sounds like he was channeling Sarah Palin.

The reality is more like this.

Florida is unlike any other state. It has 20 million residents, 1.5 million concealed-carry permit holders and about 100 million tourists, domestic and foreign. Factor in the law of unintended consequences, and you would have an open-carry recipe for disaster–from loss of life to loss of market attraction–that not even the Gunshine State has seen before.

Putnam’s Political Priorities

Surely Adam Putnam, this state’s agriculture commissioner, has bigger priorities than weighing in loudly on Virginia’s decision to no longer recognize the concealed weapons permits of outsiders, including Floridians.

“The Virginia attorney general’s politically expedient decision to end reciprocity for concealed weapon licenses is a knee-jerk reaction that tramples on people’s Second Amendment rights,” said Putnam, who wasn’t alone in blasting the Virginia decision. The NRA also slammed it.

Two points.

First, Putnam has been part of a cabinet that has been little more than a political chew toy for Gov. Rick Scott. However this (grand) stand–although a hypocritical exercise in political expedience and disingenuousness–gives him an opportunity to sound tough and take advantage of concealed-weapons jurisdiction. It’s also a forum to pander to an electorate he’ll need when he runs for governor in the next cycle.

This is, after all, the Gunshine State.

Second, lack of Glock reciprocity is hardly a problem. What is a problem–actually a crisis–is what’s going on with Florida’s $10 billion citrus industry. Specifically, the bacterial disease known as citrus greening.

This year’s orange crop–about 80 million boxes–is the smallest in more than half a century. Just 18 years ago the yield was 244 million boxes. The iconic industry’s future, which includes some 70,000 jobs, is bleak if a cure isn’t found for citrus greening.

Guns are not an endangered species, but the Florida orange industry is.

Putnam needs to leave the gun battles to Marion Hammer and the like and laser-focus on saving Florida’s groves from citrus greening. Last year Putnam asked the Legislature for $8 million to fight citrus greening. He got half that.

Put it this way. He’s the agriculture commissioner. This is his domain. He’s the point man for his department’s ultimate existential issue. Nothing is more important.

If the Florida citrus industry–which already has issues with competing breakfast drinks, dietary critics and loss of acreage from urban sprawl–further accelerates its economic tailspin on Putnam’s watch, it will be major baggage to lug around a gubernatorial campaign.

Avoidance of that is not the best reason for doing the right thing, but it might be the only one that resonates enough with the agricultural commissioner who would be governor.

Con Job Update

We’ve heard this self-serving, economic tune before.

Gov. Rick “Let’s Get To Work” Scott or an administration minion reminding us how personally responsible the hands-on Scott is for Florida’s increasingly improving economy. That includes a 5 per cent unemployment rate and, as outgoing executive director of the Department of Economic Opportunity Jesse Panuccio recently pointed out in a major-media-market op ed, the creation of more than 1 million jobs by the private sector in five years.

“One million jobs. Take a moment to reflect on how we got here,” wrote Panuccio. “It didn’t happen by chance. It happened because we have a governor who is laser-focused on economic growth.”

We also have a governor who’s never met a business-cycle spurt after an economic bottoming-out he couldn’t take credit for. But here’s some context.

First, Florida’s recovery is largely a function of the national recovery, not the lowering of already low taxes or the product of Scott’s poaching in Democratic-governor states. Second, the lion’s share of those jobs are in the lower-paying, service-producing sector. Third, let’s not forget the public sector jobs that were jettisoned early on. Fourth, back in 2010 the non-partisan Florida Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research projected that Florida would likely add about 1.05 million jobs by 2018–regardless of who was governor.

“Viperville” Update

Some things just make no sense.

For some of us, it may be, say, skydiving: As in, why jump out of a perfectly good plane? For others, it’s more down to earth, but no less existential. How can driving while texting, a primary cause of modern road carnage, still be a secondary offense?

But this one still amazes–even here in “Flori-duh.” Some folks have venomous reptiles in their homes. On purpose.

It means, among other things, that they’ve applied to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for a permit and have agreed to be inspected, along with their king cobras, annually.

Alas, it also means, that where you have deadly poisonous snakes, Murphy’s Law will periodically slither in–and out. Snakes can–and have–escaped, which surely gives new meaning to weird, off-putting neighbors. Loud, awful music and bad barbeque aromas don’t seem nearly so bad.

But the commission is responding to the obvious concerns. The captive wildlife staff will be ramping up inspections. In fact, the commission’s executive director, Nick Wiley, has indicated that it may ban venomous snake pets.

Note, however, the conditional “may.”

In other words, ramped-up inspections just might be the answer. This is, after all, still “Flori-duh,” and some folks won’t give up their poisonous pet snakes easily.

Buckhorn’s Agenda Grows Beyond Tampa

We know that term-limited Mayor Bob Buckhorn is at least considering a gubernatorial run in a couple of years. A pro-active, fiscally conservative, Democratic mayor of an I-4 Corridor anchor city on the rise is politically viable.

But he also needs to get around more. Around the state and around the levers of influence and power. VIP photo ops matter, as do resume upgrades and expanded networks.

Earlier this year he was at the White House for a small business roundtable with President Barack Obama and other selected mayors to talk about the challenges and opportunities faced by small business exporters.

Earlier this month Mayor Buckhorn was back at the White House in his capacity as chairman of the U.S. Council of Mayors Trans-Pacific Partnership Task Force. He met with the president, CEOs and members of Congress and the Cabinet to discuss TPP and U.S. infrastructure.

And two weeks ago, Buckhorn and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio co-authored an op-ed on Bloomberg.com, which called for Congress to restore bankruptcy protections for the struggling government of the U.S. commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Forty percent of the island-territory’s residents live in poverty.

“From Tampa to New York, from Philadelphia to Milwaukee, our cities are strengthened by Puerto Rican communities,” they wrote. “This crisis creates unsustainable financial burdens for many of our cities’ families and touches us very closely.” Florida, of course, has a large Puerto Rican population.

No, this has nothing to do with pot holes and ribbon-cuttings, although they’re all about helping people. And if some assistance has a higher-profile, political-career application, so be it.

Top Cops No Help

“WTF!”

That should be the societal reaction to those Florida sheriffs–not a majority–that have come out in favor of citizens arming themselves to be the first line of defense in case there is a mass shooting.

“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” said Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey, who could have been channeling Wayne LaPierre. “It’s more important to have a gun in your hand than a cop on the phone,” said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, who could have been channeling Ted Nugent.

Here’s the reality. No one is against giving the defenseless some offensive fire power. Who, after all, is not in favor of staying alive?

But here’s the issue. The debate is forensically flawed. If you proceed from the premise that a siege is underway and people are dying, then who the hell wouldn’t want the wherewithal to fire back? But the existential reality is that to be prepared for a worst-case scenario, you have to be perpetually prepared. That means movie theaters, holiday parties, concert halls, sports facilities, schools, playgrounds, restaurants, bars, workplaces. Because you never know. Even if an assailant is more likely to be a drunk or a punk.

Most police chiefs and sheriffs get it. Professionally, they’re not in favor of untrained, unidentified, heat-packing good guys creating a chaotic cross fire as their officers and deputies rush to a crime scene. They also know that the law of unintended consequences will never be repealed.

We’ll give the last word to Avery Palmer, who represents the Violence Policy Center in Washington. “Our research shows that private citizens with concealed handguns kill far more innocent victims than criminals,” said Palmer. “When private citizens are encouraged to carry loaded guns wherever they go,” he underscored, “our public spaces become less safe.”

Indeed. Knowing that more than 1.4 million Florida good guys are already licensed to conceal a firearm in public doesn’t feel safer.

Elect Top Educator?

Since 2003, we’ve seen the aftermath of the constitutional amendment that changed education commissioners from elected to appointed officials. Gubernatorial appointees–seven in these past 12 years–have ranged from undistinguished to scandal-tarred. Now there are joint resolutions in Tallahassee to return to an elected, Cabinet-status commissioner.

It makes sense: constituent accountability, for openers. Education is too important and too big a budget hit for the taxpaying people not to weigh in directly on something this impactful.

Only one caveat. This is the same electorate that elected Rick Scott. Twice.