Crash Course
In Issues Ranging From Education to Billboards,
What Side Are Lobbyists On? Answer: Their Own

Whenever I hear “student stations,” which just means desks, it makes me think of the school system as a NASCAR pit crew scurrying around a kid with an air gun, gas pump and patched tires.

By Rebecca Wakefield

Last week, the Miami-Dade School Board indicated it would allow Superintendent Rudy Crew’s lucrative contract to be extended to 2010. This week, the state Legislature finally came to an agreement about by how much it would under-fund the schools this year. The budget compromise between the House and Senate promised an increase of almost 11 percent, a big bump compared to other years. But this was only because rising property values have created a bubble in state revenues.

The new budget could mean $120 to $140 million more for Miami-Dade schools. That’s good news on top of the mixed results of the recently released FCAT writing scores (good for 8th graders, not so great for 10th graders). I guess the sizable phalanx of lobbyists the district hired this year is worth the money. Besides district employees, Ron Book, Al Cardenas, Melissa Akeson, Nelson Diaz, Andreina Figueroa, Thamar Harrigan, Tom Cerra, Brecht Heuchan, Yolanda Cash Jackson, Kelly Mallette, and Mary Lou Tighe are listed as lobbyists for the district. That’s eleven people, although in fairness, most of these people work for three firms.

I thought about this because while some of the bacon is coming home, legislators are also attempting to undermine the class-size amendment to allow schools to stuff more children in each classroom, or as the bureaucracy terms it, student stations. This while trying to continue to funnel money to largely unregulated private schools via “opportunity” scholarships, even though the Florida Supreme Court ruled that vouchers are helping to create an unequal and unconstitutional public educational system.

Whenever I hear “student stations,” which just means desks, it makes me think of the school system as a NASCAR pit crew scurrying around a kid with an air gun, gas pump and patched tires. Except in this crazy race, the rules keep changing and a lot of kids blow up on the curves. Around 40 percent of the district’s students don’t graduate from high school, according to state figures from last year.

The reason lobbyists are relevant is that several of the more successful ones represent multiple clients. Ron Book, for instance, represents more than 70 clients just at the state level, some of which are occasionally in conflict with each other. He’s also a big political contributor, personally donating more than $50,000 to various candidates throughout the state in just the last year or so.

With a well-greased and profitable business like that, you wonder who, at the end of the day, does Book, or any lobbyist with multiple clients, work for? I think they often end up making the same compromises legislators jockeying for position do. They tend to broker situations that will benefit their overall business. Marco Rubio, who will become House Speaker later this year, is a prime example of how this works on the political side.

Rubio is young, smart, and as ambitious as they come. He’s also slick and programmed for his own success more than any particular constituent service. That much was obvious a couple of years ago when he supported a warped interpretation of an educational funding formula that redistributed money from big urban districts like ours to the pork chop gang counties in North Florida. In return for that and probably other concessions, Rubio got the votes he needed for his new position.

Even this session, Rubio has indicated that he isn’t looking out for Miami-Dade on education. The Miami Herald recently reported that Rubio supports “a schools budget that is fair to all students across the state — not just his home county.” Rubio is quoted as saying, “I’m not for Miami-Dade, I’m not for Broward, I’m not for Palm Beach, I’m not for Okaloosa. I’m for fairness for every county.” So what are you running for, Marco? Governor? Congressman? U.S. Senator?

But I digress. A concrete example of lobbyist conflicts was pointed out to me regarding the ridiculous bill the billboard industry is pushing steadily through the Legislature. The bill would allow companies to sue local governments that plant trees in front of their signs. Miami-Dade County has been lobbying against this because of the implications for its landscaping efforts after disasters.

In March, someone noticed the fact that one of the companies the county hired to represent its interests in Tallahassee was actively working against its efforts on that bill. The law firm, Pennington, Moore, Wilkinson, Bell & Dunbar, was lobbying on behalf of another client in the billboard industry. County regulations actually allow this, as long as the lobbyists disclose it and get a waiver from the county.

The company didn’t do that and instead tried to weasel its way into collecting a paycheck from both clients. The county commission voted on March 21 to terminate Pennington’s contract (as Broward did for a similar offense in 2002) but, according to my sources at the county, company officials then went whining to legislators to get them to ask county commissioners to be reinstated. Let’s hope it doesn’t work.

And just to tweak Book’s nipples again, what happens if his client, the village of Palmetto Bay, asks him to lobby the state to prevent his client, the county, from exacting mitigation taxes and fees from newly incorporated cities? The Village passed a resolution supporting a lobbying effort on this issue in December. I guess he would file for and probably get the waiver, but again I wonder, whose interests are being served?

Back to the schools:

Rudy Crew has been kicking around town for a couple of years now and I was curious about his big plan to save the world. I attempted to read through the district’s strategic plan for 2005 to 2008 before falling insensate to the floor. I’ve seen too many of these reports, plans and studies over the years and honestly, I can’t tell them apart.

They all say the same things, which can be summarized as follows: We’ve been bad and we’re sorry, but it’s really not our fault. The state doesn’t give us enough money. The people running this place before us were a bunch of incompetent jerks. Also, your children are stupid. But we’re going to build more and better schools, hire more and better teachers, and make damned well sure that these little monsters can read.

Well now you’ve got a couple more years to work on that, Rudy. Good luck.

Comments? E-mail wakefield@miamisunpost.com.