Rep. Dan Raulerson (R) has just completed another session with the Florida House of Representatives, where he focused on fighting for agency accountability.
Raulerson, who was first elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2012, currently serves as the chair for the Joint Subcommittee on Auditor General Selection, chair for the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee, and vice chair for the Veteran and Military Affairs Subcommittee. Previously, he has served as a former mayor and city commissioner for the City of Plant City, and the former director of the Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Council of Hillsborough County.
Amber Smith is a legislative aide who has worked with Raulerson for nearly three years. She, along with Raulerson and the rest of his team, focused on multiple bills, including HB 1219 and HB 371, both of which deal with government accountability.
“One of our missions in this office is government efficiency and accountability,” Smith said. “Both of those principles play off each other. It’s not just how we think, it’s who we are.”
HB 1219: THE PIG JAM BILL
Each year, the Plant City Pig Jam, where professionals and amateurs compete to create the best BBQ in town, is held as a fundraiser for the Greater Plant City Chamber of Commerce.
The Department of Business and Professional Regulations is responsible for licensing businesses in the state of Florida, as well as conducting regular inspections. According to Smith, the department’s inspections of the Pig Jam, an event that only lasts for two days, were irregular and unnecessary last year.
“It was difficult for event organizers to know what year they were going to have to deal with inspectors,” Smith said. “In our opinion, from reading the statute, they shouldn’t be inspected at all. We think it’s explicitly clear.”
The goal of the Pig Jam Bill was to exclude certain, temporary events from the inspections that are regularly conducted at restaurants and other food service establishments. Specifically, food contests and cook-offs were to be added as excluded events to the existing relating statute.
Florida Statute 509.013, section 5(a) defines a public food service establishment as “any building, vehicle, place or structure … where food is prepared, served or sold for immediate consumption on or in the vicinity of the premises.” Section 5(a)2(b) states that any place “maintained and operated by a church … or nonprofit civic association … temporarily to serve such events as fairs, carnivals or athletic contests” would be excluded as public food service establishments. For this reason, Raulerson and his staff believed that the Pig Jam event should be excluded from the inspections by the Department of Business and Professional Regulations, as stated in the Florida Statutes.
Although localized to Plant City, the bill seeks to serve as representation for other temporary events across Florida. Smith said that similar events, such as the Pig Fest in Lakeland, were having the same issues.
“The Plant City Chamber has us as an advocate, but there are plenty of organizations that don’t have advocates,” Smith said. “We don’t want to be writing statutes that put people at risk. What we are talking about are temporary events.”
In the Florida House of Representatives, the bill was found favorable with committees, as well as the Senate companion bill. The proposed bill went to the special order calendar to have a final hearing on April 27, but died in the House on April 28. The Florida House of Representatives ended its session early, automatically dismissing all bills that had yet to be heard.
In spite of this, Raulerson and his aides are working on preparing the bill for the next session. Because of the bill’s success with the previous committees before the final hearing, they are hopeful that the bill will pass in the next legislative session.
“These are good organizations trying to help their own community and help their own citizens,” Smith said. “Let them do that.”
HB 371: AGENCY INSPECTORS GENERAL BILL
One of Raulerson’s most prominent bills that passed this session was HB 371, which amended how inspectors general were hired.
Previously, inspector generals were hired and fired by the head of the state agency, whom they conducted inspections on. Within one year, this changed to being hired by the chief inspector general within the office of the governor.
Still, Raulerson and his aides felt that the bill needed amendments.
“We were trying to create employment requirements,” Smith said. “We want the top people.”
The legislation believed that if inspector generals were not professionally required to meet certain standards, there was a chance that someone who wasn’t qualified for the job would be hired.
The amendments to the bill included conducting a national search for an inspector general, in addition to prohibiting a former or current elected official from becoming an inspector general within five years after their term in office has ended.
“We felt that was just a good, general ethics issue,” Smith said.
The bill also added educational requirements for the position, and allows for the CIG to be able to retain independent legal counsel if needed.
The bill passed and went into effect July 1.
WHAT’S NEXT?
For the next session, Raulerson plans to continue his efforts with the Pig Jam Bill, and continue with the Agency Inspectors General Bill. Specifically, Raulerson will sponsor an amendment to the Agency Inspectors General Bill that will allow for the inspectors to have their own independent budget.
“We have to break down topics into bite-sized pieces,” Smith said.
The legislation will also be working on correcting some existing loopholes regarding sexual offenders who move to Florida. Currently, when a sexual offender moves to Florida, they are not charged for the full cost of their relocation. This inadvertently invites them to Florida, Smith says.
“Most of the time, we are revising old laws,” she said. “We wanted to solve the problem forever.”
In the near future, a redistricting special session will also be held. Smith is hopeful that a decision regarding the redistricting will be made by Aug. 21.
Contact Emily Topper at etopper@plantcityobserver.com.