Today we have an edition of the “Follow-up Files” that looks at the University of Florida’s law school dean’s defense of putting Florida’s attorney general on her school’s payroll and an attempt to settle Florida’s ridiculously long-running debate over our state bird.
But first, let’s start with U.S. Rep. Randy Fine, who had a not-so-fine day last week when he lost the support and endorsement of a high-profile figure in his Volusia County-based district — Sheriff Mike Chitwood.
Through the years, Fine’s antics have ranged from buffoonish to boorish. He once threatened to shut down UCF. He called a female school board member a “whore.” And he threatened to defund Special Olympics Florida for the cardinal sin of not inviting him to a fundraising party at the local Chick-fil-A. (Gee, can you imagine why anyone might not want Randy at their party?)
Anyway, most everyone knows the Republican legislator-turned-congressman revels in division. But a few weeks ago, Fine upped his divisive ante by going after both Muslims and Palestinians. A number of conservative pundits called him out. But I wondered whether any of the public officials in Florida who’d previously indulged or ignored Fine’s history of demeaning behavior would finally say: Enough.
Well, the next day, one did. “I cannot endorse wishing for kids in Gaza to starve, or for Muslim American citizens to be expelled from the U.S.,” Chitwood wrote in a highly-viewed and shared Facebook post.
Chitwood said he appreciates the work Fine has done on behalf of “Jewish neighbors, but as Sheriff I just can’t turn a blind eye to the harm he’s doing to our Muslim community.” The sheriff signed off by stressing that Muslims in Florida are “no less deserving of protection. They are our neighbors, business leaders, philanthropists, doctors, teachers and colleagues.”
The response was largely positive. But Chitwood, a famously fierce independent, said this past week he wasn’t looking for reactions. This was about his core values, he said. “I cannot support someone who wants to marginalize people based on their race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity.”
That seems like a pretty basic bar for being a decent human — yet sadly, also a bar many Florida elected officials can’t seem to clear.
A.G. attention
Also last week, I penned a column about UF’s decision to put Florida’s inexperienced and unelected attorney general, James Uthmeier, on its faculty, paying him way more money than most adjunct professors receive — $100,000 a year to teach one class.
Most adjuncts receive a fraction of that, including those who also hold public office. In fact, after I wrote that piece, I heard from quite a few of them — including a prosecutor, judge and state senator — all of whom confirmed they received about $3,000 for their services.
The difference seems to be that they all viewed teaching as a way to give back to the legal community and future lawyers, rather than a way to pad their own pockets.
Uthmeier, as you may recall, said he sought the extra $100k — on top of his base salary of $140,000 as A.G. — “to keep the lights on and keep food on the table.”
It was quite a claim in a state where the median household income is $77,735 and where some of the people who work directly for Uthmeier make as little as $43,000.
Well, apparently the long-time interim dean at UF’s Levin College of Law felt compelled to defend all this. In a a recording obtained by the Miami Herald, Dean Merritt McAlister acknowledged to skeptical faculty that Uthmeier’s deal was “different.” But she also said she thought it was a good one and insisted that nobody pressured her to start paying Gov. Ron DeSantis’ hand-picked attorney general who previously served as DeSantis’ chief of staff and campaign manager.
McAlister said she made the decision on her own, concluding that it was “in the best interest of the law school for a variety of reasons.”
Giving a bird
Lastly, let’s talk turkey. Or rather scrub-jays and flamingos.
For 25 years, Florida lawmakers have been talking about replacing our state bird, the northern mockingbird, with a bird that better represents the Sunshine State.
The reasons are plentiful. The mockingbird isn’t remotely unique to Florida. It nests everywhere from Mexico to Nova Scotia. Selecting the mockingbird as your state bird is like selecting Wawa as your signature small business. Meanwhile, the friendly little scrub-jay is the only bird native to Florida, and its habitats have long been threatened. This should be a no-brainer.
Yet for more than two decades, Tallahassee lawmakers have repeatedly filed bird bills, debated them and then ultimately refused to pass them — in part because development interests don’t want to honor a bird whose habitats sometimes get in the way of their desires to clear-cut land.
The anti-scrub jay forces have also had a powerful ally in former NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer, who mounted an oddly intense campaign against the scrub-jay, once even suggesting that the friendly little bird’s willingness to eat from human hands proved it had a “welfare mentality.”
Yeah, it was weird. But most GOP lawmakers in Tallahassee would walk off a cliff if the NRA told them to. So when Hammer made nutty claims, they’d just nod in nonsensical agreement.
Finally, though, legislators may have temporarily come to their senses. The Florida House recently voted 112-to-1 to make the flamingo our state bird and the scrub-jay the state songbird. (The one dissenting vote came from Rep. Alex Andrade, who said he promised Hammer years ago to never cross her on this issue.)
While the House approved the change, the Senate has yet to act on SB 150. It should do so — and be done with it. Personally, I prefer the scrub-jay. But I get the commercial appeal of flamingos.
Regardless, there are about 1,000 more pressing issues in this state. And the only thing more bird-brained than the fact that this state has debated this petty issue for 25 years would be debating it for another 25.
Florida lawmakers keep flipping the scrub-jay the bird | Commentary
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