Long before the advent of “#floridaman” or even the super-secret negotiations that brought us Walt Disney World, Florida was already a hotbed for unscrupulous behaviors and negotiations, all gelling into the sort of primordial ooze that lines the Everglades and/or the bedpans of the state’s notorious good ol’ boy network. 2014 brought us our own share of onerous governmental embarrassments, all of which are worthy of scrutiny.
There was Attorney General Pam Bondi’s now famous – and oddly persistent – flame-up on gay marriage coupled with her reported abuses of lobbyist funds for fun and pleasure, according to the New York Times. Her boss Rick Scott’s email issues came up, too, in which he reportedly did not acknowledge a private email account he utilized for public business for 18 months during a public records inquiry. Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer made noise for fighting to take down the historic Tinker Field so that the Citrus Bowl could be even bigger and emptier, and his late-in-the-game argument with Uber and Lyft about ridesharing regulation. Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs dropped another gaffe via an unreported Dropbox account, and her one-time opponent Val Demings dropped out of the race against her because power Dems appeared to be lined up for the performing arts center and not a political fight. Oh, and the expressway authority was effectively dismantled, only to be made larger, in the wake of yet another act of reported governmental impropriety.
In other words, just another year in Central Florida.