Kottkamp's Report
OUR LOBBYISTS WORK FOR LEGISLATIVE CHANGES
B.E.A.C.H.E.S. has retained Former Lt. Governor Jeff Kottkamp to promote legislation for naturists to clear political obstacles for reclaiming Florida’s historic clothing-optional beaches and for the creation of clothing-optional beaches in state parks by clarifying Florida's existing law pertaining to nudity.
Kottkamp, an attorney, served as the state's 17th lieutenant governor from 2007 until 2011. Prior to that he served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2000 to 2006. As lieutenant governor he served as chairman of the board of Space Florida, chairman of Florida's Children and Youth Cabinet, chairman of the Florida Sports Foundation and had oversight responsibility for the Governor's Office of Drug Control, the Office of Adoption and Child Protection, the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles as well as the Governor's Film and Entertainment Office.
B.E.A.C.H.E.S. has also retained Ramon Maury, Maury Management Group. He has effectively represented Florida clients for more than 29 years in both the public and private sectors before the Florida Legislature, Governor's Office and Executive Agencies. He has been successful at combatting anti-nudity bills in Florida at the state level.
Prepared for B.E.A.C.H.E.S. 2020
Session Summary
Former Florida Lt. Governor Jeff Kottkamp, Attorney was retained by B.E.A.C.H.E.S. Foundation Institute to help write and promote legislation for naturists to clear political obstacles for the reclaiming and creation of clothes-free (nude) beaches on state park beaches by clarifying Florida's existing law pertaining to nudity. Also retained was Ramon Maury, Government Relations specialist with 28 years of experience, successfully combatting anti-nudity bills at the state level. This Kottkamp Report explains the tenor, tone and progress during the 2020 Florida Legislative Session of our efforts toward Phase II of B.E.A.C.H.E.S. with its free beach Unity coalition's goals.
The 2020 Florida Legislative Session was one of the most unusual Sessions in the last twenty years. This was the second Session for Governor Ron DeSantis. Last year he had only been in office for two months when the Session began so he had little time to prepare his agenda. This year he had a full year to prepare so he had a more ambitious agenda.
One of the Governor’s top priorities was to significantly increase pay for K-12 teachers. His plan was to spend $600 million to increase the minimum salary for teachers to $47,500 and another $300 million for teacher bonuses. The day this plan was announced there was significant push back from the Speaker of the House of Representatives who was given no prior notice of the plan. The Governor also wanted to require businesses to use the federal E-Verify program—which was opposed by the Florida Chamber of Commerce and other business groups.
The Governor also made business deregulation a major priority for the Session. He specifically wanted to do away with unnecessary government regulations and fees on a wide range of businesses in Florida.
In the House---the Speaker’s goal was to continue with his efforts to dramatically change healthcare in Florida. Among his goals was to allow nurses to provide more medical services to patients without the need for supervision from a physician and to do away with the certificate of need process for hospitals. Both of these changes were strongly opposed by the Florida Medical Association and the Florida Hospital Association. The Speaker also wanted to defund Florida tourism marketing agency Visit Florida. That effort ultimately failed.
In the Senate---the Senate President Bill Galvano had a number of priorities but tried his best to keep those to himself. He hinted that he would support background checks for gun shows (strongly opposed by the NRA), legislation that would allow sports betting in Florida (strongly opposed by No Casinos supporters), and made it clear from the beginning that he did not support the Governor’s E-Verify proposal.
As the 60 Day Session progressed it was apparent the Legislature was going to support some of the Governor’s legislative agenda—but certainly not all of it. One of the Governor’s priorities that was embraced by both chambers was deregulation. In the final three weeks of Session budget negotiations between the House and Senate stalled while the Speaker and Senate President pushed for agreements on a number of their own priorities.
With only nine days left in the Session the entire feel of the Session changed. People started paying attention to the outbreak of COVID-19. This created a great deal of uncertainty in the Legislature. At one point the House chamber was evacuated and cleaned when it was discovered that several members had attended a meeting in Washington D.C. in which another attendee had tested positive for the virus.
Legislative leaders agreed to extend the Session for a week. The Legislature took special precautions to avoid the spread of the coronavirus and met on March 19th to pass a $92 billion budget. This represents a slight increase from the 2019-20 budget. During the seven days before passage of the budget the Legislature scrambled to find $300 million to set aside for coronavirus response. They also increased state reserves to $3.8 billion.
The sudden shift in focus on the coronavirus changed the entire mood at the Capitol. Suddenly, Legislators seemed to care far less about passing bills and far more about the impact of the virus on their communities—and our state. For most Legislators---it became apparent they just wanted Session to be over so they could go home.
Many members of the Legislature believe they will need to return to the Capitol to revise the budget as a result of the economic impact of COVID-19. A similar situation arose after 9/11 when all air travel in the country was stopped and tourism dollars dried up. The Legislature was called back to the Capitol for a Special Session two months after the terrorist attacks to revise the state budget.
It is simply too early to know when a Special Session will be needed. Sales tax numbers for February were actually ahead of projections. But with many businesses in Florida now closed, sales tax numbers for March and beyond will most certainly be significantly reduced. A Special Session may ultimately be needed to balance the budget.
Passing legislation this year was not easy. There were a total of 2,518 bills and resolutions filed in the House. Only 258 of those bills passed in the House (10%) and only 125 of those bills passed in both the House and Senate (4.9%). By comparison, there were 999 bills and resolutions filed in the Senate. 154 of those bills passed in the Senate (15.4%) and 82 of those bills pass in both chambers (8.2%). Finally---there were a total of 3,517 bills filed in both the House and Senate and 207 of the bills passed in both chambers for a passage rate of 5.8%.
Specific legislation what was advanced or monitored on behalf of BEACHES
Exposure of Sexual Organs by Mercado
Exposure of Sexual Organs: Increases criminal penalties for exposure of sexual organs for second or subsequent offense; authorizes warrantless arrests when law enforcement officer has probable cause to believe that person has unlawfully exposures sexual organs. Effective Date: October 1, 2020
Committees of Reference
House Criminal Justice Subcommittee
House Justice Appropriations Subcommittee
House Judiciary Committee
Actions
03/10/2020
SENATE Withdrawn from Criminal Justice; Judiciary; Rules; Placed on Calendar, on 2nd reading; Substituted for SB 1018; Read Second Time; Read Third Time; Passed (Vote: 37 Yeas / 1 Nay)
03/10/2020
HOUSE Ordered enrolled
03/10/2020
HOUSE Enrolled Text (ER) Filed
Exposure of Sexual Organs by Pizzo
Exposure of Sexual Organs; Specifying that an exception to the unlawful exposure or exhibition of an individual’s sexual organs in certain places includes clothing-optional beaches, etc. Effective Date: 7/1/2020
Committees of Reference
Senate Criminal Justice
Senate Commerce and Tourism
Senate Rules (Current Reference)
Actions
02/04/2020
SENATE Now in Rules
03/14/2020
SENATE Indefinitely postponed and withdrawn from consideration
03/14/2020
SENATE Died in Rules
Exposure of Sexual Organs by Stewart
Exposure of Sexual Organs; Increasing criminal penalties for exposure of sexual organs for a second or subsequent offense; providing an exception to the unlawful exposure of sexual organs; authorizing warrantless arrests when a law enforcement officer has probable cause to believe that a person has violated s. 800.03, F.S., etc. Effective Date: 10/1/2020
Committees of Reference
Senate Criminal Justice
Senate Judiciary
Senate Rules
Actions
03/06/2020
SENATE Engrossed Text (E1) Filed
03/09/2020
SENATE Temporarily Postponed on Third Reading
03/10/2020
SENATE Read Third Time; Substituted for HB 0675; Laid on Table, Refer to HB 0675
Efforts on your behalf
As you know, I was retained at the end of November to support the efforts of Ramon Maury. Our goal was to insert proviso language in the Appropriations bill that would require the Division of State Parks to revise their Rules to specifically allow for the operation of clothing-optional beaches and parks in Florida.
We met with State Senator Debbie Mayfield who is Chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Environment and General Government. She had no objection to adding such proviso language to her budget. We also met with her counterpart State Representative Holly Raschein is Chair of the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Appropriations. She also had no objection to adding proviso language to her budget.
Shortly before I was retained, Senator Jason Pizzo filed SB 850 which would clarify that it would not be a violation of the Florida’s indecent exposure law if you are nude at a clothing-optional beach. Unfortunately, as the bill filing deadline approached no member of the Florida House of Representatives was willing to file a companion bill in the House.
Even so, Senator Pizzo went forward with advancing his bill. SB 850 was first heard in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee on January 21. The bill passed by a vote of 5-0. It was next heard on February 4th in the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee where it passed 4-0. The final committee stop was the Senate Rules Committee. Because there was no House companion bill the Rules Committee Chair decided at the end of Session not to hear the bill.
There was another bill filed in both chambers that opened up the indecent exposure statute (F.S. 800.03). The House bill (HB 675) was filed by Rep. Amy Mercado. The Senate bill (SB 1018) was filed by Senator Linda Stewart. Senator Pizzo suggested that we try an amend those bills with the language contained in his bill. We met with Rep. Mercado who was noncommittal to the idea. Senator Stewart was more vocal in her opposition to amending her bill.
We also met with Senator Jeff Brandes. He supported the Pizzo bill in the Criminal Justice Committee and told us he wanted to help. He asked us to draft an amendment which he planned to file on Sen. Stewart’s SB 1018. The amendment clarified the current indecent exposure law and also directed the Department of Environmental Protection and the Florida Tourism Marketing Corporation to hold a joint Hearing to consider options to expand clothing optional beaches in Florida. Moreover, the amendment directed the Department to amend Ruled 62D-2.014 (7)(b) so it would be consistent with the revised law. Senator Brandes filed the amendment on March 6th.
Unfortunately, Senator Stewart would not agree to accept the amendment. In addition, when Rep. Mercado learned of the amendment she was not happy. In an effort to a avoid floor fight Senator Brandes agreed to withdraw his amendment at the last minute. This effectively ended any hope of passing a substantive bill and redirected our efforts to the budget proviso language approach.
Ramon Maury and I had follow up meetings with Sen. Mayfield and Rep. Raschein. Senator Mayfield told us to have the House add the proviso language to the budget and agreed to pick up the language in the Senate during the budget conference. Rep. Raschein continued to support the idea and asked us to provide her with proviso language—which we did.
Among other things the proviso language directed the state park system to implement a clothing-optional beach pilot program at Honeymoon Island State Park, MacArthur State Park and Bahia Honda State Park. As instructed, this language was provided to the Staff Director for Chair Raschein’s committee. We also provided the language to Senator Mayfield. At the time the language was provided there were no objections or concerns raised.
We followed up with both Senator Mayfield and Representative Raschein throughout the budget conference. It wasn’t until the budget had been finalized that we learned for the first time that House staff believed the language was too substantive for proviso language and should be part of a stand-alone bill. This left us with no opportunity to revise the language.
The failure of the House staff to bring their concerns to our attention sooner was unfortunate. We most certainly could have revised the proviso language to alleviate their concerns. When the budget was passed on March 19th we lost any opportunity to insert proviso language in to the budget.
Next Steps
Ramon and I have discussed at length “next steps” for your organization. We believe it would be a mistake to stop working your issue until next Session. In fact, it has always been our belief that the most effective lobbying takes place long before Session ever begins.
Obviously, the current COVID-19 crisis has created a great deal of uncertainty. Even so---the wheels of government continue to churn. It is entirely possible the Legislature will hold a Special Session over the summer to revise the budget. That may provide us another opportunity to insert proviso language in to the budget.
We have every reason to believe the constitutionally required Organizational Session will take place in November after the General Election. Committee meeting will take place in November, December, January and February. The 2021 Legislative Session will begin in March.
We are prepared to work with you through the summer to expand your influence with members of the Legislature. One of our goals would be to again secure Senator Pizzo as a Senator bill sponsor and secure a House bill sponsor as well. Ideally, we could enter the first committee week with bill sponsors and bill language finalized.
There will be 20 open seats in the House in the upcoming election. We should try to identify candidates that will support our efforts in the 2021 Session. We also want to provide grass roots supports for returning members of the Legislature who will help us.
We should also consider sitting down with the Division of State Parks to see if there is an opportunity to find common ground on the issue of clothing-optional beaches with the hope they would amend Ruled 62D-2.014 (7)(b). Alternatively, we could consider an Administrative action to challenge the Rule.
Ultimately, our goal is protect naturist who are visiting clothing-optional beaches from arrest/prosecution as well as expand the number of clothing-optional beaches in Florida.