Suit: Lake schools hopeful broke ‘resign-to-run’ law

Berkowitz didn’t quit hospital board before candidacy but says he was unaware of law

A lawsuit seeks to boot a Lake County School Board candidate from the Aug. 28 primary ballot, alleging the 30-year educator and a former school superintendent failed to follow provisions of Florida’s “resign-to-run” law.

Perry Berkowitz, 75, missed a June 10 deadline to resign from an elected post he currently holds on the North Lake County Hospital District board. He turned in his irrevocable resignation notice July 25.

He said he was unaware of the resign-torun law, which prevents an elected official from seeking a different elected post with the assurance he would still have his former position if he fails in a bid for a new one.

“I’ve never heard of such a thing,” Berkowitz, who spent much of his professional career in education in New York, said Friday.

He hoped to remedy the oversight Friday by faxing Gov. Rick Scott a letter of immediate resignation from the hospital board. The elected panel decides how to divvy up revenue from a special tax to help hospitals pay health care for the poor.

Political consultant Scott Larson, who described himself as “something of an election watchdog,” filed the lawsuit that asks a judge to declare Berkowitz ineligible. He said that’s probably the best way to avoid a costly do-over.

Larson ran unsuccessfully in 2016 to replace retiring Emogene Stegall as Lake County elections supervisor, finishing third behind Republican Alan Hays and Democrat Christopher Flint. Larson’s voter registration lists him as unaffiliated.

He said he prefers incumbent School Board member Bill Mathias in the nonpartisan race for the District 1 seat, which also includes teacher and Marine veteran Mike Sykes but that boosting Mathias’ chances wasn’t his motivation.

“My concern is not who wins the election, but whether the election’s valid,” Larson said.

He said if Berkowitz remains eligible, he fears the results could be nullified, forcing a special election.

Hays, who hadn’t yet seen the lawsuit, said there is a precedent for the scenario described by Larson. He estimated a special election would cost county taxpayers more than $200,000.

The Aug. 28 election ballots have already been printed.

If a judge sides with Larson, Hays could be required to post notices of Berkowitz’s ineligibility on the election supervisor website, in all of the county’s voting precincts and in private polling booths to alert voters.

But a special election might be necessary anyway.

Hays said his office has already received more than 5,000 mail-in ballots.

A former dentist who served 12 years in the Legislature, six in the state Senate and six in the Florida House, Hays said he was uncertain how to untangle the legal jumble quickly and cheaply.

“I’m not a lawyer,” he said. “I’m a dentist.”