Official going to FAU

CFO will take similar position

Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater will resign later this year to join FAU.

TALLAHASSEE — Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater will resign his position after the 2017 legislative session ends in May, his office announced Friday.

Atwater will join Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, where he will serve as the university’s chief financial officer.

“I am honored to join FAU in such a significant capacity,” Atwater said. “While I would have preferred to embrace this opportunity at a later date, the timing of crucial university initiatives warranted an accelerated transition.”

Before becoming the state’s CFO, Atwater served as a state senator from a district that included portions of Broward and Palm Beach counties from 2002 to 2010. He was Senate president in his final two years in the body.

The university’s chief financial officer position has been vacant since Jan. 31, when FAU Chief Financial Officer Dorothy Russell retired. Atwater, a Republican, previously sought the presidency of the university three years ago, a contest he lost to current FAU President John Kelly, who came from Clemson University.

Kelly said Atwater was his first choice for the CFO job.

“When I approached Jeff about joining us here, it was immediately obvious he cares passionately about FAU,” Kelly said.

Gov. Rick Scott will appoint Atwater’s replacement, who will serve until the November 2018 election.

Former state Sen. Jeremy Ring, a Parkland Democrat who has signaled he will run for the office, said the Atwater announcement does not change his plans.

“I am still very much considering running for CFO, still hope to have final decision and announcement within the next couple of months,” Ring said. “Obviously, it’s a mystery now who will be on the other side but the reason hasn’t changed.”

In a written statement, Scott noted that “the state has paid down over $7.6 billion in debt since 2011, and CFO Atwater has aggressively helped us achieve that goal.”

Scott has made no announcement as to who might replace Atwater, but adding a CFO to the Cabinet who is loyal to the governor could mean a big shift in how the governor and his three-member Cabinet vote.

Last year, Atwater and Scott clashed over a replacement for the departing insurance commissioner, a position that reports to the state CFO. Both men had their own candidates and eventually had to agree on a third choice, David Altmaier.

Atwater has also on occasion taken an active role in the legislative session. Last year, he lobbied for a bill that would require life insurance companies to compare their records with the Social Security Death Master File, to prevent companies from unwittingly keeping benefits owed to the relatives of dead policy holders.

That bill, which became law, was filed by state Rep. Bill Hager, R-Boca Raton, who later became Atwater’s pick for insurance commissioner in the protracted fight between Atwater and Scott.

Whether Atwater will personally champion any legislation this year is unclear, but he timed his resignation to after the legislative session that ends on May 5.

Atwater was elected as the state’s chief financial officer in 2010 and subsequently won re-election in 2014. He would have been term-limited out of office in 2018.

The chief financial officer is one of three elected cabinet positions in Florida, along with agriculture commissioner and attorney general. The CFO is in charge of a dozen state divisions covering everything from insurance and workman’s compensation to unclaimed property and consumer services.

“While I would have preferred to embrace this opportunity at a later date, the timing of crucial university initiatives warranted an accelerated transition.” Jeff Atwater, Florida Chief Financial Officer on his decision to step down and join Florida Atlantic University

Atwater