Next storm to approach: Category 5 state politics
Gov. Rick Scott learned quickly how the politics of natural disasters can shift.
As Hurricane Irma approached, all the state’s attention focused on him. During daily briefings, Scott looked controlled and in charge. Though the usually impassive governor began flubbing lines after a few days, he still looked good. He looked human, showing the effects of round-theclock stress.
Then came last Friday. Representatives of the Hollywood nursing home where eight residents died accused Scott’s office of ignoring calls for help. They charged that three calls to Scott’s cellphone from The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills were not returned.
Scott’s office denied the accusation, claiming that the calls were transferred to state agencies. Administration officials argued that nursing home staffers could have walked across the street and sought help from Memorial Regional Hospital.
To paraphrase John F. Kennedy, responsibility for those deaths is the orphan no one wants to claim – not the center, not Florida Power & Light, not the governor’s office. The truth will come out. On Monday, however, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee issued a release headlined “Rick Scott Failed FL’s Seniors.” Scott is expected to challenge U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson next year.
Post-Irma, politics is hardly the most important topic. We need to help the victims and return the hardest-hit areas to normalcy as quickly as possible. Yet everyone knows that the politics is there, if not always acknowledged. Everyone remembers George W. Bush’s slow response to Hurricane Katrina. Bush, however, didn’t face another election. Scott does.
The governor has advantages over Nelson. As chief executive, he is the face of Florida’s response. Before Irma made landfall, television stations pre-empted national newscasts to cover Scott’s briefings.
Meanwhile, Nelson only could issue news releases and make his own appearances. He called on the Federal Trade Commission to crack down on price gouging. He demanded more money for FEMA. He visited emergency operations centers in Miami-Dade and Indian River counties. And this week Nelson warned airlines about gouging people trying to flee Hurricane Maria.
Scott, though, draws the media pack. Scott gets face time with his fellow Republican, Donald Trump, when the president visits. Trump understands the politics. Speaking in Fort Myers, the president urged Scott to run for the Senate. When Nelson toured the southwest coast, no reporters went along.
The risk for Scott is that he owns the recovery. His party controls the White House, Congress and the Legislature. When Scott tells Monroe County residents that he wants the Keys up and running for tourist season, those residents will hold him to it.
Then there are those eight dead people in Hollywood.
As a Sun Sentinel op-ed article this week pointed out, for all of Scott’s outrage this is the same governor who in 2011 — barely a month after taking office — fired the director of Florida’s Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program. Industry groups had complained that Brian Lee’s inspections were too tough. Among other things, Lee had demanded proof that nursing homes had enough food and water after hurricanes.
In addition, Scott replaced Lee with someone recommended by an assisted living facility trade group. The man then limited the power of the program’s volunteers to inspect nursing homes. The volunteers only could ask residents, some of whom suffered from dementia, in general about conditions.
“You can’t expect them to tell you what’s going on,” then-state Sen. Eleanor Sobel told The Miami Herald. “You need volunteers who can look around, see if the sheets are clean, if there is food in the refrigerator and if there are insects in the bed.” Many of the program’s best volunteers quit or were fired.
The Rick Scott who fired Brian Lee sounds more like the one who ran against “job-killing regulations.” Requiring generators at nursing homes might have saved those eight people, but the industry got that regulation killed after Hurricane Wilma.
Now Scott has ordered such facilities to have generators, but the rule is temporary. The Legislature would have to act. Scott no doubt will push for a permanent rule. Nelson no doubt will talk about Scott’s full record and those phone calls from the nursing home. The politics of Hurricane Irma have begun.
Email: randy@bocamag.com