Is the Governor Making Brownies?

Empty Chair Charlie Does 'Heckuva Job' with Controversial Appointment

For Immediate Release: March 19, 2008

TALLAHASSEE - Maybe Florida would be better off if the Governor took the rest of the week off.

Perhaps Empty Chair Charlie Crist has even higher aspirations than we thought - he's acting more like President Bush by the day. Like Bush, Crist spends more time on vacation than at work. Now Crist is taking a management cue from Bush with his latest appointment.

Yesterday Crist appointed Sara Gonzalez - the wife of a top aide - as the new chairman of the Public Employees Relations Commission, despite her lack of experience in the area the position covers.

The position, which comes with a nearly six-figure salary, appears to be quite the promotion for Gonzalez, who most recently worked as a physician's assistant at a Tallahassee dermatology office, the Miami Herald reported, noting that the appointment "breaks with a 33-year-old tradition of having an attorney in charge of the office."

Backlash against the appointment came from the commission itself: "Gonzalez's appointment has come under fire from one of her fellow commission members, who questions her experience as well as whether she will have a conflict of interest on many of the cases before the commission... 'I am very upset with this appointment,' said Charles Kossuth, a former union president and labor negotiator who was first appointed to the commission by former Gov. Jeb Bush in 2001. 'I cannot imagine, other than her husband's connection to the governor, the reason she was picked for the job.'" [Miami Herald, 3/18/08]

Gonzalez is the wife of Crist's general counsel Jason Gonzales, who previously served as an attorney for the Republican Party of Florida.

"To almost anyone this appointment reeks of unethical and improper favoritism - anyone but President Bush, who'd probably say, 'You're doing a heckuva job, Charlie,'" Florida Democratic Party spokesman Alejandro Miyar said. "This latest development in Crist's sad audition to become John McCain's running mate harkens back to the most infamous example of disastrous Republican favoritism - Michael Brown, the disgraced former head of FEMA during Hurricane Katrina, whose experience included being fired from a management position at the International Arabian Horse Association."

It is irresponsible to minimize the standing of the Public Employees Relations Commission. As the State Legislature proceeds with more than $3 billion in budget cuts, the chairmanship - held by an attorney for over three decades - will guide it through troubled waters as the belt tightens around public employees and their unions.

"Mired in a Republican recession, Florida is facing serious challenges and the Governor should be choosing the best - not the best-connected - to run the state's government," Miyar said.