I'll do better than that, I'll show you.
Now, we were talking about the purpose of contracting out services, the purpose of which is to save money. That has exactly zero to do with a licensing board job. So why you wanted to distract the conversation to that, I've no idea.
Damn. Looking over this thread to post something about the level of corruption in our state government (and most of the prisons haven't been privatized yet!) I found this from almost a year and I missed this comment and feel a need to have the final say.
The point I was making was that while I worked at a State Agency, I thought our goal was to prevent nurses with drug, alcohol or psychological problems from being licensed. If our job was to save the State money we wouldn't have given a damn and just licensed them.
Of course, lilMike probably realized that one point proved my argument about privatizing prisons.
Anyhow...
...the level of corruption in our state government (and most of the prisons haven't been privatized yet!)
So this is what our Republican-led State Legislature has become?
Two gangs of thugs breaking arms and threatening others just to pass a prison privatization bill? Ya know...if this had been a Democratic Legislature folks would have been raising hell. If it had been the Obama administration...well, you know.
What are things in the Florida Legislature coming to when one senator needs protection to walk on the Senate floor? • The debate over privatizing much of Florida's prison system last week probably marks one of the few times a couple of senators provided an escort for one of their colleagues — from the opposing political party, no less. • It attracted little attention last week when Sens. Charles Dean, R-Inverness, and Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, walked onto the Senate floor before the debate on privatizing prisons with Sen. Larcenia Bullard, D-Miami, between them. • Bullard, who has been seriously ill with a recurring heart condition, had been in tears after days of pressure from Senate leaders and lobbyists who wanted her to be the deciding vote in favor of a bill that would have privatized 27 South Florida prisons.
It's probably no coincidence that this week Gaetz and Thrasher unsuccessfully tried to seize control of a battle over who will follow Gaetz as Senate president. One of those contestants happens to be Latvala, one of the key opponents of the prison privatization bill.
The Senate vote on prison privatization followed weeks of intrigue. Several senators questioned why the Republican leadership rushed the bill through without allowing it to be considered by committees that traditionally review criminal justice issues. And the search for votes to support it was relentless.
The Democrats, including Bullard, were solidly opposed. That didn't stop Republican supporters of the legislation from beating a path to her door.
On the day of the final Senate vote, Rich and several other women senators accompanied Bullard back to her office after extricating her from a committee room where she had been lobbied by Thrasher and Alexander.
Summoned by Rich, Sens. Audrey Gibson, D-Jacksonville, and Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, stayed with Bullard for the remainder of the day to fend off colleagues determined to change her mind.
"It was straight out of a gangster movie,'' Gibson said as she described the effort. "Arthenia and I are her sorority sisters so we wanted to sit with her and let her know we had her back.''
Gibson said supporters of the prison privatization bill were "dead-set to get it through at whatever cost."
"But we had the same vehemence to make sure she was able to be there and vote and not in the hospital,'' Gibson added. "Nobody should pounce on somebody's weakness. That's just not right.''
damn...
